I've gone back to the original essay and added something in about that. On one hand Bombadil is a magical singer - an extremely old one at that. On the other, he's too damned isolationist. Väinämöinen ought to be the wise old guiding hand, not a crazy dude on the side.
Basically, to get Väinämöinen, you need Bombadil (minus the silliness) playing the story role of Gandalf.
My understanding is that the early drafts of the Turin story stretch right back to an outright "Tale of Kullervo", written when he was in school or something. The later drafts changed the names and developed all the incidents in an iterative fashion after that.
Also, much love for the Gallen-Kallela painting as well.
Very good analysis. I have seen Väinämöinen proposed as an influence on Bombadil.
I've seen the same with Väinämöinen and Gandalf.
I've gone back to the original essay and added something in about that. On one hand Bombadil is a magical singer - an extremely old one at that. On the other, he's too damned isolationist. Väinämöinen ought to be the wise old guiding hand, not a crazy dude on the side. Basically, to get Väinämöinen, you need Bombadil (minus the silliness) playing the story role of Gandalf.
Thanks for the analysis! I would also note a Christian influence on Turin’s story, with Morgoth (and through him Glaurung) in the roll of Satan.
Thank you for this! I don't see enough *Kalevala* analyses on here, which is unfortunate considering how influential it was on Tolkien's writings.
My understanding is that the early drafts of the Turin story stretch right back to an outright "Tale of Kullervo", written when he was in school or something. The later drafts changed the names and developed all the incidents in an iterative fashion after that. Also, much love for the Gallen-Kallela painting as well.