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Karalora Since: Jan, 2001
#202: Jul 26th 2013 at 6:30:21 AM

Oh, England, you sexy thang.

So is this where America gets his attention whore-ishness?

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#203: Jul 26th 2013 at 9:22:28 AM

We learned from the master.

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
Yuanchosaan antic disposition from Australia Since: Jan, 2010
antic disposition
#204: Aug 1st 2013 at 3:13:51 AM

They are delicious. Also, the tagline is "It's hard to have a Gaytime on your own".

"Doctor Who means never having to say you're kidding." - Bocaj
Quag15 Since: Mar, 2012
#205: Aug 1st 2013 at 6:56:58 AM

The name of the ice cream could have so many meaningsevil grin...

SantosLHalper Since: Aug, 2009
#206: Aug 2nd 2013 at 7:11:22 PM

I want to see a strip where Sweden drops Fennoswede off at Finland's place, and dryly tells him not to get drunk this time.

Cue Finland putting down his knife and vodka, before immediately reciting the Kalevala to an entranced Fennoswede. cool

BestOf FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC! from Finland Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: Falling within your bell curve
FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC!
#207: Aug 2nd 2013 at 7:19:45 PM

Why would the Fennoswede be entranced?

Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.
Karalora Since: Jan, 2001
#208: Aug 2nd 2013 at 9:00:12 PM

The very premise is absurd. "This time" implies a babysitting scenario, but FennoSwede lives in the Finland household (i.e. with his mom).

That is one seriously screwed-up family.

TheHandle United Earth from Stockholm Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
United Earth
#209: Aug 3rd 2013 at 12:52:59 AM

[up][up]I'm not even from the region, and I was entranced by the tale... as told through a Don Rosa comic. It's one of the coolest things I ever read.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
BestOf FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC! from Finland Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: Falling within your bell curve
FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC!
#210: Aug 3rd 2013 at 1:06:49 AM

For me it's mostly very boring - but that's because I don't like reading long poetic (by which in this case I mean "observing a metred verse") narratives. Even if I like the verse and the story I'll probably dislike the work, especially if it is very repetitive (as narratives that are (derived from) oral traditions often are, as the repetition is a method that is used to help remember each part.)

This is precisely the reason I didn't like Dante's Inferno even though the translation was done by one of the most important and talented poets in Finnish history (Eino Leino.)

In my opinion the Don Rosa version is better than the original - though I must admit I've never read all the way through Kalevala. I've only read most of the important bits.

I suppose it's a bit like the Bible - people know it's hugely important for Western literature, yet most haven't read it all the way through. I've read most of the Bible by now, but not all of it. (I tend to read individual books of it if there's a reason for it but I don't really care very much about reading all of the more tedious bits. The only reason I ever read any of it is when I know that a bit of it is being referred to in another work and I want to read the corresponding bit(s) from the Bible.)

edited 3rd Aug '13 1:08:22 AM by BestOf

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Quag15 Since: Mar, 2012
#211: Aug 3rd 2013 at 6:43:23 AM

[up][up] Fuck yeah, Don Rosa![awesome]

[up]When I have time, I'll read the Kalevala. By the way, how long is the Kalevala in terms of chapters or verses?

edited 3rd Aug '13 6:46:05 AM by Quag15

BestOf FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC! from Finland Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: Falling within your bell curve
FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC!
#212: Aug 3rd 2013 at 1:04:10 PM

[up]Wikipedia says it's about 500 pages.

The poem consists of 50 runos or cantos and 22,795 lines of poetry.

(That's also from Wikipedia; "runo" is Finnish for "poem.")

It's divided into 10 cycles, each describing a single story. Not all of the cycles are the same length, but if there are 10 of them and the whole work is composed of 50 poems you get an average of 5 poems per cycle. (Yeah, I'm a maths genius.)

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Karalora Since: Jan, 2001
#213: Aug 3rd 2013 at 1:47:22 PM

I'm roughly familiar with the story about the Sampo, but that's it. I've always thought it would make a great Disney movie, what with its Power Trio of heroes and a villain who goes all One-Winged Angel toward the end.

BestOf FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC! from Finland Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: Falling within your bell curve
FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC!
#214: Aug 3rd 2013 at 1:50:24 PM

Please don't let Disney rape our national epic...

(Look, Don Rosa doesn't count as Disney. He might've made the bits he covered more family friendly that they were originally but you can't do that to the whole story without losing some of its content.)

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Quag15 Since: Mar, 2012
#215: Aug 3rd 2013 at 1:53:21 PM

The rhyme schemes are different and there are lesser cantos, but I think it's of the same size as Os Lusíadas (Portugal's national epic, for those who don't know), so, I think I'll handle it good.

