
The Kalevala is an Epic poetry which Elias Lönnrot in the 19th century said that he had compiled from Finland folk sources. It is commonly called the Finnish epic and is one of the most significant works of Finnish language literature. The Kalevala is credited with inspiring the nationalism that ultimately led to Finnish independence from Russia in 1917. The name means "land of Kaleva". The text of the Kalevala consists of 22,795 verses, divided into 50 poems or chapters (finnish ''runot'', singular ''runo'', from Germanic ''rune''). == Writing the Kalevala == Lönnrot was a physician by profession but his passion for the traditional oral stories of his native Finland led him to travel extensively to acquire new material. He collected most of the poems from the region of Karelia. He believed that the small poems he collected were fragments of a once-continuous epic. He published the first Kalevala, the "old" Kalevala, in two volumes in 1835-1836. The old Kalevala consisted of thirty-two poems first collected by Lönnrot from about 1829, which he then edited and expanded with connecting material to make a continuous story. Lönnrot continued to collect new material, which he integrated into a second edition of the Kalevala, published in 1849. This "new" Kalevala contained fifty poems, and is the standard text of the Kalevala read today. == Characters == The main character of the Kalevala is Väinämöinen, a shamanistic hero with the magical power of songs. He is born of the primal Maiden of the Air and contributes to the creation of the world. Many of his travels resemble shamanistic journeys, especially the one where he visits the belly of a ground-giant, Antero Vipunen, to find the words of boat generation. He plays the kantele, a Finnish string instrument that is played like a zither. One of his kanteles is made of the jawbone 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, a magical mill, from the people of the north. Other characters, some of whom have their own chapters, are Seppo Ilmarinen, a heroic artificer-smith (comparable to the Germanic Weyland) who crafted the sky dome, the Sampo and more; Louhi the Hag of the North, a shamanistic matriarch of a people rivaling those of Kalevala who at one stage pulls the sun and the moon from the sky; Väinämöinen's young rival, Joukahainen, who promises his sister Aino to him when he loses a singing contest; vengeful, self-destructive Kullervo who is born as a slave, goes into Berserker rage and commits suicide; and handsome but arrogant Lemminkäinen, whose mother has to rescue his corpse from the river of Death which runs through Tuonela, and bring him to life, echoing the myth of Osiris. Some of the chapters describe ancient creation myths, a long wedding ceremony, and the right words for magical spells of healing and craftsmanship. ==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. # Mariatta (Mary, the mother of Jesus) — Väinämöinen's Departure. == Influence of the Kalevala == 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. There are several English translations of the Kalevala. The older translation follows the original rhythm of the poems that may sound cumbersome to English ears. Poet Keith Bosley has written another version 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 The_Silmarillion. 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, 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 to draw a Donald Duck story about Kalevala, called ''The Quest for Kalevala''. ==The quest for Kalevala== Some parts of the epic probably capture ancient conflicts between Finnics and Sami people. In that context, the country of ''Kalevala'' is usually understood as Southern Finland and ''Pohjola'' as Lapland. However, the place names in Kalevala seem to transfer the ''Kalevala'' further south, which have been interpreted as support for theories of a Finnic migration from the South that came to push the Samis further to the north, while some scholars locate the country of Kalevala to East Karelia, where most of the Kalevala stories were written down. In 1961 a small town of ''Uhtua'' in East 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 named ''Koluvan'' is mentioned. This is probably present day Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, known in old Russian 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 ''Väinöla'' has strong resemblance with the Livonian tribe of ''Veinalensis'' in present-day Latvia, that is mentioned in the 13th century chronicle connected to Henry of Livonia. The ancient Finns, Estonians and Livonians spoke similar Finnic dialects and share common ancestry. == See also == * Finnish mythology * Pohjola == Sample == *Media:Vaka vanha Vainamoinen.ogg - "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 === * [http://runeberg.org/kalevala/ A free online edition in Finnish] * [http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/kveng/ English translation by John Martin Crawford] *[http://www.arth.net/8Anthologies/DossierKalevala/KalevalaSummary.html-ssi The Kalevala's Contents] === Articles and Papers === * [http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/folklore/library/kalevala.html A scholarly study on the Kalevala] * [http://virtual.finland.fi/netcomm/news/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=27015 Kalevala at Virtual Finland] * [http://www.folklorefellows.fi/netw/ffn16/basics.html 16th edition of the Folklore Fellows Network has few articles about the Kalevala] * [http://www.juminkeko.fi/en/ Juminkeko, information centre for Kalevala and Karelian culture] *[http://www.karuse.info/metre.htm The Kalevala metre] *[http://dbgw.finlit.fi/fili/bff/299/inha.htm# Songlands of the Kalevala] == Books == * The Kalevala by Keith Bosley (Introduction) and translations by Albert B. Lord, A contemporary English language translation: ISBN 019283570X * The Kalevala: Epic of the Finnish People, translations by Eino Friberg, Bjorn Landstrom, George C. Schoolfield, ISBN 9511101374 * The Kalevala: The Epic Poem of Finland translations by John Martin Crawford, ISBN 0766189384 Epics Nordic folklore Finnish mythology os:Калевалæ
"Calling it ancient is deceiving; the Kalevala is based on Finnish :oral history, but it was composed in the 19th century as :nationalism swept Europe, leading to the creation of :folklore and other cultural artifacts. As opposed to, for example, :Beowulf, for which written versions have existed for many centuries." Right. But theoretically it could still be ancient. Presumably we want to say something like: "First composed in its modern form in [year] by [whoever it was]. Any earlier provenance must remain speculative." :Yes, I have tried to correct the POV that it is with certainty genuine traditions. Unfortunately the time of its composition makes the whole epic spurious. It is more than likely that parts or large parts of it were composed by Lönnroth himself.--User:Wiglaf 15:46, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)
The name means "land of heroes". Really? In which language?
