Abstract
The paper explores the prominent metaphor of ‘the three missing words’ in the poetic language of otherworld journeys represented in the Finnish National Epic Kalevala. It starts with an introduction into otherworld journeys and the realms of the other side in the KalavalaEpic and a short presentation of the FinnoKarelian tradition. It focuses on certain episodes which involve the otherworld journeys of Vainamoinen, a mythical hero well versed in magic and therefore the greatest sage of the epic tradition. The purpose of his adventures is the quest for the three missing magical words, which form a constant line in several epic poems. On the basis of examples of Karelian variants, the author tries to illuminate the function of this stylistic feature, i. e. how the verse was utilized in FinnoKarelian epic poetry and how it was imbedded into different adventures. The paper aims to emphasize that beside the parallels to other mythical traditions of the world, the FinnoKarelian epic lays are characterized by their own features and show a way of using metaphors in a specialized poetic style.