Aino Kallas Prose Fiction and the Biblical Myth

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Aino Kallas Prose Fictionand the Biblical Myth

• Silja Vuorikuru

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Aino Kallas (1878-1956)

• Kallas was born in Finland, but she moved to
  Estonia in 1903.
• The majority of Kallasworks is written in prose
  (historical novels, short stories, plays and a
  collection of personal journals)
• The best-known works Barbara von Tisenhusen
  (1923), Reigin pappi (1926) and Sudenmorsian
  (1928). Also known as a trilogy Surmaava Eros
  (translated into English as Eros the Slayer and
  into German as Der Tötende Eros).

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Aino Kallas (1878-1956)

• In her oeuvre, Kallas draws on myths, legends,
  folklore and especially the biblical mythology.
• The dominating milieu of Kallasoeuvre is
  historical Estonia.
• A remarkable feature of Kallas text
  (particularly on the 1920s and 1930s) is a
  so-called archaic style the language she
  employs follows the style of medieval chronicles,
  books of homilies and the Finnish Bible of the
  17th and 18th centuries.
• The common theme of the famous trilogy Surmaava
  Eros is forbidden love and forbidden (sexual)
  desire of a woman. Moreover, the themes of
  desire, longing, utopia and nostalgia are
  continual in Kallaswhole oeuvre.

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Barbara von Tisenhusen (1923)

• This is my purpose, for which I invoke the help
  of Almighty God, that I may carry it to a worthy
  end for the profit and edification of others and
  withal as a warning of sorrow that may befall
  them. Amen.To write down the strange and
  wonderful things I have seen with mine own eyes
  and heard with mine own ears, concerning the
  young damsel Barbara von Tisenhusen, born in the
  Castle of Rannu, in Livland, Anno Domini 1533, in
  the reign of Wolter von Plettenberg, Master of
  the Order, daughter of the highly honoured and
  greatly feared nobleman Reinhold von Tisenhusen
  and his most virtuous wife Anna von Sawhere, both
  long ago resting blessed in the Lord.

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White Ship (the English
translation of Lasnamäen valkea laiva, 1913)

• But where their Canaan was situated, none knew.
  They had heard their prophet, in the course of
  his wanderings through the villages, speak of a
  far, warm country, set aside by God for his
  chosen, where there was neither master nor slave,
  no frosts at night and no snow, only green
  vineyards, in eternal sunshine and fruitgiving
  rains.

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Gerdruta Carponai (1921)

• The race of man seemed doomed to perish. Life
  came to a standstill with all the common tasks of
  man, the ploughing, the sowing and reaping, the
  hunt of game or fish, marriage. It seemed Gods
  purpose to empty the land of man, and bring it to
  the state that prevailed before mans creation.
  But the land was far from being a Paradise. It
  was burned and wasted, and over the waters the
  Angel of Destruction moved.