I made a few minor corrections to spelling and grammar. ---Varenius ---- ''He never finds a wife (one of the women, Aino, drowns herself instead) ...'' I can't see the connection between the phrase "He never finds a wife" and "one of the women, Aino, drowns herself instead". Why is the second sentence in brackets? "instead" of what? Can somebody clarify please? User:82.92.195.38 22:49, 28 Jan 2005 (UTC) == Lönnrot just ''said'' he compiled the Kalevala? == Wiglaf, care to explain why you think Lönnrot only said that he compiled and edited the Kalevala? Is there a theory that he made up the whole thing? Because that is the way I read your version. My version: ''...compiled and edited by Elias Lönnrot in the 19th century from Finland folk sources.'' Wiglafs version: ''...which Elias Lönnrot in the 19th century said that he had compiled from Finland folk sources.'' The section titled "Writing the Kalevala" should also be changed to reflect this, don't you think? -- User:Jniemenmaa 11:51, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC) :Perhaps I am being rash, but the date of its composition is a bit spurious. How much do we know about the authenticity of the texts? In fact, even Snorri Sturluson took some liberties with the original text in Ynglinga saga, and there are sometimes striking differences between Ynglinga saga and the source text (which is luckily preserved in two versions, as Ynglingatal and Historia Norwegiae). After working with mythological matters for some time, I have grown quite sceptical about the compilation and the editing of folk traditions. In my experience, the same traditions come in very different and conflicting versions, and when they are presented as "consistent", I have my doubts.--User:Wiglaf 11:58, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC) :PS, I am not saying that Lönnroth is a fraud, and I have no doubt about the prior existence of many of these traditions. I am only saying that all we have is Lönnroth's word on the authenticity of Kalevala as a whole.--User:Wiglaf 12:02, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC) ::exactly. People took enormous liberties in those days, to make their sources more conforming with what they believed the "original" version would have looked like. Did Lönnroth take more or fewer liberties than the Grimm brothers? We can't be sure. He collected the tales, no doubt, but instead of presenting them separately, attributing them to individuals, he "reconstructed" an "original" mythological cycle. User:Dbachmann User_talk:Dbachmann 12:25, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC) ::I don't want to start a debate on a trivial matter like this. What we know is that Lönnrot and others collected poems from Viena Karelia (no one doubts this I hope?). Then he used these to compile the Kalevala. Some parts are authentic, some were invented by Lönnrot (how much? I have no clue). Some of the themes that are also found in classical literature were intentionally added to the Kalevala by Lönnrot by combining totally unrelated songs. ::I still think that Wiglaf's version is bad since it implies that Lönnrot is lying. Maybe we could formulate it some other way? -- User:Jniemenmaa 12:31, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)
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Words begining with Kalevala:
Kalevala
Kalevala
Kalevala_Township,_Minnesota
Kalevala_Township,_MN
Kalevala
The Kalevala is an Epic poetry which Elias Lönnrot in the 19th century said that he had compiled from Finland folk sources. It is commonly called the Finnish epic and is one of the most significant works of Finnish language literature. The Kalevala is credited with inspiring the nationalism that ultimately led to Finnish independence from Russia in 1917. The name means "land of Kaleva". The text of the Kalevala consists of 22,795 verses, divided into 50 poems or chapters (finnish ''runot'', singular ''runo'', from Germanic ''rune''). == Writing the Kalevala == Lönnrot was a physician by profession but his passion for the traditional oral stories of his native Finland led him to travel extensively to acquire new material. He collected most of the poems from the region of Karelia. He believed that the small poems he collected were fragments of a once-continuous epic. He published the first Kalevala, the "old" Kalevala, in two volumes in 1835-1836. The old Kalevala consisted of thirty-two poems first collected by Lönnrot from about 1829, which he then edited and expanded with connecting material to make a continuous story. Lönnrot continued to collect new material, which he integrated into a second edition of the Kalevala, published in 1849. This "new" Kalevala contained fifty poems, and is the standard text of the Kalevala read today. == Characters == The main character of the Kalevala is Väinämöinen, a shamanistic hero with the magical power of songs. He is born of the primal Maiden of the Air and contributes to the creation of the world. Many of his travels resemble shamanistic journeys, especially the one where he visits the belly of a ground-giant, Antero Vipunen, to find the words of boat generation. He plays the kantele, a Finnish string instrument that is played like a zither. One of his kanteles is made of the jawbone 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, a magical mill, from the people of the north. Other characters, some of whom have their own chapters, are Seppo