"Dawn and Dusk". Estonia

"Dawn and Dusk" / Iivi Raudsepp / Estonia.

"Koit ja Hämarik" / Iivi Raudsepa illustratsioon Friedrich Robert Faehlmanni kunstmuinasjutule.

"Заря и сумерки" / Худ. Ийви Раудсепп / Эстония.

Postcard, 1979.
My collection.

* Friedrich Robert Faehlmann (Fählmann) (December 20, 1798 - April 22 (April 10 (O.S.)), 1850) was an Estonian philologist and an Estophile active in Livonia, Russian Empire.
In 1840 a story "Koit ja Hämarik" ("Dawn and Dusk") was first published.

Dawn and Dusk
Brief time of joy, time of shortest nights rich of songs and flowers, makes good for the long sufferings thru the harsh northern winter. At the time of this celebration of nature, while the sunrise and sunset reach each other for lending a hand, an old man told the lovestory of Dawn and Dusk for his grandchildren gathered around him. And I will retell what I heard.

Can you feel the giver of the light from the home of the Grandfather? Right now it has gone to rest, and where it goes out, it still makes the sky glow, and at the same time a bar of light shifts further to the east, where it soon again, in all it’s glory, salutes the nature.

Do you feel the hand that receives the sun and takes it to rest, as it has completed his journey? Do you feel the hand that lights it again, and sends it to cross the sky again?

The Grandfather had two faithful servants of the kind to whom eternal youth was given, and when the giver of the light was finishing its journey in its first evening, the Grandfather said to the Dusk, "In your hands, my daughter, I trust the setting sun. Put the light off and hide it so that no harm would come. " And when the next morning, the sun once again had to begin its journey, he said to Dawn: "Your job, my son, will be to ignite the light and prepare it for its new journey."

Faithfully both filled their duties so in no days the heaven was without the giver of light. And as it moves on the edge of the winter sky, it extinguishes early in the evening and starts late in the morning. And when it awakens the songs and the flowers at spring, and when it makes the fruits ripen with its blazing rays at summer, it has given only a short time to rest, and the Dusk gives the setter straight to the hands of Dawn, who then immediately ignites it to new life.

This beautiful time had now arrived, in which the flowers were blooming and fragrant, and the birds and the people filled the space under the arch of Ilmaris with songs - they looked at one another too deeply in their berry-colored eyes, and when the setting sun was given from Dusks hands to Dawns, they both reached to shake hands and their lips touched.

But one eye that never closes, had noticed what had happened in the secret of the quiet midnight, and on the next day the Grandfather called both to come to him and said: "I am pleased with your work and wish you complete happiness. Therefore you shall belong to each other and henceforward do your work as a husband and a wife. "

And both responded as with one voice: "Grandfather, do not spoil our joy. Let us remain as a bride and a groom forever, because in engagement we have found our happiness, where love is always young and new."

And the Grandfather filled their prayers and blessed their decision. Only once a year, during four weeks, they both meet at the time of midnight, and when the Dusk places the setting sun on her lovers hand, it is followed by a handshake and a kiss. And the cheek of the Dusk becomes red, and reflects rose-red on the sky, until Dawn again ignites the light giver, and a yellow glow in the sky proclaims the rising sun .

For the celebration of their meeting Grandfather still decorates fields with the most beautiful flowers and nightingales exclaim jokingly to the Dusk staying too long on the chest of Dawn: "Lazy girl, lazy girl! Night is long!"
(1840)

* Врач и ученый-любитель Фридрих Роберт Фельман (1798-1850) вошел в историю эстонской культуры как инициатор создания эпоса "Калевипоег" и создатель эстонской народной мифологии. В восьми романтических легендах ("Рождение Эмайыги", "Песня Ванемуйне", "Варка языков", "Заря и сумерки", "Сотворение", "Сватовство Ванемуйне", "Уход Ванемуйне", "Озеро Эндла и Юта") Фельман попробовал реконструировать эстонскую мифологию.