Kalevala

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Kalevala

The Kalevala is a book and epic poem

Epic poetry

An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation....
which the Elias Lönnrot

Elias Lönnrot

Elias L?nnrot was a Finnish people philologist and collector of traditional Finnish language Oral literature. He is best known for composing the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic compiled from Finnish folklore....
compiled from Finnish

Finnish people

The terms Finns and Finnish people are used in English to mean "a native or inhabitant of Finland". They are also used to refer to the ethnic group historically associated with Finland or Fennoscandia, and they are only used in that sense here....
and Karelian folklore

Folklore

Folklore is the body of expressive culture, including tales, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, superstitions, customs, and so forth within a particular population comprising the traditions of that culture, subculture, or group ....
in the nineteenth century. It is held to be the national epic

National epic

A national epic is an epic poetry or a literary work of epic scope which seeks or is believed to capture and express the essence or spirit of a particular nation; not necessarily a nation-state, but at least an ethnic or linguistic group with aspirations to independence or Wiktionary:autonomy....
of Finland and is traditionally thought of as one of the most significant works of Finnish literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works. Literally translated, the word means "acquaintance with letters" . In Western culture the most basic written literary types include fiction and non-fiction....
. Karelian citizens and other Balto-Finnic speakers also value the work. The Kalevala is credited with some of the inspiration for the national awakening

Fennoman

The Fennomans were the most important political movement in the 19th century Grand Duchy of Finland. They succeeded the fennophile interests of the 18th and early 19th century....
that ultimately led to Finnish government's independence from that of Russia

Finland's declaration of independence

The Finnish declaration of independence was adopted by the Parliament of Finland on 6 December 1917. It declared Finland an independent and sovereignty nation-state rather than an autonomous Russian Grand Duchy....
in 1917.

The name can be interpreted as the "lands of Kaleva" (by the Finnish suffix -la/lä for place).

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Encyclopedia

The Kalevala is a book and epic poem

Epic poetry

An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation....
which the Elias Lönnrot

Elias Lönnrot

Finnish people

Folklore

National epic

Literature

Fennoman

Finland's declaration of independence

Canto

The 'canto' is a principal form of division in a long poem, especially the epic poetry. The word comes from Italian language, from the Latin cantus, meaning "song," and has a corollary in the Sanskrit , or "chapter." Famous examples of epic poetry which employ the canto division are Valmiki's Ramayana , Dante Alighieri's The Divin...
s or "chapters" (Finnish runo).

Compilation

Elias Lönnrot (1802–84) was a scholar and a district health officer in Kainuu

Kainuu

Kainuu is a Regions of Finland of Finland. It is located in the Oulu province and it borders the regions of Northern Ostrobothnia, North Karelia and Northern Savonia....
, an eastern region of Finland which in his time was an autonomous Grand Duchy

Grand Duchy of Finland

The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland that existed in its territory 1809–1917 as part of the Russian Empire....
. The son of a tailor

Tailor

A tailor is a person whose occupation is to sew and scissor menswear style jackets and the skirts or trousers that go with them.Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suit , coat s, trousers, and similar garments, u...
in the village of Sammatti

Sammatti

Sammatti is a List of former municipalities of Finland of Finland. It was consolidated with the city of Lohja in the beginning of 2009.It is located in the provinces of Finland of Southern Finland and is part of the Uusimaa regions of Finland....
, he entered the University in Turku (the successor of which is the University of Helsinki

University of Helsinki

The University of Helsinki is a university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku 1640 as The Royal Academy of Turku....
) in 1822 and started his poem collection journeys in 1827. He made a total of eleven field trip

Field trip

A field trip is a journey by a group of people to a place away from their normal environment.The purpose of the trip is usually observation for education, non-experimental research or to provide students with experiences outside their everyday activities....
s during a period of fifteen years.

The poetry

Finnish folk poetry was first written down in the 1670s, and collected by a few hobbyists during the next centuries. In the 17th century, folk poetry vanished from Western Finland, when the European rhyme poetry displaced it. In the 19th century, collecting became more extensive and systematic. Altogether, almost two million verses were collected during this time. Of these, about 1,250,000 have been published; some 500,000 remain unpublished in the archives of the Finnish Literature Society

Finnish Literature Society

The Finnish Literature Society was founded in 1831 to promote literature written in Finnish language. Among its first publications was the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic....
and the collections in Estonia

Estonia

Republic of Karelia

The Republic of Karelia is a federal subjects of Russia of Russia ....
and other parts of Russia

Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
. By the end of the nineteenth century this pastime and the cumulating orientation towards eastern lands had become a fashion called Karelianism

Karelianism

Karelianism was a late 19th century cultural phenomenon in the Grand Duchy of Finland and involved writers, painters, poets and sculptors. Since the publishing of the Finnish national epic Kalevala in 1835, compiled from Karelian folk lore, culture spheres in Finland became increasingly curious about Karelian heritage and landscape....
.

Lönnrot and his contemporaries (e.g. A.J. Sjögren and D.E.D. Europaeus) collected most of the poem variants (one poem might have up to two hundred variants) scattered across rural areas of Karelia and Ingria

Ingria

Ingria is a historical region within Russia, comprising the southern bank of the river Neva, between the Gulf of Finland, the Narva River, Lake Peipus in the west, and Lake Ladoga and the western bank of the Volkhov river in the east....
. They carefully noted the name of the poem singer, its age, the place of performance, and the date. During his fourth field trip, in September 1833, Lönnrot got the idea that the poems might represent a wider continuity when poem entities were performed to him along with comments in normal speech connecting them.

The poetry was usually sung to tunes built on a pentachord

Pentachord

A pentachord is a five-note segment of a scale or tone row. A diatonic scale comprises five non-transpositionally equivalent pentachords rather than seven because the Ionian and Mixolydian pentachords and the Dorian and Aeolian pentachords are intervallically identical ....
, sometimes assisted by the kantele
Kantele

Kantele is a Finland traditional plucked string instrument. It is related to the Ethnic Russian music gusli, the Latvian kokle, the Lithuanian kankles and the Estonian kannel....
(a five-string zither

Zither

The zither is a musical string instrument, most commonly found in Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, the southern regions of Germany, alpine Europe and East Asian cultures....
of a kind). The rhythm could vary but the tunes were arranged in either two or four lines consisting of five beats each. Sometimes the poems were performed antiphonally

Antiphon

An antiphon is a response, usually sung in Gregorian chant, to a psalm or some other part of a religious service, such as at Vespers or at a mass ....
, sometimes they were a part of a "singing-match" between knowers of the tradition. Despite the vast geographical distance and customary spheres separating the individual singers, the poetry was always sung in the same metre, the so-called archaic trochaic tetrameter
Trochaic tetrameter

Trochaic tetrameter is a meter in poetry. It refers to a line of four trochee foot . The word "tetrameter" simply means that the poem has four trochees....
(usually called "Kalevala meter"). Its other formal features are alliteration

Alliteration

Alliteration is the repeated occurrence of a consonant sound at the beginning of several words in the same phrase. Consonance is the repetition of the same consonant sound anywhere in a string of words, not just the initial sound as is in alliteration....
, parallel sentences

Parallelism (grammar)

In grammar, parallelism is a balance of two or more similar words, phrases, or clauses. The application of parallelism in sentence construction improves English writing style and readability....
, and also inversion into chiasmus

Chiasmus

In rhetoric, chiasmus is the figure of speech in which two or more clauses are related to each other through a reversal of structures in order to make a larger point; that is, the clauses display inverted Parallelism ....
.

