Reading Diary A: Kalevala

I love the singing bards-slash-wizards of Finland.

I've gone through a few of the Kalevala stories in my own time so this is a nice refresher course for me.  I'm pretty sure I've read the first story of this unit before - that familiarity helped me to get through the flowery language (the audio helped, too).

I think I like it so much because of the sound of the Finnish language is just so beautiful - I wish I was able to learn it.  But my mind can't quite work around languages, haha.

The power of words - that if you put enough faith and strength in them, you can make them become real - is fascinating to me.  I wish that it was something that more people believed.

Because there are words that I have said, words that have been said to me, that still cut deep.  Words that kinda sneak up on you when you're not paying much attention and you just cringe and try to shake them out of your head.

Another thing I love is the repeated "so-and-so did this once, then twice, and then again a third time."  I know I've used this formula in my own writing, and I must have picked it up from reading these stories.  I love the way it just flows!

When I write, I always try to pay attention to the cadence of the words in a sentence.  It's probably why I overuse dashs in my sentences - much to the chagrin of a lot of my professors.

For this week's storytelling, I'm probably going to be using one of my favorite Finnish hockey players: Olli Maatta.  (More about that scar at his neck in the next post - which may just serve as a Olli primer so I don't have to do an extended author's note...)

Olli Maatta