Velisurmaaja

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Suomalainen kansanlaulu
Ballata popolare finlandese
A Finnish folk ballad
Ballade populaire finlandaise



Velisurmaaja (The Fratricide) is a (very) old Finnish folksong. One of the many gruesome, cruel and highly dramatic murder ballads which are so common in all European balladries. The ballad comes probably from the same, widespread ballad stock of the well known Scottish Edward (Child #13, ”Quhy dois zour sword sae drap wi' bluid, Edward, Edward?”, in Percy's fake-antique spelling) and of Danish Sven i Rosengård: a striking, breathtaking dialogue between a mother and his son, in which he gradually reveals and confesses he has killed his (usually older) brother, pressed by his mother's precise questions, because the latter has "made his wife laugh" (i.e., he was making love with her). This is not the first old murder ballad included in this website: another specimen is French L'écolier assassin. Now, of course, you might ask why I'm doing this.

Well, this has to do with immigration and immigrants. Just like the first British settlers in the New World carried with themselves their old songs and ballads, which became firmly established in the American tradition, every immigration wave coming from Europe had its complete stock of old songs. The first Finnish settlers came to America as early as 1638, when they helped to found a colony named New Sweden along the Delaware River, located in present day Wilmington, Delaware, as much of present day Finland was part of the Swedish Empire at the time. Larger-scale immigration did not start until roughly two hundred years later. In the 1830s and 1840s, a few hundred Finns settled in Alaska, which at that time belonged to Russia. The Gold Rush lured others to California.

By the 1870s, large numbers of Finns had arrived in the United States, driven by unemployment and overcrowding in the urban centers. Mining and shipping companies also recruited Finns to work in the United States. They settled in Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts in mining, logging and agricultural communities. The immigration of Finns to the United States reached its peak in the first few years of the twentieth century and slowed after the First World War.

Finnish immigrant communities formed social organizations to help preserve aspects of Finnish culture and identity. Finnish American music-making traditionally occurred in the context of these organizations. Finnish societies began to organize music festivals featuring singers and instrumentalists in the 1890s. "The Knights and Ladies of the Kaleva," an organization formed at the turn of the 20th century to preserve Finnish customs in the United States, also sponsored music events.

In 1939, the ethnomusicologist Sidney Robertson Cowell made field recordings of songs of Finnish immigrants in Berkeley, California. Among the singers she documented was John Soininen, who knew a variety of ballads and songs. He also knew songs from the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. The Kalevala is a compilation of ancient songs assembled into an epic in the nineteenth century by Elias Lönnrot. So, a song like Vaka vanha Vainamoinen ("Steady old Vainamoinen") was widely sung in California among Finnish immigrants. Vainamoinen, the character in this song, is said to be the inventor of the kantele, a Finnish lap harp similar to a zither that was used in the singing of epics, and the song is part of the story of this invention. John Soininen also sang a related song, Kanteleelle a song praising the kantele.

Our murder ballad, Velisurmaaja, appears to be one of the favorite old songs sung by Finnish immigrants and settlers in the New World, just like any other ballad that told of Finnish historical events, heroes, villains, lovers and death (the song was also documented by John Soininen in Berkeley, see English translation). Finnish Americans adapted their song style as they assimilated into American culture. A study of Finnish American song in northern Michigan in the 1940s by folklorist Aili Kolehmainen Jonhson showed how Finnish American workers sometimes set Finnish lyrics they authored to Anglo American tunes such as "Casey Jones”. Traditional Finnish song texts were also occasionally altered to include American references, or refrains in English. Twentieth century immigrants helped to revitalize Finnish language and culture among Finnish Americans. Folk singer, songwriter, and poet Hiski Salomaa (1891–1957) is an example. He was noted for composing in "Finglish," a combination of Finnish and English used only by Finns in the United States and Canada, in order to speak to the immigrant experience of Finns in North America.

An immigrant experience which, of course, had to face a good deal of discrimination and racism, too. Many often struggled with learning English and were delegated to lower work positions. Their customs and religious beliefs were seen as strange and exotic, and other immigrants considered them to be clannish. The fact that Finns were a relatively “new” group in the U.S. also opened them up for discrimination by employers and other immigration groups who already had a stronger foothold in the country. Finns faced racial discrimination, with many people using the Finnish language as “proof” that Finns were not European and thus fair game to be subject to unfair treatment. Some argued that Finns were Asian, meaning they should be barred from citizenship under the Asian Exclusion Act of the early 1900s. The word “Finlander” was used as a slur, along with “China Swede” and “roundhead.” Like many other immigrant groups, Finns preferred to stick together, and many “Finntowns” cropped up around the country. One well-known example is the Finntown in Brooklyn, New York, which was home to roughly 20,000 Finnish immigrants in the 1920s. Located in the Sunset Park area, Brooklyn’s Finntown was a working class neighborhood that had many Finnish-language shops, as well as the oldest nonprofit co-op housing complexes in the United States.

A present day Finn would maybe be amazed at the way Finnish immigrants were described in US newspapers. The following is a good example: ”All were undersized, squat, broad, with high cheek bones, light yellow hair and beard”, etc.



Among the immigrant labeled as Finns, there were of course also Sámis.



And, of course, Finnish immigrants too had to suffer tragedies due to an awful, and so usual, mix of racism and foolishness: almost all the young victims of the 1913 Calumet massacre during the copper strike of 1913-14 were Finnish children, mostly girls, crowded in the “Italian Hall” for a Christmas ball.



So, our (very) old Velisuurmaja, a song which accompanied thousands of Finns seeking for better life in a new world, is now part of the so-called Finnish-American heritage. I want to dedicate it not only to present day “True Finns”, but also to the whole host of True Italians, True Germans, True Spaniards, True Frenchmen, True Swedes, True Dutchmen, True Greeks, True Britons and True Martians that infect our continent and all the solar system. Please remember the pains our mothers and fathers had to endure. Please remember their songs. [RV]

The ballad is given here in one of its many versions, strikingly performed by Niekku. The English translation is reproduced from Lyricstranslate, made by a native Finn. Of course, I can't fully understand if this translation is fully reliable and I kindly ask Juha Rämö to check it (doesn't “kultainen” mean “golden”?) and/or to make a better translation. I'll make an Italian translation later.