The chronology

Chronology

Chronology is a chronicle or arrangement of events in their occurrence order. General chronology is the science of locating and resolution of temporal sequence of past events in time...
of this oral tradition

Oral tradition

Oral tradition, oral culture and oral lore are messages or testimony transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants....
is uncertain. The seemingly oldest themes (the origin of Earth) have been interpreted to have their roots in distant, unrecorded history while the seemingly latest events (e.g. the arrival of Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
) seem to be from the Iron Age

Iron Age

In archaeology, the Iron Age was the stage in the development of any people in which tools and weapons whose main ingredient was iron were prominent....
. According to Finnish folklorist, Kaarle Krohn

Kaarle Krohn

Kaarle Krohn was a Finland folklorist, professor and developer of the geographic-historic method of folklore research. He was the son of journalist and poet Julius Krohn, and his sister was Aino Kallas, a Finnish author....
, some 20 poems of the Kalevala could be of Ancient Estonia

Ancient Estonia

Ancient Estonia refers to a period covering History of Estonia from the middle of the 8th millennium BC until the conquest and subjugation of the Estonian people in the first quarter of the 13th century during the Northern Crusades....
n origin or at least deals with a motif of Estonian origin.

Of the dozens of poem singers who contributed to the Kalevala, significant ones are:

Arhippa Perttunen
Arhippa Perttunen

Arhippa Perttunen was a Karelian folk music.Around 1834, he met Elias L?nnrot, and was one of his main sources for the Kalevala.The State Prize of the Karelian ASSR was named after him....
(1769–1840)
Matro
Ontrei Malinen (1780–1855)
Vaassila Kieleväinen
Soava Trohkimainen

Lönnrot’s contribution to Kalevala

Lönnrot arranged the collected poems into a coherent whole. In this process he merged poem variants and characters together and left out verses that did not fit in or composed lines of his own in order to connect certain passages into a logical plot. He even invented a few names which could be used for a character throughout the whole story. It has been estimated that the Kalevala comprises: one third of word for word recordings by the collectors, 50% of material that Lönnrot adjusted slightly, 14% of verses he wrote himself based on poem variants and 3% of verses purely of his own invention. What can be thought to be Lönnrot's most significant contribution is the arrangement of the poems. In the preface of Old Kalevala (signed on February 28, 1835), Lönnrot highlights the possibility that somebody other than he could select different poems variants and that Kalevala would still be as genuine as it was on the day of its completion. As a matter of fact, Lönnrot added some 3,000 verses of poem variants in the end of the Old Kalevala for others to compare.

Publishing

The first version of Lönnrot's compilation, Kalewala, taikka Wanhoja Karjalan Runoja Suomen Kansan muinoisista ajoista (The Kalevala, or old Karelian poems about ancient times of the Finnish people), also known as simply the Old Kalevala, came out in two volumes in 1835–1836. The Old Kalevala consisted of 12,078 verses or thirty-two poems.

Lönnrot continued to collect new material, which he integrated into a second edition, Kalevala (the Kalevala), published in 1849. This "new Kalevala" contains fifty poems, and is the standard text of the Kalevala read now.

Translations

Of the five full translations into English, the older translations by John Martin Crawford (1888), William Forsell Kirby (1907) and the more recent Eino Friberg translation (1989) follow the original rhythm (Kalevala meter) of the poems (which may sound cumbersome to English ears). The Canadian, Edward Taylor Fletcher, also translated selections of the Kalevala in 1869, reading them before the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec

Literary and Historical Society of Quebec

The unbelievable and Historical Society of Quebec was the first scholarly or learned society in Canada. It was founded in 1824 by George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie, governor of British North America....
on 17 March of the same year.

The scholarly translation by Francis Peabody Magoun Jr. (1963) is an attempt to keep the literal meaning of the poem intact for study and preservation reasons and is written in prose; the appendices of this version also contain many notes on the history of the poem, comparisons between the original Old Kalevala and the currently most well-known version, and a detailed glossary of terms and names used in the poem. The most recent version by the poet Keith Bosley

Keith Bosley

Keith Bosley is a United Kingdom poet and language expert.Bosley was born in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, grew up in Maidenhead, Berkshire. He was educated at Sir William Borlase's Grammar School in Marlow, Buckinghamshire and the Universities of University of Paris, University of Caen Lower Normandy, and University of Reading , where he...
(1998) is written in a more fluid linguistic style.

A notable partial translation of the German translation (by Franz Anton Schiefner

Franz Anton Schiefner

Franz Anton Schiefner was a Russian linguistics and tibetologist.Schiefner was born to a German language-speaking family in Reval , Estonia, then part of Russian Empire....
published in 1852) was made by Prof. John Addison Porter

John Addison Porter

John Addison Porter was an United States Professor of Chemistry. He was born in Catskill , New York, New York and died in New Haven, Connecticut, Connecticut....
in 1868 and published by Leypoldt & Holt. An article on this version is available .

So far the Kalevala has been translated into forty-nine forms of speech. Parts of the book have been translated to sixty forms of speech.

Partial list of translations in chronological order by language (Based partially on the list made by Rauni Puranen):

