I am swimming home I can not see what is in front of me Only what is beside me, below me I move forward by sense of smell I am swimming home.   -- Ruth MacKenzie     1) Salmon Dance Aino is gathering the elements for the ritual sauna in a forest near her home. She is confronted by Väinämöinen, a 900 year old magician/singer who tells her she must come with him and be married. She refuses, saying that she does not want wealth or anything else he can offer. Aino declares that she can live plainly, eat simply with her father and mother, as she symbolically removes all her jewelry. Leaving her crosslet, rings and sash on the earth, for the good of earth, she runs home in tears.   2) Kaikk' Miä Aino enters her father's farmyard. When she is asked by her father why she is crying, she responds that she has lost her cross of silver. When she is asked by her brother, she responds she has lost her ring. But when she is asked by her mother, "Why are you crying my poor daughter, so young and so full of sorrow?," Aino shares her sadness and the meaning of why she no longer wears her jewelry.   3) Aino's Complaint The mother hears her daughter's troubles but surprises Aino by saying that this is what she has always wanted; to have her daughter marry such a great singer, to have such a great man as her son-in-law. She then tells Aino of seven blue dresses and six golden girdles which were made by the daughters of the sun and the moon. She tells how she ventured into the "blue woodland" to ask for them and then hid them away for her daughter.   4) In the Blue Woodland Aino feels her mother has not understood her. Feeling lost and betrayed she runs out into the farmyard weeping.   5) Oi Dai When the mother hears her daughter's lament, she asks once again, "Why are you crying?" Aino responds, "I weep because you have betrayed your own daughter. You have promised your own daughter to be an old man's comfort. It would have been better for me if you'd ordered me under the sea waves to be a sister to the fishes, companion to all creatures." Aino, then marches up to the storehouse where the seven blue dresses and six golden girdles are kept. She puts each article of clothing on and runs out into the forest.   6) O My Body Aino walks for three days until she comes to a clearing where a broad bay opens out. On the water she sees a writrock (a rock inscribed with the origin of the world and thought to house great power) where three maidens are sitting, bathing in the sea. She sees her fate. She becomes the fourth among them and a slender twig becomes the fifth. She throws her shirt among the willows, her dress upon the aspens, and her stockings on the bare ground. She swims out to the writrock and sits upon it when suddenly it is swallowed by the water. Aino consecrates the place of her transformation.   7) Swimming On the Surface   8) Medley for Swedish Säckpipa Word is brought by a hare to the family that the young maiden is now a companion to all creatures, a fish among the fishes. The mother warns all mothers, "Never try to trick your daughters with lullabies. Never ask them to marry against their will as I have done." Out of her tears the great rivers rise and three mountains are born. 9) Flowed a Tear   10) Soul Bird   11) Kulning Songs for herding animals by way of Lena Willemark.   12) Give Us Room to Roar   13) Kulning   14) If I Knew   Kalevala performance | story | recording | ruth mackenzie | links return to Omnium | return to NorthSide   © 1998 Aino, Inc. and Deselby Productions, Inc. All Rights reserved. Updated May 30, 1998