And now I will ruin the joke by wondering why she doesn't use her ability to manipulate distances--or that Shiki (whom I presume she's calling) doesn't chew her out for not doing so...
Damn it. Now when ever I think of Tuonen Tytti I end up imagining Komachi. I suppose that Okuu as The Swan of Tuonela is the next logical step.
Moonspeaker said:
And now I will ruin the joke by wondering why she doesn't use her ability to manipulate distances--or that Shiki (whom I presume she's calling) doesn't chew her out for not doing so...
But then she would have to start working Might aswell float for a while
Just realized I forgot to explain the joke for those unfamiliar with Finnish folklore. That is, if I even need to.
The river of Tuonela/Tuoni (the Underworld, basically) is the river flowing into the realm of the dead in the old Finnish pagan folklore. Its most notable role in Kalevala's stories is in the story of Lemminkäinen, who goes to hunt the black swan dwelling in the river. I can elaborate more on this tomorrow if someone expresses interest in reading a long comment.
Basically, she's in the Finnish River Styx/Sanzu. Almost got it right, Komachi.
And now I will ruin the joke by wondering why she doesn't use her ability to manipulate distances--or that Shiki (whom I presume she's calling) doesn't chew her out for not doing so...
It won't help very much if she doesn't know what direction to go.
I think you meant to say "outside of the Scandinavian region" which Finland is definitely outside while still being part of the Nordics. Also Finnish mythology is somewhat different than Norse mythology.
Anyone who'd read this far down a danbooru page's comments would be interested.
Okay. A long and only vaguely related-to-picture text coming up. Skip the following if you don't care to read.
Storytime! The story of Lemminkäinen as well as I can remember it aided by Wikipedia.
In the Finnish national epic Kalevala, there's this young and haughty hero Lemminkäinen. Lemminkäinen is a ladies man and very hot-blooded. He brags about his fiery sword, which he will use to enlarge his family. Note, that in Finnish sword-duelling tradition, the combatant with the longer sword got to hit first. The dick sword-measuring has found its way into more modern finnish as "miekanmittelö" meaning swordfight. And you thought Japanese people were phallocentric.
Lemminkäinen abducts the fair and wealthy maiden Kyllikki from the village of Saari ("Island", probably refers to Saaremaa, an island belonging to Estonia, Saarenmaa or "Island's land" in Finnish). Kyllikki is pretty quickly hit with Stockholm syndrome and agrees to marry Lemminkäinen, provided that he doesn't go to war. Kyllikki is told by Lemminkäinen to stay home and not go out on her own. They then start living as a happily married couple.
Because she's a stupid woman (Finnish folklore wasn't very progressive with this whole "sexism" thing), Kyllikki goes frolicking in the village. Lemminkäinen is enraged and goes to find a better waifu who can keep her promise. He goes to court one of the beautiful young maidens of Pohjola ("Northia" approximately), the daughters of Louhi, who is the matriarch of north and a super powerful witch. All of you who got excited about the Don Rosa strip should be familiar with her.
Kyllikki and Lemminkäinen's mother try to hold him back, but he's too pissed off. The mother pleads him to stay, because going to Pohjola is too dangerous. He throws a brush at his wife. He then boasts how the day he dies is the day that brush bleeds.
Now, Lemminkäinen's idea isn't very original, as around half of all named males in the epic go after Pohjan Tytti (The Maiden of North) at some point. The fact that most of them fail despite having magical powers to make Pachouli go paruparu, tells something about Louhi's protectiveness of her daughters. On his way to Pohjola, Lemminkäinen kills some random shamans for some reason by magicking them to death. Everyone knows magic in Kalevala. He spares just one of them, a blind old witchman, whom he hates too much to even kill him. It might make sense in context, but I've forgotten how.
When Lemminkäinen finally gets to Louhi, he's assigned the standard job of doing tasks in order to prove himself worthy to marry the maiden. These tasks naturally belong in the category of "pretty much impossible for a mere mortal".
The first task is to catch the hiisi's elk. (That translated horribly. Hiisi is like Finnish troll-imp-demon-youkai thingy. There are supposedly many of them but the moose is always known as belonging to a singular hiisi.) This isn't entirely unrealistic as Finnish people used to routinely hunt for elk by skiing them to exhaustion and that could well have served as a test of manhood. This is, of course, a superpowered monster elk, but Lemminkäinen manages to catch it.
This is not quite enough for Louhi, who then tells Lemminkäinen to catch the hiisi's horse because she decided to save her imagination for until Seppo Ilmarinen decides to come court her daughter in a later part of Kalevala.
Off goes Lemminkäinen. The horse is a much harder case and Lemminkäinen needs to summon some forest spirits and creatures to help him. Finally he manages to catch the horse as well. He then takes it to Louhi.
Because of Rule of Three, Louhi gives a final task: shoot the black swan from the river of Tuonela. The swan was a very important and sacred bird and it was said that killing one would mean certain doom for the perpetrator. (One of the two species of swan in Finland is the Finnish national bird.) Lemminkäinen ignores this folk wisdom. Kalevala is a pretty cool guy. Eh kills swans and doesnt afraid of anything.