Language	Year	Translator	Remark
Swedish Swedish language Swedish is a North Germanic languages language, spoken by around 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the ?land islands....	1841	M. A. Castrén	old Kalevala (original of 1835)
	1864–1868	Karl Collan	new Kalevala (original of 1849)
	1884	Rafaël Hertzberg	free translation
	1944	Olaf Homén	abridged Swedish edition
	1948	Björn Collinder Björn Collinder Bj?rn Collinder was a Swedish linguist. His name is sometimes spelled "Bjorn Collinder" in English-language contexts.He was born on July 22, 1894 in Sundsvall, Sweden and died on May 20, 1983 in Vienna, Austria....	entire Kalevala
	1999	Lars Huldén and Mats Huldén	entire Kalevala
French French language French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....	1845 and 1867	Louis Léouzon le Duc
	1927	Jean Louis Perret
	1991	Gabriel Rebourcet	entire Kalevala translated using old French vocabulary
German German language German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....	1852	Franz Anton Schiefner Franz Anton Schiefner Franz Anton Schiefner was a Russian linguistics and tibetologist.Schiefner was born to a German language-speaking family in Reval , Estonia, then part of Russian Empire....
	1885-1886	H. Paul
	1967	Lore Fromm, Hans Fromm
	2004	Gisbert Jänicke
English English language English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...	1868	John Addison Porter John Addison Porter John Addison Porter was an United States Professor of Chemistry. He was born in Catskill , New York, New York and died in New Haven, Connecticut, Connecticut....	Partial translation, via. Franz Anton Schiefner's version
	1869	Edward Taylor Fletcher	Partial translation directly from Finnish (with a lengthy essay)
	1888	John Martin Crawford John Martin Crawford (scholar) John Martin Crawford was an United States physician and scholar who translated the Finland epic Kalevala into English language, to be published for the first time in 1888....	Full translation, via. Franz Anton Schiefner's version
	1907	William Forsell Kirby William Forsell Kirby William Forsell Kirby was an England entomologist and folkloristics.Born in Leicester, the eldest son of Samuel Kirby, a banker, he was educated privately, and became interested in butterflies and moths at an early age....	First full translation directly from Finnish. Imitates the Kalevala meter.
	1963	Francis Peabody Magoun, Jr. Francis Peabody Magoun Francis Peabody Magoun, Jr. Military Cross was one of the seminal figures in the study of medieval and English literature in the 20th century, a scholar of subjects as varied as football and ancient Germanic naming practices, and translator of numerous important texts....	Prose translation
	1989	Eino Friberg Eino Friberg Eino Friberg was a Finland-born citizen of the United States, most widely noted for his 1989 translation of the Finland national epic, The Kalevala....	Editing and introduction by George C. Schoolfield. Imitates the Kalevala meter selectively.
	1998	Keith Bosley Keith Bosley Keith Bosley is a United Kingdom poet and language expert.Bosley was born in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, grew up in Maidenhead, Berkshire. He was educated at Sir William Borlase's Grammar School in Marlow, Buckinghamshire and the Universities of University of Paris, University of Caen Lower Normandy, and University of Reading , where he...	Uses a syllabic verse form to allow for accuracy and metrical variety.
Hungarian Hungarian language Hungarian is a Uralic languages unrelated to most other languages in Europe. It is mainly spoken in Hungary and by the Hungarian minorities in the seven neighbouring countries....	1871	Ferdinánd Barna	translated from Schiefner's German version
	1909	Béla Vikár
	1971	Kálmán Nagy
	1976	István Rácz
	1987	Imre Szente
Russian Russian language Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe....	1888	Leonid Petrovic Belsky
Estonian Estonian language Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various ?migr? communities....	1891–1898	M. J. Eisen
Czech Czech language Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czech people worldwide....	1894–1895	J. Holecek Josef Holecek (writer) Josef Holecek was a Czechs writer of the realism and ruralism movements who wrote about his native South Bohemian Region, a journalist and translator....	original rhythm; the first complete Slavic translation
Ukrainian Ukrainian language Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic languages of the Slavic languages. It is the official language of Ukraine. In some areas of Russia there are dialects, Balachka or Surzhyk, which are the Ukrainianized versions of the Russian language....	1901	E. Timcenko
Danish Danish language Danish is one of the North Germanic languages , a sub-group of the Germanic languages branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken by around 6 million people, mainly in Denmark; the language is also used by the 50,000 Danes in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany where it holds the status of minority language....	1907	Ferdinand Ohrt	selected parts
	1994	Hilkka and Bent Søndergaard
Italian Italian language Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....	1909	Igino Cocchi
	1910	Paolo Emilio Pavolini
Lithuanian Lithuanian language Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognised as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad....	1922	Adolfas Sabaliauskas
Japanese Japanese language IPA: [n?iho?go] is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is related to the Ryukyuan languages....	1937	Kakutan Morimoto
	1976	Tamotsu Koizumi
Hebrew	1954	Saul Tschernichovsky
Hebrew	1978	Sarah Tubia
Yiddish	1954	Hersh Rosenfeld
Romanian Romanian language Romanian or Daco-Romanian ; self-designation: limba rom?na, ) is a Romance languages spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova....	1959	Iulian Vesper
Chinese Chinese language Chinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of language mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan languages of languages....	1962	Shih Hêng
	1985	Sun Yong
Esperanto Esperanto is the most widely spoken constructed language international auxiliary language in the world. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto, the pseudonym under which L....	1964	Johan Edvard Leppäkoski
Turkish Turkish language Turkish is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other parts of Eastern Europe....	1965	Hilmi Ziya Ülken
	1982	Lale and Muammar Oguz
Norwegian Norwegian language Norwegian is a North Germanic languages language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. It is also spoken as a second language among Norwegian-Americans in the United States of America, especially in the central northern states....	1967	Albert Lange Fliflet	"i attdiktning ved" (nynorsk Nynorsk Nynorsk is one of the two official Norwegian language standard languages, the other being Bokm?l. Just above 10% of the Norwegian population use Nynorsk as their primary written language.... )
Polish Polish language Polish , an official language of Poland, has the largest number of speakers of any West Slavic languages. Polish-speakers use the language in a uniform manner through most of Poland, and it has a regular orthography....	1974	Józef Ozga-Michalski based on the work of Karol Laszecki	Full text translation
	1998	Jerzy Litwiniuk	Full text translation
Fulani	1983	Alpha A. Diallo
Dutch Dutch language Dutch is a West Germanic languages spoken by over 22 million people as a first language, and about 5 million people as a second language."1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language speakers of Dutch is very small. Most native...	1985	Mies le Nobel
Tulu	1985	Amrith Someshwar
Latin Latin Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....	1986	Tuomo Pekkanen
Vietnamese Vietnamese language Vietnamese , formerly known under French colonization as Annamese , is the national language and official language language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of the Vietnamese people , who constitute 86% of Demographics of Vietnam, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese, most of whom live in the United States....	1986	Cao Xuân Nghiêp
	1991	Hoàng Thái Anh
	1994	Búi Viêt Hòa's
Hindi Hindi Standard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a Standard language register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 official languages of India, and is used, along with English language, for administration of the central government....	1990	Vishnu Khare
Arabic	1991	Sahban Ahmad Mroueh
Slovene	1991	Jelka Ovaska Novak	Partial translation
Slovene	1997	Jelka Ovaska Novak	Full text translation
Swahili Swahili language Swahili is the first language of the Swahili people , who inhabit several large stretches of the Indian Ocean coastline from southern Somalia to northern Mozambique, including the Comoros Islands....	1991	Jan Knappert
Bulgarian Bulgarian language Bulgarian is an Indo-European languages, a member of the Slavic languages linguistic group.Bulgarian demonstrates several linguistic innovations that set it apart from all other Slavic languages except Macedonian language, such as the elimination of grammatical case, the development of a suffixed definite article , the lack of a verb infin...	1992	Nino Nikolov
Greek Greek language Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....	1992	Maria Martzouk
Faroese Faroese language Faroese , often also spelled Faeroese , is a West Nordic or West Scandinavian language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 12,000 Faroese people in Denmark....	1993	Jóhannes av Skarði
Tamil Tamil language Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has Official language in India, Sri Lanka and Singapore....	1994	R. Sivalingam (Uthayanan)	Full translation. Introduction by Asko Parpola Asko Parpola Asko Parpola is a professor emeritus of Indology and South Asian Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland. He specializes in the Indus script.... . .
Catalan Catalan language Catalan is a Romance languages, the national language and official language of Andorra, and a official language in the Autonomous Communities of Spain of the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencian Community and in the city of Alghero in the Italy List of islands in the Mediterranean of Sardinia....	1997	Ramon Garriga i Marquès, Pirkko-Merja Lounavaara	Full translation directly from Finnish. In verse.
Portuguese Portuguese language Portuguese is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and Portugal. It is derived from the Latin language spoken by the Romanization Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 years ago....	2007	Orlando Moreira	Full text in verse. (Partial version available online)

The Story

Synopses

Cantos 1–10: The first Väinämöinen cycle: origin of Earth; the first man; Väinämöinen and Joukahainen’s encounter; Joukahainen promises his sister’s hand to Väinämöinen in exchange for his life; Aino

Aino (mythology)

Aino is a figure in the Finland national epic Kalevala. It relates that she was the beautiful sister of Joukahainen. Her brother, having lost a singing contest to the storied V?in?m?inen, promised Aino's "hands and feet" in marriage if V?in?m?inen would save him from drowning in the swamp into which Joukahainen had been thrown....
(Joukahainen’s sister) walks into the sea; Joukahainen’s revenge; the wounded Väinämöinen floats into Pohjola
Pohjola

Pohjola or Pohja is a mythical place in Finnish mythology and is usually translated as Northland in English. It is one of the two main polarities in the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, along with Kaleva or V?in?l?....
(Northland); Väinämöinen encounters the Maid of the North and promises the Mistress of the North the Sampo
Sampo

In Finnish mythology, the Sampo was a Artifact of indeterminate type constructed by Ilmarinen that brought good fortune to its holder. When the Sampo was stolen, it is said that Ilmarinen's homeland fell upon hard times and sent an expedition to retrieve it, but in the ensuing battle it was smashed and lost at sea....
in exchange for her daughter; Väinämöinen tricks the smith Ilmarinen

Ilmarinen

Seppo Ilmarinen, the Eternal Hammerer, blacksmith and inventor in the Kalevala, is an archetype artificer from Finnish mythology. Immortal, he is capable of creating practically anything, but is notoriously unlucky in love....
into Pohjola where he forges the Sampo.

Cantos 11–15: The first Lemminkäinen cycle: Lemminkäinen steals the maid Kyllikki of the Island; they make a vow; she forgets her vow; Lemminkäinen travels to Pohjola to propose to the Maid of the North; deeds Lemminkäinen must accomplish: ski for the Demon’s elk, bridle the Demon’s horse and shoot the Swan of Tuonela
Tuonela

Tuonela is the realm of the dead or the Underworld in Finnish mythology, similar to Hades in Greek mythology. Tuonela, Tuoni, Manala and Mana are often used synonymously....
(the land of the dead); a herdsman kills Lemminkäinen and throws him into the River of Tuonela; Lemminkäinen’s mother awakens him into life.

