Page 423 - May 16, 2013

Since a bunch of people have expressed curiosity about the tune Tuomi is playing (and whether it is just random notes) I figured some samples might fit well right here. And no, it's not random notes. The notations are from the ancient Finnish runo-singing melody, in which Finnish myths and poems where sung long before they were finally written down. I'm actually not quite sure what the melody is officially called, so someone more educated than me is welcome to enlighten us all. I commonly see it called both "runo-melody", because a Finnish poem is a runo, and the "Kalevala-melody" since the Kalevala is the largest and best known compilation of Finnish mythology, all in runo form.

Here's a part of the sheet music from which I've copied a couple of lines from to use in the comic, I'm awful at reading notations so it's probably just one of many variations of the tune, might not even be the most common version:

This runo is from The Kanteletar, which is kind of the less known sister compilation to the Kalevala. (It's titled here as "soitto on suruista tehty", but I believe its official name in the compilation is "eriskummainen kantele".)

Aaand of course we need a sound example! There's probably a couple of kanteles playing in this one, and they sure sound like they have more than 5 strings on them so it's a pretty decorative version of the melody:

And here's another little sample, to give an idea how the runo poems are recited to the tune. The poem in question is the part in the Kalevala where Louhi has tranformed herself into a giant eagle monster and is unleashing the army that she is carrying upon Väinämöinen and his crew at sea. (No kanteles this time, aww. But the guy has a pretty neat voice, so it cancels out. )

And  thats how Finnish myths were sung through the ages, and the tune Tuomi is supposedly playing to make magic and stuff happen. So hey, Tuomi is being kind of menacing, huh?

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