Project Gutenberg's Finnish Legends for English Children, by R. Eivind

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Title: Finnish Legends for English Children

Author: R. Eivind

Release Date: March 29, 2008 [EBook #24948]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FINNISH LEGENDS ***

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THE CHILDREN'S LIBRARY

[Illustration: Snail]

FINNISH LEGENDS

[Illustration: Witch & Moon]

[Illustration: Butterfly]

_THE CHILDREN'S LIBRARY._

THE BROWN OWL.
THE CHINA CUP.
STORIES FROM FAIRYLAND.
TALES FROM THE MABINOGION.
THE STORY OF A PUPPET.
THE LITTLE PRINCESS.
IRISH FAIRY TALES.
AN ENCHANTED GARDEN.
LA BELLE NIVERNAISE.
THE FEATHER.
FINN AND HIS COMPANIONS.
NUTCRACKER AND MOUSE-KING.
THE PENTAMERONE.
FINNISH LEGENDS.

(_Others in the Press._)

[Illustration: FINNISH KOTA.]

FINNISH LEGENDS
FOR
ENGLISH CHILDREN

BY
R. EIVIND

_SEVEN ILLUSTRATIONS_

LONDON
T. FISHER UNWIN
1893

[Illustration: T. Fisher Unwin Printer's Mark]

[Illustration]

PREFACE

The following stories cover almost all of the songs of the Kalevala, the
epic of the Finnish people. They will lead the English child into a new
region in the fairy world, yet one where he will recognise many an old
friend in a new form. The very fact that they _do_ open up a new portion
of the world of the marvellous, will, it is hoped, render them all the
more acceptable, and perhaps, when the child who reads them grows up to
manhood, will inspire an actual interest in the race that has composed
them.

And this race and their land will repay study, for nowhere will one find
a more beautiful land than Finland, nor a braver, truer, and more
liberty-loving people than the Finns, although, alas, their love for
liberty may soon be reduced to an apparently hopeless longing for a lost
ideal. For the iron hand of Russian despotism has already begun to close
on Finland with its relentless grasp, and, in spite of former oaths and
promises from the Russian Tsars, the future of Finland looks blacker and
blacker as time goes on. Yet it is oft