Contents
- Birth of Väinämöinen.
- Väinämöinen's Sowing.
- Väinämöinen and Joukahainen.
- The Fate of Aino.
- Väinämöinen's Lamentation.
- Väinämöinen's Hapless Journey.
- Väinämöinen's Rescue.
- Maiden of the Rainbow.
- Origin of Iron.
- Ilmarinen Forges the Sampo.
- Lemminkäinen's Lament.
- Kyllikki's Broken Vow.
- Lemminkäinen's Second Wooing.
- Death of Lemminkäinen.
- Lemminkäinen's Restoration.
- Väinämöinen's Boat-building.
- Väinämöinen Finds the Lost-word.
- The Rival Suitors.
- Ilmarinen's Wooing.
- The Brewing of Beer.
- Ilmarinen's Wedding-feast.
- The Bride's Farewell.
- Osmotar the Bride-adviser
- The Bride's Farewell.
- Väinämöinen's Wedding-songs.
- Origin of the Serpent.
- The Unwelcome Guest.
- The Mother's Counsel
- The Isle of Refuge.
- The Frost-fiend.
- Kullervoinen Son of Evil.
- Kullervo As A Sheperd.
- Kullervo and the Cheat-cake.
- Kullervo Finds His Tribe-folk.
- Kullervo's Evil Deeds.
- Kullervoinen's Victory and Death.
- Ilmarinen's Bride of Gold.
- Ilmarinen's Fruitless Wooing.
- Väinämöinen's Sailing.
- Birth of the Kantele.
- Väinämöinen's Kantele-songs.
- Capture of the Sampo.
- The Sampo Lost In the Sea.
- Birth of the Second Harp.
- Birth of the Nine Diseases
- Otso the Honey-eater, telling of a bear hunt.
- Louhi Steals Sun, Moon, and Fire.
- Capture of the Fire-fish.
- Restoration of the Sun and Moon.
- Marjatta; Väinämöinen's Departure.
Influence of the Kalevala
The Kalevala Day is celebrated in Finland on the 28th of February, which is how Lönnrot dated his first version of Kalevala in 1835.
The effect of the Kalevala upon later art in Finland has been tremendous, inspiring composer Jean Sibelius, modern poet Paavo Haavikko, painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela, and many others.
Besides the local Estonian legends, Kalevala was a major source of inspiration for, and shares several analogous characters with, the Estonian national epic Kalevipoeg (compiled and written by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, first version completed 1853).
There are several English translations of the Kalevala. The older translations e.g. by John Martin Crawford (1888) and W.F. Kirby (1907), as well as the Eino Friberg translation (1988), follow the original rhythm (Kalevala meter) of the poems (may sound cumbersome to English ears). Poet Keith Bosley has written another version (1989) in a more fluid linguistic style.
Finnish rock band Amorphis based several concept albums on the Kalevala using the original translation as lyrics.
J.R.R. Tolkien claimed the Kalevala as one of his sources for the writings which became the Silmarillion. For example the story of Kullervo has been extensively used in Silmarillion (including the sword that speaks when the anti-hero uses it for a suicide) as basis of Turin Turambar in Narn i Chîn Húrin. Echoes of Kalevalan characters, Väinämöinen in particular, can also be found in the wizards of The Lord of the Rings. The epic was an inspiration for Longfellow's 1855 poem, The Song of Hiawatha, which is written in the same metre (trochaic tetrameter), and also inspired the British science fiction writer Ian Watson to write the Books of Mana duology: Lucky's Harvest and The Fallen Moon.
The Finnish cartoonist Mauri Kunnas drew a children's cartoon version of the Kalevala, called Koirien Kalevala (The Canine Kalevala). This, in turn, inspired the American cartoonist Keno Don Rosa (who enjoys widespread popularity in Finland) to draw a Donald Duck story based on Kalevala, called The Quest for Kalevala.
In 2003, the Finnish Progressive Rock ("Prog") quarterly Colossus and Musea Records convinced 30 prog 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 is doubtless one of the most ambitious musical projects ever.
Historic interpretations of Kalevala
Several interpretations for the themes in Kalevala has been put forward. Some parts of the epic have been perceived as ancient conflicts between Finnics and Samis. In this context, the country of Kalevala could be understood as Southern Finland and Pohjola as Lapland. However, the place names in Kalevala seem to transfer the Kalevala further south, which has been interpreted as support for theories of a Finnic migration from the South that came to push the Samis further to the north. Some scholars locate the lands of Kalevala to East Karelia, where most of the Kalevala stories were written down. In 1961 a small town of Uhtua in the Soviet Republic of Karelia, was renamed to "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 of year 1154, where a town of qlwny (or tlwny) is recorded. This is probably present day Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, 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 in Estonia, while the people of Väinölä might have some resemblance with the Livonian tribe of Veinalensis in present-day Latvia, mentioned in the 13th century chronicle connected to Henry of Livonia. Ancient Finns, Estonians and Livonians spoke similar Finnic dialects and are thought to share common ancestry.
See also
Sample
- Download recording - "Vaka vanha Väinämöinen" Finnish poetry from the Kalevala from the Library of Congress' California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties Collection; performed by John Soininen on November 5, 1939 in Berkeley, California
External links
Online versions of the Kalevala
Articles and Papers
Books
- The Kalevala by Keith Bosley (Introduction) and translations by Albert B. Lord, A contemporary English translation: ISBN 019283570X
- The Kalevala: Epic of the Finnish People, translations by Eino Friberg, Björn Landström, George C. Schoolfield, ISBN 9511101374
- The Kalevala: The Epic Poem of Finland translations by John Martin Crawford, ISBN 0766189384
- The Kalevala Graphic Novel, a complete comic book version of the 50 chapters of the Kalevala by Finnish artist Kristian Huitula, ISBN 952-99022-1-2 ( Translation by Eino Friberg )
Movies