Cantos 16–18: The second Väinämöinen cycle: Väinämöinen' travels to Tuonela and to meet Antero Vipunen in order to get spells for boat building and sails to Pohjola; Ilmarinen and Väinämöinen compete for the hand of the Maid of the North.

Cantos 19–25: Ilmarinen's wedding: Ilmarinen accomplishes the needed deeds with the help of the Maid: ploughing the viper-field, quelling of the wolves of Tuonela and catching the pike out of the River of Tuonela; the wedding of Ilmarinen and the Maid of the North. The story of the brewing of the ale.

Cantos 26–30: The second Lemminkäinen cycle: Lemminkäinen is resentful for not having been invited to the wedding; he travels to Pohjola and wins the duel with the Master of Northland; an army is conjured to get back at Lemminkäinen; at his mother’s advice he flees to the Island of Refuge; returning home he sees that his house is burned down; he goes to Pohjola with his companion Tiera to get revenge but the Mistress of the North freezes the seas and Lemminkäinen has to return home.

Cantos 31–36: The Kullervo cycle: Untamo kills his brother Kalervo’s people except for the wife who begets Kullervo; Untamo gives Kullervo several tasks but he sabotages them all; Kullervo is sold as a slave to Ilmarinen; after being tormented by Ilmarinen’s wife, he exacts revenge and the wife gets killed; Kullervo runs away and finds his family unharmed near Lapland; Kullervo seduces a maiden and later finds out she is his sister; Kullervo destroys Untamola (the realm of Untamo) and upon returning home finds every one killed; Kullervo kills himself.

Cantos 37–38: The second Ilmarinen cycle: Ilmarinen forges himself a wife out of gold and silver but finds her to be cold and discards her; Ilmarinen then robs the sister of the Maid of the North from Pohjola; she insults him so he discards her; Ilmarinen tells Väinämöinen of the carefree life of Pohjola because of the Sampo.

Cantos 39–44: The plunder of the Sampo (third Väinämöinen cycle): Väinämöinen, Ilmarinen and Lemminkäinen sail to get the Sampo; they kill a great pike out of whose jaw bone the first kantele
Kantele

Kantele is a Finland traditional plucked string instrument. It is related to the Ethnic Russian music gusli, the Latvian kokle, the Lithuanian kankles and the Estonian kannel....
is made; Väinämöinen lulls everyone in the hall of Pohjola to sleep with his singing and the Sampo is stolen; the Mistress of the Northland conjures a great army, turns herself into an eagle and fights for the Sampo; the Sampo falls into the sea.

Cantos 45–49: Louhi's revenge on Kalevala: The Mistress of the North sends the people of Kaleva diseases and a bear to kill their cattle; she hides the sun and the moon and steals fire from Kaleva; Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen restore fire and Väinämöinen forces the Mistress to return the Sun and the Moon to the skies.

Canto 50: The Marjatta cycle: Marjatta gets impregnated from a berry she ate and begets a son, an allusion to Mary and Jesus Christ; Väinämöinen orders the killing of the boy; the boy starts to speak and reproaches Väinämöinen for ill judgement; he is then baptised king of Karelia; Väinämöinen sails away.

Characters

The main character of the Kalevala is Väinämöinen

Väinämöinen

V?in?m?inen is the central character in the Finland folklore and the main character in the national epic Kalevala. Originally a Finnish god, he was described as an old and wise man, and he possessed a potent, magical voice....
, a shamanistic hero with the magical power of songs and music. He is born of the primeval Maiden of the Air

Ilmatar

In Kalevala, the Finnish national epic, Ilmatar was a virgin spirit of the wikt:ilma....
and contributes to the origin of Earth. Many of his travels resemble shamanistic journeys, most notably the one where he visits the belly of a ground-giant, Antero Vipunen

Antero Vipunen

Antero Vipunen is a giant who figures in Finnish mythology and Kalevala folk poetry. He is buried underground and possesses some very valuable ancient incantations....
, to find the words of boat generation. He plays the kantele

Kantele

Kantele is a Finland traditional plucked string instrument. It is related to the Ethnic Russian music gusli, the Latvian kokle, the Lithuanian kankles and the Estonian kannel....
, a Finnish stringed instrument that resembles and is played like a zither

Zither

The zither is a musical string instrument, most commonly found in Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, the southern regions of Germany, alpine Europe and East Asian cultures....
. One of his kanteles is made of the jaw-bone of a giant pike. His search for a wife is a central element in many stories; he never finds one, though. For example one of the brides, Joukahainen's sister Aino, drowns herself instead of marrying him. He is also part of the group who steals the Sampo
Sampo

In Finnish mythology, the Sampo was a Artifact of indeterminate type constructed by Ilmarinen that brought good fortune to its holder. When the Sampo was stolen, it is said that Ilmarinen's homeland fell upon hard times and sent an expedition to retrieve it, but in the ensuing battle it was smashed and lost at sea....
, a magical mill, from the people of Pohjola

Pohjola

Pohjola or Pohja is a mythical place in Finnish mythology and is usually translated as Northland in English. It is one of the two main polarities in the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, along with Kaleva or V?in?l?....
.

Seppo Ilmarinen

Ilmarinen

Weyland

In Germanic mythology, Wayland or V?lundr is a legendary Smith . In Old Norse sources, V?lundr appears in V?lundarkvi?a, a poem in the Poetic Edda, and in ?i?rekssaga, and his legend is also depicted on the Ardre image stone....
and perhaps the Greek Daedalus

Daedalus

In Greek mythology, Daedalus was a most skillful artificer, or craftsman, so skillful that he was said to have invented images that seemed to move about....
) who crafted the sky dome

Finnish mythology

Finnish mythology is the mythology that went with Finnish paganism which was practised by the Finnish people prior to Christianisation. It has many features shared with fellow Finnic Estonian mythology and its non-Finnic neighbours, the Baltic people and the Scandinavians....
, the Sampo and more. Ilmarinen is also one of the group who steal the Sampo.

Louhi

Louhi

Louhi is a queen regnant of the land known as Pohjola in Finnish mythology and the mythology of Sami people. She is described as a powerful witch with the ability to change shape and weave mighty enchantments....
the Hag of the North, is a shamanistic matriarch of a people rivalling those of Kalevala who at one stage pulls the sun and the moon from the sky and steals the fire away from the people of Kalevala. She rules Pohjola alone after Lemminkäinen has killed her husband, Master of Pohjola. She promises her daughter to Ilmarinen in exchange for him building a Sampo.

Väinämöinen's young rival Joukahainen

Joukahainen

Joukahainen is a character in the Kalevala, the Finland epic poem of fifty parts. He is the rival of the main character, V?in?m?inen. After losing a singing contest, he pledges his sister Aino to V?in?m?inen, but she drowns herself rather than marry him....
promises his sister Aino to Väinämöinen when he loses a singing contest. When Joukahainen attempts to gain his revenge on Väinämöinen by killing him with a crossbow, he fails, but his actions lead to Väinämöinen promising to build a Sampo in return for Louhi rescuing him.

Vengeful, self-destructive Kullervo

Kullervo

In the Finland Kalevala, Kullervo was the ill-fated son of Kalervo. He is the only irredeemably tragic character in Finnish mythology....
who is born as a slave, sold to Ilmarinen and given work by Ilmarinen's wife whom he later kills. Kullervo is a misguided and troubled youth often at odds with himself and his situation. He often goes into berserk

Berserker

Berserkers were Norsemen warriors who wore coats of wolf or bear skin and were commonly understood to have fought in an uncontrollable rage or trance of fury, hence the modern word berserk....
rage and in the end commits suicide.

