Tales from a Finnish Tupa

Tales from a Finnish Tupa by James Cloyd Bowman & Margery Bianco, translated by Aili Kolehmainen was reprinted by the University of Minnesota Press late last year. I received a review copy and was impressed with this unexpected book. The tales are wonderful and are accompanied with numerous illustrations by Laura Bannon.

Publisher's description:

First published in 1936, this book presents tales of magic like "The Mouse Bride" and "Antti and the Wizard's Prophecy," droll stories such as "The Pig-Headed Wife," and fables from the collections of Eero Salmelainen and Iivo Härkönen, sharing Finnish wisdom on topics from the end of the world to how the Rabbit earned his self-respect. Featuring hand-rendered illustrations in full color, Tales from a Finnish Tupa is a folklore gem for all ages.

This book was originally intended for families with tales suitable for children but still interesting to adults. It's an outstanding collection of tales from a country that is rarely represented in English language anthologies of tales. It can be read for simple entertainment, but also provides some insight to a country's folklore for the armchair folklorist, too. There is no introduction, but a short appendix about Finnish folklore by Bowman is insightful. My favorite paragraph:

The heart of Finnish folk lore is magic. As Lafcadio Hearn
has so well said:

“The magic is not like anything else known by that name in European literature. The magic is entirely the magic of words. These ancient people believed in the existence of words, by the utterance of which anything might be accomplished. Instead of buying wood and hiring carpenters, you might build a house by uttering certain magical words. If you had no horse, and wanted to travel rapidly, you would make a horse for yourself out of bits of bark and old sticks by uttering over them certain magical words. But this was not all. Beings of intellect, men and women, whole armies of men, in fact, might be created in a moment by the utterance of these magical words.”

It's thus not a surprise that two-thirds of the book is comprised of magic tales. The other sections are droll tales and fables. One of my personal favorites was "The Girl Who Sought Her Nine Brothers" since it was distantly related to Six Swans types of tales, although in this one the sister is enchanted while she searches for her brothers who are never enchanted themselves.

Finally, one of the most interesting aspects of this title, from a trivia side, is that Margery Bianco is better known to most readers as Margery Willians, the author of The Velveteen Rabbit.

And here's the TABLE OF CONTENTS:

TALES OF MAGIC
The Ship That Sailed by Land and Sea
The Men of the Wallet
The Mouse Bride
Vaino and the Swan Princess
Hidden Laiva or The Golden Ship
Antti and the Wizard’s Prophecy
Lippo and Tapio
The Wooing of Seppo Ilmarinen
Jurma and the Sea God
Timo and the Princess Vendla
Severi and Vappu
Ei-Niin-Mita or No-So-What
The Girl Who Sought Her Nine Brothers
The Two Pine Cones
Kalle and the Wood Grouse
Niilo and the Wizard
Urho and Marja
Mielikki and Her Nine Sons
Leppä Pölkky and the Blue Cross
Liisa and the Prince

DROLL STORIES
The Pig-headed Wife
Finland’s Greatest Fisherman
Supid Peikko
The Wise Men of Holmola
Pekka and the Rogues

FABLES
The End of the World
The Rooster and the Hen
The Mouse that Turned Tailor
The Feast
Farmers Three
Why the Squirrel Lives in Trees
The Vain Bear
The Stupid Wolf
The Wisdom of the Rabbit
The Fox and the Rabbit
The Wily Fox
The Stupid Bear
The Song of the Fox
The Song of the Wolf
The Wolf and the Fox
The Bear Goes Fishing
The Fox as a Judge
The Rabbit’s Self-Respect

FINNISH FOLK LORE
FINNISH NAMES AND WORDS

For more information visit the publisher's book webpage or Amazon. And thanks to the press for sending a review copy. I might never have discovered this gem otherwise!