The Sampo (1959) 3/6

The story of the Sampo, the magical object that produces riches, from a Finnish-Soviet movie from 1959 (=basicly the first part of the movie). The story is based on the Finnish national epic, The Kalevala, that was used as an inspiration for J. R. R. Tolkien among others.

Notice that almost all the characters have some sort of magic or act as shamans. And unlike the women in The Lord of the Rings, the women of the Kalevala also have very strong personality, like Louhi, the sorceress of the Pohyola ('The North-Country'). Pohyola may be thought of as a real place in the north or as a world in a totally different reality.

The dialoge is on meter, like in the Kalevala, but the ENGLISH TRANSLATION is a shortened prose version.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Suomi
• Finland
• Kalevala
• Sampo
• old
• movie
• film
• legend
• mythology
• Väinämöinen
• shaman
• shamanism
• magic
• magical
• Tolkien
• LOTR
• Finnish
• national
• epic
• Finnland
• iron
• age

[Erkele]

Dorgan näkösiä galtseja tuol harvahampaan himassa. Koko Pohjolan jengi muutenkin täysin skeidadaijuja. Ihme meininkii ...

[Nightcreature12]

Why the Pohjolans being depicted as trolls, all this living in caves wasn't in the book!

[Maissikasvi]

Pythons are for the show :D Only poisonous snakes in here (Finland) are vipers.

[kozmon0t]

So all you need to make a Sampo is barley, wool and a goose feather?

Oh and also the northern fire... I guess that's harder to get

I wonder how come Lemminkainen didn't just decide to shoot her after she gave them the runaround

And the snakes were pythons not vipers

Oh and it's spelled acre not acer. One of those French words.

[ptashkaful]

@CristinaFernandez. I suppose, it's because the poor witch lived in unenlightened times and didn't have a college education. On the other hand, if witches were acting in completely rational manner all those old legends wouldn't be half so interesting to watch and read. It would be more like reading an accountant report at some business meeting.

[weishauptogram]

@CristinaFernandez because she is bound by some twisted lore of Finnish folklore plots of course ;p

[CristinaFernandez]

Whoa, I don't get it. If the witch kidnapped Anniki just to get Ilmarinen to make the Sampo for her, why would she suddenly confront them with these goofy challenges like plowing the field of adders? You've got Ilmarinen right where you want him: you've got his sister, and you want him to do something for you in return. So why mess around with all these other tasks?

Also, it must have been fun for the actors at 4:05 to pretend to flail around with a snake...!