Handsome but arrogant Lemminkäinen

Lemminkäinen

Lemmink?inen or Lemminki is a prominent figure in Finnish mythology. He is one of the Heroes of the Kalevala, where his character is a composition of several separate heroes of oral poetry....
, whose mother must rescue him from the river of Death which runs through Tuonela

Tuonela

Tuonela is the realm of the dead or the Underworld in Finnish mythology, similar to Hades in Greek mythology. Tuonela, Tuoni, Manala and Mana are often used synonymously....
, and bring him to life, echoing the myth of Osiris

Osiris

Osiris was an Egyptian mythology, usually called the god of the Afterlife.Osiris is one of the oldest gods for whom records have been found; one of the oldest known attestations of his name is on the Palermo Stone of around 2500 BC....
. Lemminkäinen is the third member of the group which steals the Sampo from Pohjola.

Some of the chapters describe ancient origin-myths, a long wedding ceremony, and the right words for magical spells of healing and craftsmanship.

The last chapter, Son of Marjatta, is an allegory of Christianization

Christianization

The historical phenomenon of Christianization, the religious conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire peoples at once, also includes the practice of converting native Paganism practices and culture, pagan religious imagery, pagan sites and the pagan calendar to Christian uses, due to the Christian efforts at Ch...
of Finland. Maid Marjatta becomes pregnant after eating a lingonberry (allusion of Maria to marja (Finnish for berry

Berry

In everyday English, a berry is a broad term for any small edible fruit. Most berries are juicy, round or semi-oblong, brightly coloured, sweet or sour, and don't have a stone or pit....
) and gives birth to a son. Since the son has been born out of wedlock, Väinämöinen sentences him to be killed. The infant boy then begins to speak and demands Ukko

Ukko

In Finnish mythology, Ukko is a god of sky, weather, crops and other natural things. He is the most significant god in Finnish mythology. The Finnish language word ukkonen, thunderstorm, is derived from his name....
as his judge. After the infant has witnessed sad details of Väinämöinen's own past and of Väinämöinen's own culpability, Ukko declares the young infant boy as the King of Karelia

Karelia

Karelia , the land of the Karelians, is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for Finland, Russia, and Sweden. It is currently divided between the Russian Republic of Karelia, the Russian Leningrad Oblast, and Finland ....
. In the end Väinämöinen exits the material world, but leaves his kantele

Kantele

Kantele is a Finland traditional plucked string instrument. It is related to the Ethnic Russian music gusli, the Latvian kokle, the Lithuanian kankles and the Estonian kannel....
(symbol for poetry and literary arts) as heirloom for Finns.

List of characters

People and things in the Kalevala
Gods Deity A deity is a postulated preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divinity, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by human beings....	Ukko Ukko In Finnish mythology, Ukko is a god of sky, weather, crops and other natural things. He is the most significant god in Finnish mythology. The Finnish language word ukkonen, thunderstorm, is derived from his name.... (Jumala Jumala or or means "god" in Baltic-Finnic languages and Volga-Finnic languages, both the Christian God and any other deity of any religion. The word is thought to have been the name of a sky god of the ancient Finnic languages-speaking peoples.... ) \| Tapio (Kuippana) Tapio Tapio may refer toTapio , a Finnish male given nameTapio , an Finnish mythology forest spirit or god. He lends his name in the form ofTapiola to one of the major urban centres within the city of Espoo, outside of Helsinki... \| Ahto \| Ilmatar (Luonnotar) Ilmatar In Kalevala, the Finnish national epic, Ilmatar* was a virgin spirit of the wikt:ilma.... \| Tuoni (Mana, Kalma) Tuoni In Finnish mythology, Tuoni was the god of the underworld .... Surma Surma (Finnish mythology) Surma is a character similar to Cerberus in the Finnish mythology of Kalevala. Surma is a terrible beast, embodies sudden, violent death and guards the gates of the Underworld or Tuonela to prevent escape.... \| Kuutar \| Melatar \| Suonetar \| Suvetar \| Syöjätär \| Loviatar Loviatar (mythology) Loviatar is a blind daughter of Tuoni, the god of death in Finnish mythology. She was said to be the worst of them all. She was impregnated by wind and gave birth to nine sons, the Nine diseases.... \| Tammatar \| Terhenetar \| Tuometar \| Manalatar \| Päivätär \| Tuonetar Tuonetar Tuonetar , in Finnish mythology, is the Queen of the Underworld.She is the wife of Tuoni, with whom she rules over the Underworld, Tuonela. Also, when the dead arrive to their kingdom, they are their kind hosts and are delighted to offer their guests a tankard full of frogs and worms.... \| Vammatar Vammatar Vammatar is the Finnish goddess of pain, disease, and/or suffering . She is the daughter of Tuoni and Tuonetar . Her sisters are Kipu-Tytt?, Kivutar and Loviatar .... \| Vellamo Vellamo In Finnish mythology, Vellamo is the goddess of the sea, the wife of Ahti. The name is derived from velloa, "to rock oneself." She is sometimes described as "cold hearted".... \| Untamo (Unto)
Hero Hero A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, the offspring of a mortal and a deity,their Greek hero cult being one of the most distinctive features of Religion in ancient Greece.... es	Väinämöinen (Väinö, Osmoinen, Suvantolainen, Uvantolainen) Väinämöinen V?in?m?inen is the central character in the Finland folklore and the main character in the national epic Kalevala. Originally a Finnish god, he was described as an old and wise man, and he possessed a potent, magical voice.... \| Lemminkäinen (Ahti, Kauko, Kaukomieli) Lemminkäinen Lemmink?inen or Lemminki is a prominent figure in Finnish mythology. He is one of the Heroes of the Kalevala, where his character is a composition of several separate heroes of oral poetry.... \| Ilmarinen (Ilmari) Ilmarinen Seppo Ilmarinen, the Eternal Hammerer, blacksmith and inventor in the Kalevala, is an archetype artificer from Finnish mythology. Immortal, he is capable of creating practically anything, but is notoriously unlucky in love.... \| Osmotar (Kalevatar) \| Kullervo Kullervo In the Finland Kalevala, Kullervo was the ill-fated son of Kalervo. He is the only irredeemably tragic character in Finnish mythology.... \|
Villain Villain A villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a history narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters.... s	Hiisi (Juutas, Keitolainen, Lempo, Pahalainen) Hiisi Hiisi are a kind of tutelary spiritual beings in mythology of the Baltic Sea area, especially in Finland. Most often they are considered to be malicious or at least very horrifying.... \| Louhi (Ilpotar) Louhi Louhi is a queen regnant of the land known as Pohjola in Finnish mythology and the mythology of Sami people. She is described as a powerful witch with the ability to change shape and weave mighty enchantments.... \| Joukahainen (Jouko) Joukahainen Joukahainen is a character in the Kalevala, the Finland epic poem of fifty parts. He is the rival of the main character, V?in?m?inen. After losing a singing contest, he pledges his sister Aino to V?in?m?inen, but she drowns herself rather than marry him.... \| Untamo \|
Others	Aino Aino (mythology) Aino is a figure in the Finland national epic Kalevala. It relates that she was the beautiful sister of Joukahainen. Her brother, having lost a singing contest to the storied V?in?m?inen, promised Aino's "hands and feet" in marriage if V?in?m?inen would save him from drowning in the swamp into which Joukahainen had been thrown.... \| Kyllikki (Kylli) \| Kauppi (Lyylikki, Vuojalainen) \| Mielikki (Mimerkki, Tellervo) Mielikki Mielikki is the Finland goddess of forests and the hunt. She is referred to in various tales as either the wife or the daughter-in-law of Tapio. She is said to have played a central role in the creation of the bear.... \| Nyyrikki Nyyrikki Nyyrikki, the Finland god of the hunt, and son of Tapio. He has been tenously associated with Nimrod .... \| Tiera \| Antero Vipunen Antero Vipunen Antero Vipunen is a giant who figures in Finnish mythology and Kalevala folk poetry. He is buried underground and possesses some very valuable ancient incantations.... \| Ainikki \| Annikki \| Iku-Turso (Tursas) Iku-Turso Iku-Turso is a malevolent sea monster in the Finnish mythology. Meritursas means octopus in Finnish language, named after Iku-Turso. However, it is more common to see the alternative Mustekala for the octopus.... \| Kalervo \| Kiputyttö \| Tiera (Kuura) \| Lokka \| Marjatta \| Märkähattu \| Pakkanen \| Tuuri Tuuri Tuuri is a village in T?ys?, a municipalities of Finland of Finland.Tuuri is located in the provinces of Finland of Western Finland and is part of the Etel?-Pohjanmaa regions of Finland.... \| Sampsa Pellervoinen Sampsa Pellervoinen Sampsa Pellervoinen is a mythological person from Finnish mythology. He is credited in the second poem of the Kalevala as sowing all the forests during the land's creation.... \| Piltti \| Suovakko \|
Places	Kalevala (Väinölä, Suvantola) \| Tuonela (Manala, Ulappala) Tuonela Tuonela is the realm of the dead or the Underworld in Finnish mythology, similar to Hades in Greek mythology. Tuonela, Tuoni, Manala and Mana are often used synonymously.... \| Suomi Finland Finland , officially the Republic of Finland , is a Nordic countries situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.... \| Pohjola (Pimentola, Sariola) Pohjola Pohjola or Pohja is a mythical place in Finnish mythology and is usually translated as Northland in English. It is one of the two main polarities in the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, along with Kaleva or V?in?l?.... \| Tapiola \| Ahtola \| Hiitola \| Horna Horna Horna is a Finland black metal band that formed in 1993. The band has appeared on over thirty releases including split records, demos, EPs and albums since 1995, which have been released through numerous record labels.... \| Ilma ILMA ILMA is an acronym for Independant Lubricant Manufacturer Association. Established in 1948 it is a members only trade organization that represents the interests of lubricant manufacturers.... \| Karjala Karelia Karelia , the land of the Karelians, is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for Finland, Russia, and Sweden. It is currently divided between the Russian Republic of Karelia, the Russian Leningrad Oblast, and Finland .... \| Metsola \| Osmo \| Saari Saaremaa Saaremaa is the largest island belonging to Estonia, measuring 2,673 km?. The main island of Saare County, it is located in the Baltic Sea, south of Hiiumaa island, and belongs to the West Estonian Archipelago .... \| Savo Savonia Savonia may refer to:* Savonia , a historical province of Finland when it was part of the Kingdom of Sweden* Northern Savonia, a present-day region of Finland... \| Untamola (Untola) \| Viro Estonia Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Finland across the Gulf of Finland, to the west by Sweden across the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by the Russia .... \|
Things Object (philosophy) In philosophy, an object is a thing, an entity, or a being. This may be taken in several senses.In its weakest sense, the word object is the most all-purpose of nouns, and can replace a noun in any sentence at all....	Kantele Kantele *Kantele* is a Finland traditional plucked string instrument. It is related to the Ethnic Russian music gusli, the Latvian kokle, the Lithuanian kankles and the Estonian kannel.... \| Musti \| Kemi Kemi Kemi is a cities of Finland and municipalities of Finland of Finland. It is located very near of the city of Tornio. It was founded in 1869 by royal decree, because of its proximity to a deep water harbour.... \| Otava Otava Otava Publishing Company Ltd. is a major Finland publisher of books. It was founded in 1890 and now is the second largest in Finland. It publishes fiction, non-fiction, books for teenagers and children, multimedia and teaching materials.... \| Pisa Pisa Pisa is a city in Tuscany, central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the Arno River on the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa.... \| Turja Turja Turja is a village in Valjala Commune in Saare County in western Estonia.... \| Sampo Sampo In Finnish mythology, the *Sampo* was a Artifact of indeterminate type constructed by Ilmarinen that brought good fortune to its holder. When the Sampo was stolen, it is said that Ilmarinen's homeland fell upon hard times and sent an expedition to retrieve it, but in the ensuing battle it was smashed and lost at sea.... \| Sima Sima (mead) Sima is a sweet mead, still an essential seasonal, sparkling brew connected with the Finland Walpurgis Night festival. It is usually spiced by adding both the flesh and rind of a lemon.... \| Vuoksi \| Otso Otso In Finnish mythology Otso, Ohto, Kontio, mets?n kuningas , and mesik?mmen are some of the many rarely-uttered circumlocutory epithets for the spirit that was never directly named.... \|

Birth of Väinämöinen.
Väinämöinen's Sowing.
Väinämöinen and Joukahainen.
The Fate of Aino.
Väinämöinen's Fishing.
Joukahainen's Crossbow.
Väinämöinen Meets Louhi.
Väinämöinen's Wound.
Origin of Iron.
Ilmarinen Forges the Sampo.
Lemminkäinen and Kyllikki.
Kyllikki's Broken Vow.
The Elk of Hiisi.
Lemminkäinen's trials and death.
Lemminkäinen's Restoration.
Väinämöinen's Boat-building.
Väinämöinen and Antero Vipunen.
Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen, Rival Suitors.
Ilmarinen's trials and betrothal.
The Brewing of Beer.
Ilmarinen's Wedding-feast.
The Tormenting of the Bride.
Osmotar Advises the Bride.
The departure of the bride and bridegroom.
The homecoming of the bride and bridegroom.
Lemminkäinen's journey to Pohjola.
The duel at Pohjola.
Lemminkäinen's mother.
The Isle of Refuge.
Lemminkäinen and Tiera.
Untamo and Kullervo.
Kullervo As A Shepherd.
The Death of Ilmarinen's Wife.
Kullervo finds his family.
Kullervo finds his sister.
Kullervo's Victory and Death.
Ilmarinen's Bride of Gold.
Ilmarinen's Fruitless Wooing.
The Expedition Against Pohjola.
The Pike and The Kantele.
Väinämöinen's Music.
The Recovery of the Sampo.
The Sampo Lost In the Sea.
The Birth of the Second Harp.
Louhi's Pestilence on Kalevala.
Otso, the Bear.
The Robbery of the Sun, Moon and Fire.
Capture of the Fire-fish.
Restoration of the Sun and Moon.
Marjatta.

Influence of the Kalevala

As a major part of Finnish culture and history the influence of the Kalevala is widespread in Finland from music to fine arts. The Kalevala's influence has also been felt in other cultures around the world although to a lesser degree.

Kullervos Curse By Akseli Gallen Kallela

Celebration

The Kalevala Day is celebrated in Finland on the 28th of February, which is how Elias Lönnrot dated his first version of the Kalevala in 1835.

Several of the names in Kalevala are also celebrated as Finnish name day

Name day

A name day is a tradition in many countries in Europe and Latin America of celebrating on a particular day of the year associated with the one's given name....
s, although this has no direct relationship with the Kalevala itself.

Art-work

Several artists have been influenced by the Kalevala, most notably Akseli Gallen-Kallela

Akseli Gallen-Kallela

Akseli Gallen-Kallela was a Finland Painting who is best known for his illustrations of the Kalevala, the Finnish national Epic poetry . His work was considered very important for the Finnish national identity....
who has painted many pieces relating to the Kalevala.

One of the earliest artists to depict a scene from the Kalevala is Robert Wilhelm Ekman

Robert Wilhelm Ekman

Robert Wilhelm Ekman was a significant teacher and painter of the Finnish romantic portraits and early national romanticism....
. One drawing from 1886 depicts Väinämöinen playing his kantele.

Aarno Karimo was a Finnish artist who illustrated the beautiful Kuva Kalevala (Published by Pellervo-Seura in 1953). He unfortunately died before completing it. Hugo Otava finished it using original sketches as a guide.

In 1989 the fourth full translation of Kalevala into English was published, richly illustrated by Björn Landström.

Literature

The Kalevala has not only been translated into over forty-five forms of speech but it has also been retold in many speeches and adapted to different situation.

The most famous example of the Kalevala's influence upon another author is most likely with J.R.R. Tolkien. He claimed the Kalevala as one of his sources for the writings which became the Silmarillion
The Silmarillion

The Silmarillion is a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien's Mythopoeia works, edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, with assistance from Guy Gavriel Kay, who later became a noted fantasy writer....
. For example, the story of Kullervo has been extensively used in the Silmarillion (including the sword that speaks when the anti-hero

Anti-hero

In fiction, an antihero is a protagonist whose character or goals are antithetical to traditional hero. The term dates to 1714, although literary criticism identifies the trope in earlier literature....
uses it for a suicide) as the basis of Túrin Turambar

Túrin Turambar

T?rin Turambar is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Tolkien's legendarium. First introduced in The Silmarillion, he is the primary protagonist and a tragic hero of the novel The Children of H?rin....
in Narn i Chîn Húrin
Narn i Chîn Húrin

A portion of the Narn i Ch?n H?rin or The Tale of the Children of H?rin is a part of the book Unfinished Tales by the English author J. R....
. Echoes of the Kalevala's characters, Väinämöinen in particular, can also be found in the wizards of The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings is an Epic poetry high fantasy novel written by Philology J.R.R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work....
.

The German translation of the epic

Epic poetry

An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation....
was an inspiration for Longfellow

Longfellow

Longfellow may refer to:* Longfellow, Minneapolis, United States** Longfellow , Minneapolis, United States* Longfellow, Oakland, California, United States...
's 1855 poem, The Song of Hiawatha

The Song of Hiawatha

The Song of Hiawatha is an 1855 epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow based on the legends of the Ojibwa. Longfellow credited as his source the work of pioneering ethnographer Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, specifically Schoolcraft's Algic Researches and History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States....
, which is written in the same metre (trochaic tetrameter

Foot (prosody)

In Poetry, many Meter use a foot as the basic unit in their description of the underlying rhythm of a poem. Both the quantitative meter of History of poetry#Classical and early modern Western traditions and the accentual-syllabic verse meter of most poetry in English use the foot as the fundamental building block....
), and also inspired the British science fiction

Science fiction

Ian Watson (author)

Ian Watson is a British science fiction author. He currently lives in Northamptonshire, England.His first novel, The Embedding, won the Prix Apollo in 1975, unusual for being based on ideas from generative grammar; the title refers to the process of center embedding....
to write the Books of Mana duology: Lucky's Harvest and The Fallen Moon.

It is often claimed that the Estonia

Estonia

Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Finland across the Gulf of Finland, to the west by Sweden across the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by the Russia ....
n national epic Kalevipoeg
Kalevipoeg

Kalevipoeg is an Epic poetry by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald held to be the Estonian national epic....
(compiled and written by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald

Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald

Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald was an Estonian writer and physician who is considered to be the father of Estonia's national literature....
, first published 1853) was somewhat inspired by the Kalevala. Mainly because both Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen are mentioned in the poem and that the overall story of the Kalevipoeg (Kalev's son) bears some major similarities with the Kullervo story.

Another famous book is the children's book Koirien Kalevala (The Canine Kalevala) written and illustrated by Mauri Kunnas

Mauri Kunnas

Mauri Tapio Kunnas is a Finland cartoonist and children's author.Kunnas matriculation in 1969 and graduated from the Finnish Academy of Arts as a graphic designer in 1975....
. (Translated into English by Tim Steffa). This book inspired the American (US) cartoonist Keno Don Rosa to draw a Donald Duck

Donald Duck

Donald Duck is a cartoon fictional character from The Walt Disney Company. Donald is a white anthropomorphism duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet....
(both of whom enjoy a widespread popularity in Finland) story based on the Kalevala, called The Quest for Kalevala
The Quest for Kalevala

The Quest for Kalevala is an Uncle Scrooge comic book story written and drawn by Keno Don Rosa in 1999.The Quest for Kalevala is based on the Finland national epic Kalevala, assembled and partly written by Elias L?nnrot in the 19th century....
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The Neustadt Prize winning poet and playwright Paavo Haavikko

Paavo Haavikko

Paavo Haavikko was a Finland poet and playwright, considered one of the country's most outstanding writers. He won the Neustadt Prize for literature in 1984....
who is regarded as one of Finland's finest writers, is also known to have taken a lot of influence from the Kalevala.

Emil Petaja

Emil Petaja

Emil Petaja was an American science fiction and fantasy writer whose career spanned seven decades. He was the author of 13 published novels, nearly 150 short stories, numerous poems, and a handful of books and articles on various subjects....
(1915 - 2000) - an American science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology. Science fiction is found in books, art, television, films, games, theatre, and other media....
and fantasy author of Finnish descent - is best known for his series inspired by the Kalevala. In each of the books which comprise the "Otava Series" - Saga of Lost Earth's (Ace Books, 1966), Star Mill (Ace Books, 1966), The Stolen Sun (Ace Books, 1967), and Tramontane (Ace Books, 1967), an Earth descendant of one of the four main heroes of the Kalevala is reborn into an avatar's role in order to re-enact adventures on Otava, the planet of origin of the Kalevala pantheon. Petaja's Otava series brought him readers from around the world, while his mythological approach to science fiction was discussed in scholarly papers. A fifth book in the cycle, Return to Otava (1970), is unpublished. Another Petaja novel unconnected with the series but related to the Kalevala is The Time Twister (Dell, 1968).

Kullervo

Kullervo

In the Finland Kalevala, Kullervo was the ill-fated son of Kalervo. He is the only irredeemably tragic character in Finnish mythology....
is one the major influences on British fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of Plot , Theme , and/or Setting . Fantasy is generally distinguished from science fiction and horror by the expectation that it steers clear of technological and macabre themes, respectively, though there is a great deal of overlap between the three ....
author Michael Moorcock

Michael Moorcock

Michael John Moorcock is an English writer primarily of science fiction and fantasy fiction who has also published a number of literary novels....
's sword and sorcery

Sword and sorcery

Sword and sorcery is a Fantasy subgenres generally characterized by swashbuckling heroes engaged in exciting and violent conflicts. An element of Romance is often present, as is an element of Magic and the supernatural....
anti-hero

Anti-hero

Elric of Melniboné

Elric of Melnibon?, pronounced , is a fictional character created by Michael Moorcock, and the antihero of a series of high fantasy series of books centering in the world of Melnibon?....
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Parts of the Kalevala are recited by Colonel Vereshchagin in Robert Frezza's A Small Colonial War and by Michael Havel in S.M. Stirling's Dies the Fire

Dies the Fire

Dies the Fire is an alternate history, Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction novel by S. M. Stirling and the first installment of the Emberverse series....
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Music

Music is probably the area which has the richest influence from the Kalevala, which is fitting because of the nature that the original folk singers would perform the poems. Because of the folk music history of the Kalevala there have been a few folk music

Folk music

Folk music can have a number of different meanings, including:* Traditional music: The original meaning of the term "folk music" was synonymous with the term "Traditional music", also often including World Music and Roots music; the term "Traditional music" was given its more specific meaning to distinguish it from the other definition...
records and anthologies based upon or claiming inspiration from the Kalevala.

The most famous music inspired by the Kalevala is probably that of the classical composer Jean Sibelius

Jean Sibelius

Johan Julius Christian Sibelius was a Finland composer of the later Romantic music whose music played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity....
. Twelve of Sibelius' best known works are based upon and influenced by the Kalevala, including his Kullervo
Kullervo

In the Finland Kalevala, Kullervo was the ill-fated son of Kalervo. He is the only irredeemably tragic character in Finnish mythology....
, a symphony for soprano, baritone, chorus and orchestra that he composed in 1892. There are also three contemporary operas based on the Kalevala (Sammon ryöstö, Marjatta and Thomas) composed by Einojuhani Rautavaara

Einojuhani Rautavaara

Einojuhani Rautavaara is a Finland composer of contemporary classical music, and is one of the most notable Finnish composers after Jean Sibelius....
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Classical music is however not the only area of influence. There was a Finnish progressive rock

Progressive rock

Progressive rock is a form of rock music that evolved in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." The term "art rock" is often used interchangeably with "progressive rock", but while there are crossovers between the two genres, they are not identical....
band called Kalevala in the seventies. They made three albums, which are not currently available as CDs, however an anthology set was published in 2004.

The Finnish metal band Amorphis
Amorphis

Amorphis is a Finland heavy metal music band started by Jan Rechberger, Tomi Koivusaari, and Esa Holopainen in 1990. Initially, the band was a straightforward death metal act, but on later albums they evolved into playing other types of genres....
have based several concept albums on the Kalevala using the original translation as lyrics. The band are well known for their use of the Kalevala as a source for their lyrics. Their albums specifically inspired by the Kalevala are Tales from the Thousand Lakes
Tales from the Thousand Lakes

Tales from the Thousand Lakes is the second full-length album by heavy metal music band Amorphis. A monumental concept album, the lyrics are based on the Finland national epic, Kalevala....
, Elegy
Elegy

An elegy is a mournful, melancholic or plaintive Poetry#Elegy, especially a funeral song or a lament for the dead....
, Eclipse
Eclipse (Amorphis album)

Eclipse is the seventh album by Amorphis. With the re-introduction of death vocals and a heavier sound, it marks a return to form for the band, owing more to Tales from the Thousand Lakes and Elegy than their last three releases....
and Silent Waters
Silent Waters (album)

Silent Waters is the eighth album by Amorphis. The album is based on an episode from Finland's national epic, the "Kalevala". As of February 2008, it has been certified gold in Finland for more than 15,000 copies sold....
. Also, Finnish Folk metal

Folk metal

Folk metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. As the name suggests, the genre is a fusion of heavy metal with folk music....
band Ensiferum
Ensiferum

Ensiferum are a heavy metal music band from Helsinki, Finland. The band label themselves as "heroic folk metal." Since their formation, Ensiferum have released three full-length albums, one EP, one compilation, two singles, and three demo albums....
have based several songs such as "Old Man" and "Little Dreamer" on the Kalevala as well. On Ensiferum's 2006 EP, Dragonheads

Dragonheads

Dragonheads is an Extended Play by the Finland Viking metal / folk metal Ensiferum. It was released on February 15, 2006 by Spinefarm Records....
, the third track, entitled "Kalevala Melody" is an instrumental version of "Vaka vanha Väinämöinen". The Finnish folk metal band Turisas

Turisas

Turisas are a Finland viking metal band from H?meenlinna. They were founded in 1997 by Mathias Nyg?rd and Jussi Wickstr?m and named after an Iku-Turso....
used a section of runo 9 "The Origin of Iron" nearly verbatim for the lyrics of their song "Cursed Be Iron" (on The Varangian Way
The Varangian Way

The Varangian Way is the second full-length album from Finnish folk metal band, Turisas and was released in Europe in June 2007. A Special "Directors Cut" edition was released with the Rasputin single....
). Also, Finnish female-fronted metal band Amberian Dawn

Amberian Dawn

Amberian Dawn is a Finnish Symphonic metal#Symphonic power metal....
used Kalevala in their album "River Of Tuoni".

In 2003, the Finnish progressive rock

Progressive rock

Musea

Musea is a France record label dedicated to progressive rock. It was founded in 1985 in music....
convinced 30 progressive rock groups from all over the world to compose musical pieces based on assigned parts of the Kalevala. The result was a three-disc, multilingual, four hour epic of the same name, and can be regarded as one of the most ambitious musical projects ever. See: Kalevala (project)

Kalevala (project)

Kalevala is a 3 CD progressive rock epic based upon the Kalevala of the same name. It tells the story in 30 parts, each part played by a different band....

Film

In 1959 a joint Finnish/Soviet production entitled Sampo
Sampo (film)

Sampo is a joint Finland and Soviet Union production based loosely on the events depicted in the Finnish national epic Kalevala. A significantly edited version called The Day the Earth Froze was released internationally....
(aka The Day the Earth Froze) was released, inspired by the story of the Sampo from the Kalevala.

The martial arts film Jadesoturi (aka Jade Warrior), released in Finland on October 13, 2006, is based upon the Kalevala and set in Finland and China.

Historic interpretations of Kalevala

Several interpretations for the themes in Kalevala have been put forward. Some parts of the epic have been perceived as ancient conflicts between Finnic

Finnic

Finnic can refer to:* Finnic languages* Finnic peoples Adding long comment tag to protect...
s and Samis

Sami people

The S?mi people, are the indigenous people Indigenous peoples of Europe inhabiting S?pmi , which today encompasses parts of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia....
. In this context, the country of Kalevala could be understood as Southern Finland and Pohjola
Pohjola

Pohjola or Pohja is a mythical place in Finnish mythology and is usually translated as Northland in English. It is one of the two main polarities in the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, along with Kaleva or V?in?l?....
as Lapland. However, the place names in Kalevala seem to transfer the Kalevala further south, which has been interpreted as reflecting the Finnic settlement expansion from the South that came to push the Samis further to the north. Some scholars locate the lands of Kalevala to East Karelia

East Karelia

East Karelia, in Finnish language It?-Karjala, also Eastern Karelia or Russian Karelia, is a name for the part of Karelia that since the Treaty of Stolbova in 1617 has remained Christian Orthodox under Russian supremacy....
, where most of the Kalevala stories were written down. In 1961 a small town of Uhtua in the Soviet

Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
Republic of Karelia

Republic of Karelia

The Republic of Karelia is a federal subjects of Russia of Russia ....
was renamed "Kalevala," perhaps to promote that theory.

Proponents of a Southern Kalevala argue that the name Kaleva probably was first recorded in an atlas of al Idrisi in the year 1154, where a town of qlwny (or tlwny) is recorded. This is probably present-day Tallinn

Tallinn

Tallinn is the capital and largest city in the Republic of Estonia and of Harju County. It occupies a surface of 159.2 km? in which 397,617 inhabitants live....
, the capital of Estonia

Estonia

Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Finland across the Gulf of Finland, to the west by Sweden across the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by the Russia ....
, known in old East Slavic sources as Kolyvan. The Finnish word Kalevan ("of Kaleva") has almost the same meaning as Kalevala. The Saari (literally "the Island") might be the island of Saaremaa

Saaremaa

Saaremaa is the largest island belonging to Estonia, measuring 2,673 km?. The main island of Saare County, it is located in the Baltic Sea, south of Hiiumaa island, and belongs to the West Estonian Archipelago ....
in Estonia, while the people of Väinölä might have some resemblance with the Livonian

Livonian people

The Livonians or Livs are the indigenous minority inhabitants of Livonia, a large part of what is today the northwestern Latvia and southwestern Estonia....
tribe of Veinalensis in present-day Latvia

Latvia

Latvia The Latvians are a Baltic peoples culturally related to the Estonians and Lithuanians, with the Latvian language having many similarities with Lithuanian language, but not with the Estonian language....
, mentioned in the 13th century chronicle connected to Henry of Livonia. Ancient Finns, Estonians

Estonians

Estonians are a Finnic people closely related to the Finns and inhabiting, primarily, the country of Estonia. The Estonians speak a Finno-Ugric languages language, known as Estonian....
and Livonians spoke similar Finnic

Finnic

Finnic can refer to:* Finnic languages* Finnic peoples Adding long comment tag to protect...
dialects and are thought to share common ancestry.

However, Matti Kuusi and Pertti Anttonen state in their book "Kalevala Lipas" (Finnish Literary Society, 1985) that such terms as "the people of Kalevala" or "the tribe of Kalevala" are made up out of whole cloth by Elias Lönnrot. Moreover, they contend that the word "Kalevala" is very rare in traditional poetry and that by emphasizing dualism (Kalevala vs. Pohjola) Elias Lönnrot created the required tension that made the Kalevala dramatically successful and thus fit for a national epic.

Kalevala

Compilation

The poetry

Lönnrot’s contribution to Kalevala

Publishing

Translations

The Story

Synopses

Characters

List of characters

Contents

Influence of the Kalevala

Celebration

Art-work

Literature

Music

Film

Historic interpretations of Kalevala

See also

Sample

Articles and Papers

Books

Translations

Retellings

Analysis

Movies

External links

Online versions of the Kalevala

Online versions of the Kalevala in other languages