Disclaimer obbligatorio: questa domanda deriva da una scoperta molto superficiale e una ricerca ancora più cursore solo per assicurarmi di non aver frainteso. Sembra, quindi eccomi qui.
Apparentemente nella Kalevala la luna è definita oro e il sole come argento (fonti molto fragili baso questa comprensione: Uno E Due).
Non ho mai incontrato questa inversione dalle mie aspettative (sono cresciuto in una cultura diversa – ancora occidentale ed europea), per non parlare dei miei sensi (la luna … sembra più pallida del sole, sì? Controllo della realtà di buon senso, per favore 😬)
Allora – cosa dà? I corpi celesti sono percepiti in modo diverso nella zona, a causa dell’atmosfera o di un po ‘di questo, o …?
Sono sinceramente, curioso e interessato, quindi grazie a chiunque possa avere risposte, almeno provvisoriamente! 🤗
"Moon of gold and Sun of silver": culture question on Kalevala
byu/OatmealRaisinGolem inFinland
di OatmealRaisinGolem
4 commenti
In my visions, it’s because when the world was formed at the breaking of the bird egg, egg white made the sun and yolk made the moon, there’s more egg white and thus more light with the sun.
It might just be something as boring as kuu (moon) rhymes with kulta (gold).
Finnic peoples do not associate gold with the moon and silver with the sun. I would argue that this is not due to cultural reasons but to the type of poetry used.
That form of poetry uses a lot of alliteration, using similar sounds in the beginning of nearby words to make them “rhyme”. (that was a horrible and oversimplified way to explain it, sorry). For example, the most famous line from Kalevala is probaly the typical way to refer to Väinämöinen “VAka VAnha VÄinämöinen”. The word for moon (kuu) and the word for gold (kulta) share the same first syllable. That explains the golden moon.
The type of poetry also loves to use synonyms, pairing of similar words (gold and silver, sun and moon) and repetition – thus it is not difficult to see why there would be a silver sun after a golden moon. Also, the metre, Kalevala metre, a form of trochaic tetrameter, needs certain types of syllables in certain places, and that “hop-” (from hopea, silver) fits in your examples.
TL;DR: Moon (kuu) and gold (kulta) rhyme with each other.
An explanation may be found in the fact that certain things very often appear as pairs that refer to a single thing rather than their separate meanings in the Kalevala style of poetry. This is one of the many mnemonic devices that allow reciters to play for time while figuring out what comes next.
So gold and silver are often interchangeable just meaning “valuable/shiny metal”, the Sun and Moon ditto for “heavenly light”, bear and wolf for “predator”, and so on.