[up]Well, Don Rosa was the good side of Disney (among other authors who cared about telling a good story). But, yeah, a Disney movie would disrespect the Kalevala. A more serious movie, on the other hand, could do something good.

edited 3rd Aug '13 1:55:42 PM by Quag15

Karalora Since: Jan, 2001
#216: Aug 3rd 2013 at 1:54:28 PM

[up][up] Fair enough. I'm only going by a version that was scaled down and simplified for children to begin with.

BestOf FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC! from Finland Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: Falling within your bell curve
FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC!
#217: Aug 3rd 2013 at 2:17:31 PM

When discussing the Kalevala everyone always focuses on the story of the Sampo - mainly because it's way more interesting than anything else you'll find in the book. But there are some pretty good bits other than that story, actually - but as you might expect from an epic they don't make much sense.

For instance there's a bit where a young man named Joukahainen wants to challenge the mighty wizard Väinämöinen. So Joukahainen challenges Väinämöinen into a duel of songs (in Kalevala songs have magical powers) and he manages to annoy Väinämöinen to such an extent that the old wizard sings a song that causes Joukahainen to sink into the earth all the way to his shoulders or so. Eventually Joukahainen offers his sister, Aino, to Väinämöinen; the offer is accepted and Joukahainen released. (Obviously this is wrong in a multitude of ways that were probably not taken into consideration when the original stories were invented...)

Aino is so distraught over her family's insistence that she marry Väinämöinen that she ends up drowning herself rather than submitting. The only consolation for a modern reader is that at least Aino's mother finally comes to her senses and laments the fact that the family's insistence on the arranged marriage forced Aino to such a resolution.

In another story a young man named Lemminkäinen, through a sequence of events that I won't go into, ends up killed by a sea serpent and then cut to pieces and pushed into the river of the underworld (Tuonela.) His mother hears of this and reacts in a surprising manner; she goes to the land where her son died, interrogates the ruler of the land for the location of her son's body, and with help from the sun eventually finds the river. She then gets a giant rake from the smith who made the Heavens, and with that rake she is able to dredge up the remains of her son. She then glues them together with the wax of a bee, bringing her son back to life.

My point is that if you want to read Kalevala you should be prepared for events that make no sense whatsoever. If there are any rules that the story consistently follows I'm not able to identify them.

edited 3rd Aug '13 2:19:04 PM by BestOf

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Quag15 Since: Mar, 2012
#218: Aug 3rd 2013 at 2:26:53 PM

Joukahainen challenges Väinämöinen into a duel of songs (in Kalevala songs have magical powers) and he manages to annoy Väinämöinen to such an extent that the old wizard sings a song that causes Joukahainen to sink into the earth all the way to his shoulders or so.

That's [awesome]. I'm used to imagine that sort of thing, but I didn't knew that Kalevala had such a thing.

As for things that make no sense, I like to read those kinds of things, as long as they're not utterly stupid or obnoxious.

TheHandle United Earth from Stockholm Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
United Earth
#219: Aug 3rd 2013 at 2:30:57 PM

[up][up]That rake in Donald's hands was hilarious.[lol]

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
BestOf FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC! from Finland Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: Falling within your bell curve
FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC!
#220: Aug 3rd 2013 at 2:46:00 PM

BTW, some of the scenes in the Don Rosa story were based on famous paintings about the stories of Kalevala by an artist named Akseli Gallen-Kallela.

For instance, you might be able to see some similarities between this and this.

edited 3rd Aug '13 2:46:16 PM by BestOf

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Quag15 Since: Mar, 2012
#221: Aug 3rd 2013 at 3:12:58 PM

I remember those paintings. Yeah, Rosa almost "copied" it, really.

TheHandle United Earth from Stockholm Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
United Earth
#222: Aug 3rd 2013 at 6:50:48 PM

No reason not to reuse a good composition. Still...

such saggy boobs...

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
BestOf FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC! from Finland Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: Falling within your bell curve
FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC!
#223: Aug 3rd 2013 at 7:22:14 PM

I've never even noticed that she has those. A bit more obviously she's turned herself into some kind of bird-monster so I don't know why the artist chose to depict any sort of breasts at all...

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Karalora Since: Jan, 2001
#224: Aug 3rd 2013 at 8:25:25 PM

Perhaps the artist based her appearance on that of a harpy. If I didn't know that was from the Kalevala, I would assume she was a harpy.

You know what's kind of sad? I have more interesting conversations about the comic here than at the forum at the actual comic website.

edited 3rd Aug '13 10:04:01 PM by Karalora

TheHandle United Earth from Stockholm Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
United Earth
#225: Aug 4th 2013 at 2:09:15 AM

TV TROPES, BITCH, DROP THE MIKE

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

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