Writer's Block: AKA

[Error: unknown template qotd]Saraste impi is a character in a Finnish children's book called Mestaritontun seikkailut ('Adventures of the Master Elf'), written by Aili Somersalo first published in 1919. My copy of the book (was my own from the start, reads 1989 on the first page ^-^) is rather worn and if you handle it carelessly most of the pages fall out! Saraste impi (Saraste the Maiden) is a virgin maiden imprisoned inside a stone where she must weave a wedding cloak for her to-be-husband, the Troll king Julmakumma (it would be something like 'Cruel-odd', it's a play on the similarity of the words) who stole her from her homeland, Satumaa (literally, 'Land of Fairytale'). But she get's freed by a prince and they live happily ever after. What always struc me the most about Saraste was her long fair hair and how she had to cut three strands every night and weave them into the cloak, as a girl such a thing as cutting one's hair was such a horrific thing (I only cut my hair shoulder lenght from having been hip lenght when I was 22...). That's Saraste Impi from the Olli Mansnerus illustrations.

Itkevä immyt kivessä on                                                  
velhojen vankina onneton.                                             
Kyyneleet helminä hiekkaan putoo                               
haltijan häävittaa immyt kutoo.
Velhot majassa kyyröttää
tuumivat pohtivat harmaapäät,
milloin jo joutuu impyen häät...

(Sorry, no English, since there is none and when I tried it became so awfullll.....) This book is why I want to be an author, why I want to be a chidlren's book illustrator. The slash and the smut is just sidetracs... And now as I've flipped through it a bit to check things (like that poem), I get such an ache to read it again. Hmm, I so need to browse used book shops to try and find the book, Päivikin satu, which this is a sequel to. Funny how the second book became so popular even though PS is not bad at all, just always out of a reprint.... Also, will sink into such nostalgia next week as they'll begin with Anne of Greengables as a morning series (the Megan Follows thing, is the tv series called Anne of Avonlea?...)