When he gets to the river and starts to hunt for the swan, he gets a nasty surprise. The old and blind manwitch from earlier jumps out of some hiding place and suppons a giant aquatic viper. He's pissed off because Lemminkäinen didn't kill him. (???) Then he proceeds to kill the fuck out of Lemminkäinen with the snake. Then he chops him into tiny pieces and throws them into the river. Overkill, much?
Back at home Kyllikki notices her brush has blood flowing from it because fuck symbolic "bleeding", when Lemminkäinen tells brushes to bleed, they do. Kyllikki freaks out but Lemminkäinen's mother, a grade AA certified badass, Level 13 master mage and wielder of bronzen ladyballs, goes to save her son. She goes to Seppo Ilmarinen the blacksmith (note how "Seppo" resembles "seppä", the Finnish word for blacksmith), the to-be-creator of Sampo, to have him make a ginormous rake. Then she runs all the way through the wildernesses searching for her son. She's so badass she even talks to the stars, the moon and the forces of nature and asks if they've seen her son. She tracks down Louhi, whom she just nonchalantly yells at and demands to know where her son is. Louhi tells her her son is at the River of Tuoni.
Upon arriving to the river, he starts raking the bottom. He finds his son, piece by piece, from the deep, cold and powerful stream of deadly, lethal death of doom. He manages to reassemble his son's corpse. A random crow from out of nowhere comes to taunt her but she doesn't care.
Kalevala was collected and written as one man's job by Elias Lönnrot from folk songs and poems around Finland. By the time he got around, the Christian influence had long become pretty obvious as exemplified by the next part.
The mother sees a bee flying around. She asks the bee to get some magical nectar for gluing her son into one piece. The bee knows that you don't fuck around when Lemminkäinen's mom asks you for something. It goes searching for the stuff from everywhere and finally finds it from "the Lord's chambers" or something similar. (I'm pretty sure that part wasn't like that originally.) The bee returns, the mom does some magic and the son is revived. The boy has now learned a lesson about arrogance and the two go home together so Lemminkäinen can forgive and apologize to Kyllikki.
Later he does a war trip to Pohjola, where he kills the Master of Pohjola by lopping his head off in a duel. Presumably Lemminkäinen had the bigger *ahem* sword. The people of Pohjola avenge by burning down his home. He is also targeted by the angry men of Saari. Lemminkäinen has to go hiding. He gets lots of ladies. Later he wars a lot with his friend, the spearman Tiera. (Also called Iku-Tiera like in Iku-Turso.)
The end.
Bonus: Now read it again mentally substituting everyone with Touhou characters.
This marks the third and most direct Kalevala reference in setz's work. The first is the pretty common Finnish idiom in the first "Paranoid" strip. The second is the Don Rosa-reference.
Storytime! The story of Reimu as well as I can remember it aided by the Internets.
In the Japanese national epic Touhou, there's this young and haughty hero Reimu. Reimu is a ladies woman and very hot-blooded. She brags about her fiery danmaku, which she will use to enlarge her family. Note, that in Japanese danmaku-duelling tradition, the combatant with the longer danmaku got to hit first. The breast danmaku-fighting has found its way into more modern Japanese as "measuring" meaning danmaku-fighting. And you thought Japanese people were breastcentric.
Reimu abducts the fair and wealthy maiden Sakuya from the Mansion of vampires ("House", probably refers to Scarlet Devil Mansion, a Mansion belonging to the Vampires, Scarlet ”Red” in Japanese). Sakuya is pretty quickly hit with Stockholm syndrome and agrees to marry Reimu, provided that she doesn't go to war. Sakuya is told by Reimu to stay home and no go out on her own. They then start living as a happily married couple.
Because she's a stupid woman (Japanese folklore wasn't very progressive with this whole "maid" thing), Sakuya goes frolicking in the village. Reimu is enraged and goes to find a better waifu who can keep her promise. She goes to court one of the beautiful young maidens of Mayohiga ("Mystic House" approximately), the shikigamis of Yukari, who is the matriarch of Mayohiga and a super powerful witch. All of you who got excited about the Zun game should be familiar with her.
Sakuya and Reimu's turtle try to hold her back, but she's too pissed off. The turtle pleads her to stay, because going to Mayohiga is too dangerous. She throws a purification rod at her wife. She then boasts how the day she dies is the day that purification rod bleeds.
Now, Reimu's idea isn't very original, as around half of all named females in the epic go after Mayohigan Chen (The Maiden of Mayohiga) at some point. The fact that most of them fail despite having magical powers to make Pachouli go paruparu, tells something about Yukari's protectiveness of her shikigami's. On her way to Mayohiga, Reimu kills some random youkai for some reason by danmakuing them to death. Everyone knows danmaku in Touhou. she spares just one of them, a crazy doll lady, whom she hates too much to even kill him. It might make sense in context, but I've forgotten how.
When Reimu finally gets to Yukari, she's assigned the standard job of doing tasks in order to prove herself worthy to marry the shikigami. These tasks naturally belong in the category of "pretty much impossible for a mere shrine maiden". The first task is to catch the Yoyoumu's gardener. (That translated horribly. Yuyuko is like Japanese demon-youkai-tree thingy. There are supposedly many of them but the gardener is always known as belonging to a singular Yuyuko.) This isn't entirely unrealistic as Japanese people used to routinely hunt for ghosts by skiing them to exhaustion and that could well have served as a test of womanhood. This is, of course, a superpowered monster gardener, but Reimu manages to catch it.
This is not quite enough for Yukari, who then tells Reimu to catch the Yuyuko´s ghost because she decided to save her imagination for until Rinnosuke decides to come court her shikigami in a later part of Touhou.
Off goes Reimu. The ghost is a much harder case and Reimu needs to summon some forest youkai and bakemono to help her. Finally she manages to catch the ghost as well. she then takes it to Yukari.
Because of Rule of Three, Yukari gives a final task: shoot the idiot ferrywoman from the river of Sanzu. The ferrywoman was a very important and sacred worker and it was said that killing one would mean certain doom from Eiki. Reimu ignores this folk wisdom. Reimu is a pretty cool girl. She kills the shinigami and isn't afraid of anything.
When she gets to the river and starts to hunt for the shinigami, she gets a nasty surprise. The crazy doll lady from earlier jumps out of some hiding place and suppons a giant doll. She's pissed off because Reimu didn't kill her. (???) Then she proceeds to kill the fuck out of Reimu with the doll. Then she chops her into tiny pieces and throws them into the river. Overkill, much? (No.)
Back at home Sakuya notices her purification rod has blood flowing from it because fuck symbolic "bleeding", when Reimu tells purification rods to bleed, they do. Sakuya freaks out but Reimu's turtle, a grade AA certified badass, Old Man Genji the turtle, goes to save his shrine maiden. He goes to Rinnosuke the blacksmith, the to-be-creator of Hakkero, to have him make a ginormous rake. Then he runs all the way through the wildernesses searching for her shrine maiden. He's so badass he even talks to the stars, the moon and the gods of nature and asks if they've seen his shrine maiden. He tracks down Yukari, whom he just nonchalantly yells at and demands to know where his shrine maiden is. Yukari tells her his shrine maiden is at the Sanzu River.
Upon arriving to the river, he starts raking the bottom. he finds his shrine maiden, piece by piece, from the deep, cold and powerful stream of deadly, lethal death of doom. He manages to reassemble the shrine maiden. A random tengu from out of nowhere comes to taunt her but she doesn't care.
Touhou was collected and written as one man's job by Zun from folk songs and poems around Japan. By the time he got around, the internet influence had long become pretty obvious as exemplified by the next part.
The turtle sees Cirno flying around. He asks Cirno to get some magical nectar for gluing his shrine maiden into one piece. Cirno knows that you don't fuck around when Reimu's turtle asks you for something. It goes searching for the stuff from everywhere and finally finds it from "the Eientei" or something similar. (I'm pretty sure that part wasn't like that originally.) Cirno returns, the turtle does some magic and Reimu is revived. The maiden has now learned a lesson about arrogance and the two go home together so Reimu can forgive and apologize to Sakuya.
Later she does a war trip to Mayohiga, where she kills the Master of Mayohiga, Yukari, by lopping her head off in a duel. Presumably Reimu had the bigger *ahem* danmaku. The servants of Mayohiga avenge by burning down her home. She is also targeted by the angry servants of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Reimu has to go hiding. She gets lots of ladies. Later she wars a lot with her friend, the magician of the forest. (Also called Marisa.)
This is probably one of those moments when it would be nice to have an English translation of Kalevala. I do have a such thing but trying to find the right poems there is a bit challenging when I haven't fully read it yet.
And thank you, budoka_azathoth. That was very entertaining. It's not often you get to learn about stories from other cultures, even in this day and age.
You know, what amazes me the most is that Lemminkäinen's mother went straight to the blacksmith when brush started bleeding. I mean, my son just died somewhere, I'd better go grab me some rake just in case he was chopped into pieces and thrown into the river. That's what usually happens, after all.
You know, what amazes me the most is that Lemminkäinen's mother went straight to the blacksmith when brush started bleeding. I mean, my son just died somewhere, I'd better go grab me some rake just in case he was chopped into pieces and thrown into the river. That's what usually happens, after all.
Well, my memory is a little shaky so maybe there was something between those parts that let her know. I know I got some parts wrong when writing that. E.g. Ilmarinen had apparently already made the Sampo and (I think) scored a northern maiden for himself by the time this story takes pkace. (It's a pretty tragic story. I think he ends up making himself a golden woman to be his wife but that's a whole different part of Kalevala.) These stories were patched together from perhaps hundreds of different songs and pieces of folk poetry so some plotholes are to be expected. Like Higusan said, it's indeed a peculiar piece of literature.
Uuh... Hi. Listen, I don't think I'll make it to work on time today.No, I don't think this is the River Styx...Hey, while you're at it, mind checking out how many rivers the Sanzu River connects to?You don't?You know the feeling when you feel like taking a five minute nap during commute?River of Tuoni
River Tuoni leads to Manala, the Finnish netherworld.