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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What are Joukahainen's stories like?

2. What does Joukahainen's mother tell him about shooting Vainamoinen?

3. Where does the Storyteller get his story?

4. Who asks Vainamoinen where he is sailing?

5. What occasion marks the end of Lemminkainen and Kyllikki's happiness?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe how Lemminkainen's mother brings him back to life.

2. How does Marjetta lose and then find her baby?

3. What happens when Vainamoinen goes to the underworld?

4. How does Vainamoinen heal his people from Louhi's revenge?

5. What happens when Ilmarinen tried to fashion a new wife for himself?

6. What happens when the Daughter of the Air comes to earth?

7. What happens when Joukahainen finally spots Vainamoinen crossing the ocean?

8. Describe how Vainamoinen and Ilmarinen court the Maid of Pohja.

9. What does Vainamoinen suggest when the Old Man says that Marjetta's son must be tested before he can be baptized?

10. Describe Lemminkainen's elk hunt.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Which parts of these tales are particular to their culture and their times? Which parts of these tales are eternal and apply to every human being? Using examples from the text, describe the culture that created these tales. And describe the timeless human nature that created the other parts of them.

Essay Topic 2

What kind of justice applies in the Kalevala? Is murder always punished? Is theft always punished? Is the justice always the same or does it vary? Citing examples from the text, describe justice in the Kalevala.

Essay Topic 3

Are Lemmenkainen, Vainamoinen, and Ilmarinen heroes or gods? Are they immortal and fixed like constellations in their personalities? Or are they people who are larger than life because of their deeds and personalities? Cite examples from the text that support one argument or the other.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,055 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample