Name: Kalevala
ISBN: 9781473549111

Elias Lonnrot

Kalevala is the poetic name for Finland: ‘the land of heroes’. Here you’ll find the cultural essence of a young country but an old land, the stories, songs and poems that recount the mythical adventures of humankind. Ambition, lust, romance, birth and death can all be found within its pages, as well as the sampo, a mysterious talisman that brings great happiness to its possessor and over which great battles will be fought. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY HORATIO CLARE

Kalevala

Elias Lönnrot

The Kalevala is the great Finnish epic which, like the Iliad and Odyssey, grew out of a rich oral tradition with prehistoric roots. During the first millennium of our era, speakers of Uralic languages (outside the Indo-European group) who had settled in the Baltic region developed an oral poetry that was to last into the nineteenth century. This poetry provided the basis of the Kalevala, assembled by the Finnish scholar Elias Lonnrot and published in its final form in 1849. It played a central role in the process towards Finnish independence and inspired some of the greatest music of Sibelius.

An Epic Poem After Oral Tradition

The Kalevala

Bryan Alexander

Notes on reading the Kalevala:

I don't want to offer a scholarly analysis here. Instead I want to offer my impressions on first reading this work, and assume you all can fire up Google for more information. (This edition's introduction is excellent, and I recommend it)

I read the Kalevala because I was visiting Finland for the first time and wanted to dive into that nation's culture. I ended up staying in a Kalevala-themed hotel, which was fun.

It's an unusual work to read, mostly for formal reasons. For starters, the book is a series of 50 poems. Stories or cycles stretch across several or many of them, like the tragic tale of Kullervo (poems 31-36). Knowing the contours of those stories helps the reader make sense of each poem. 

At a smaller level, the poems have the frequent habit of having a line repeat the previous line with a twist: "the maids are sporting/the beauties are capering" (125), "he built a fence with no gap/knocked up with without a gate" (440). You have to be ready for this, withholding your expectation that the next line you read will advance things. And as with other, older epics, the Kalevala likes to repeat tag lines, such as "steady old Väinämöinen" and "wanton Lemminkäinen".

Tonally the Kalevala resembles ancient epics and mythic texts, combining heroic acts with tall tales and a touch of the supernatural. The supernatural appears through the power of song and poetry, which lets bards alter reality with well-performed verse. There aren't many gods, beyond the frequent evocation of some major, unnamed deity ("Old Man"). A scary witch is able to carry an army on her back when she shape shifts into bird form (depicted on this edition's glorious cover). A mother resurrects her son, a bit like the story of Osiris. And nobody's quite sure what the Sampo is, beyond a fine macguffin.

So what's the book about? There isn't a single plot, other than Väinämöinen's career, which frames the epic and constitutes some of the better parts. Instead the Kalevala works like a linked short story collection, each story capable of standing on its own, while making some links to other tales. There's an origin story, a hilarious magic contest, the epic Sampo raid, several marriage/kidnapping plots, and ultimately a version of Findland's Christianization. 

It's a strange treat, at least for this reader who's new to Finland. Characters are engaging, like the manic Lemminkäinen, tragic Aino and Kullervo, and grumpy old man/Merlin Väinämöinen. The stories move in unexpected directions. Some scenes have the force of fairy tales. As a materialist I found much to dig into, such as the way poems reflect the conditions of living in a very cold climate (lots of hunting, little agriculture, many scenes with skiing and sledges).

The Finnish language belongs to a non-Indo-European group of languages whose origins have been traced to a region just west of the Urals. During the first milennium of our era, Uralic-speakers in the Baltic region developed the oral poetry which is the basis of the Kalevala, the epic poem of Finland which was assembled only 150 years ago as a portrait of an ancient people in war and peace. This poem, which has often been compared with the epics of Homer, played a central role in the process towards Finnish independence and inspired the classical composer Sibelius.

cygnoir

The first English translation of the national folk epic of Finland which relates Icelandic family sagas and reflects an ancient Finnish peasant life

Kalevala

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