Knights

[Andrew A. Apold]

>
>
>>>  There is no such thing as success or failure.
>
>>You obviously have not seen "The Day the Earth Froze", (the SAMPO episode)
>>about the finnish legends of Kalevala.
>
>  What's SAMPO?

SAMPO!

You had to ask.

two answers:

First, it is a legendary mill in Finnish folklore.  Suposedly the Sampo
could produce Grain, Salt, and Gold.

Second, in the movie mentioned, it was forged by the legendary smith
Ilmarinen, as a ransom for the return of his friend Lemenkeinen's love,
Anakie (no idea on the spelling of these).  She had been kidnapped by
Pajola, an evil sorceress who controlled the winds and ruled the trolls in
a frozen wasteland.

After forging the Sampo, the trolls rejoiced "we'll never slip on our
driveways!"... "gee, I thought there'd be more around the gold end
of it and less around the salt end of it..."... and sadly Ilmarinen
informs Anakie and Lemenkeinen that the Sampo is a one-of-
a kind thing, such a thing he cannot forge again.  Distraught,
Lemenkeinen dives from their boat to steal back the Sampo.

"Sampo repair... no...  sorry guys, dad says I have to take the
Sampo back... no...   oh, no, they really like it..."

He gets his hands on it and makes it to his boat, but Pajola unleashes
the north wind, which sinks his boat.  The Sampo is lost, though
he keeps a broken piece of it...

Meanwhile, his mother is worried about him missing, and goes
looking for him.  She asks a pine tree if it has seen him, but
it rambles and doesn't provide any info.  She then asks the
road, which rambles even more, moaning about how everyone
walks on it, etc, etc, "Now I know what they mean when they
say the road goes on forever..."  anyways, she finally
asks the sun "you should do voiceovers", who informs
her that Lemenkeinen is returning.

Lemenkeinen returns with his broken piece of the Sampo,
and the villiage elders (especially Ilmarinen) are distraught,
that something they had to get them through desperate
times is now lost.

Yet somehow the film turns cheeful, as Lemenkeinen
and Anakie are to wed.  Throughout the celebration,
with dancing, singing,

"failure, failure, he is such a failure..
 (repeat)
"we are all going to die of starvation... starvation"

etc....

"I'm so glad this is a dry celebration, much more fun
than that kegger last week..."

"are you with the bride or the failure?"

they don't invite Pajola, "Marty Feldman, in a role that
will not surprise you..."  who takes offense and steals
the sun.  Everyone is starving (at one point they find
a frozen goose:  "I'll be the sampo could have saved
it.  - 'will you shut up about that sampo!'", cold, wind,
etc.  Ilmarinen tries to forge a new sun, but fails.
Finally, an old villiage elder tells everyone to make
a harp and follow him, and they approach Pajola's
fortress, and defeat her by playing harp music
which calms the trolls.  lemenkeinen frees the
sun and they live happily ever after.

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Andrew A. Apold, aka                        "I was corrupt before I had power!"
Roger Shrubstaff                                 - Random, upon being accused
Chancellor                                            of being corrupted since
Barony of Silverwater                             becoming King....
Kingdom of the Burning Lands                (Roger Zelazny, d. 1995)