Ilmarinen, a heroic artificer-smith (comparable to the Germanic Weyland) who crafted the sky dome, the Sampo and more; Louhi the Hag of the North, a shamanistic matriarch of a people rivaling those of Kalevala who at one stage pulls the sun and the moon from the sky; Väinämöinen's young rival, Joukahainen, who promises his sister Aino to him when he loses a singing contest; vengeful, self-destructive Kullervo who is born as a slave, goes into Berserker rage and commits suicide; and handsome but arrogant Lemminkäinen, whose mother has to rescue his corpse from the river of Death which runs through Tuonela, and bring him to life, echoing the myth of Osiris. Some of the chapters describe ancient creation myths, a long wedding ceremony, and the right words for magical spells of healing and craftsmanship. ==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. # Mariatta (Mary, the mother of Jesus) — Väinämöinen's Departure. == Influence of the Kalevala == 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. There are several English translations of the Kalevala. The older translation follows the original rhythm of the poems that may sound cumbersome to English ears. Poet Keith Bosley has written another version 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 The_Silmarillion. 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, 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 to draw a Donald Duck story about Kalevala, called ''The Quest for Kalevala''. ==The quest for Kalevala== Some parts of the epic probably capture ancient conflicts between Finnics and Sami people. In that context, the country of ''Kalevala'' is usually understood as Southern Finland and ''Pohjola'' as Lapland. However, the place names in Kalevala seem to transfer the ''Kalevala'' further south, which have been interpreted as support for theories of a Finnic migration from the South that came to push the Samis further to the north, while some scholars locate the country of Kalevala to East Karelia, where most of the Kalevala stories were written down. In 1961 a small town of ''Uhtua'' in East 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 named ''Koluvan'' is mentioned. This is probably present day Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, known in old Russian 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 ''Väinöla'' has strong resemblance with the Livonian tribe of ''Veinalensis'' in present-day Latvia, that is mentioned in the 13th century chronicle connected to Henry of Livonia. The ancient Finns, Estonians and Livonians spoke similar Finnic dialects and share common ancestry. == See also == * Finnish mythology * Pohjola == Sample == *Media:Vaka vanha Vainamoinen.ogg - "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 === * [http://runeberg.org/kalevala/ A free online edition in Finnish] * [http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/kveng/ English translation by John Martin Crawford] *[http://www.arth.net/8Anthologies/DossierKalevala/KalevalaSummary.html-ssi The Kalevala's Contents] === Articles and Papers === * [http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/folklore/library/kalevala.html A scholarly study on the Kalevala] * [http://virtual.finland.fi/netcomm/news/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=27015 Kalevala at Virtual Finland] * [http://www.folklorefellows.fi/netw/ffn16/basics.html 16th edition of the Folklore Fellows Network has few articles about the Kalevala] * [http://www.juminkeko.fi/en/ Juminkeko, information centre for Kalevala and Karelian culture] *[http://www.karuse.info/metre.htm The Kalevala metre] *[http://dbgw.finlit.fi/fili/bff/299/inha.htm# Songlands of the Kalevala] == Books == * The Kalevala by Keith Bosley (Introduction) and translations by Albert B. Lord, A contemporary English language translation: ISBN 019283570X * The Kalevala: Epic of the Finnish People, translations by Eino Friberg, Bjorn Landstrom, George C. Schoolfield, ISBN 9511101374 * The Kalevala: The Epic Poem of Finland translations by John Martin Crawford, ISBN 0766189384 Epics Nordic folklore Finnish mythology os:Калевалæ
Kalevala
"Calling it ancient is deceiving; the Kalevala is based on Finnish :oral history, but it was composed in the 19th century as :nationalism swept Europe, leading to the creation of :folklore and other cultural artifacts. As opposed to, for example, :Beowulf, for which written versions have existed for many centuries." Right. But theoretically it could still be ancient. Presumably we want to say something like: "First composed in its modern form in [year] by [whoever it was]. Any earlier provenance must remain speculative." :Yes, I have tried to correct the POV that it is with certainty genuine traditions. Unfortunately the time of its composition makes the whole epic spurious. It is more than likely that parts or large parts of it were composed by Lönnroth himself.--User:Wiglaf 15:46, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)
The name means "land of heroes". Really? In which language?
I made a few minor corrections to spelling and grammar. ---Varenius ---- ''He never finds a wife (one of the women, Aino, drowns herself instead) ...'' I can't see the connection between the phrase "He never finds a wife" and "one of the women, Aino, drowns herself instead". Why is the second sentence in brackets? "instead" of what? Can somebody clarify please? User:82.92.195.38 22:49, 28 Jan 2005 (UTC) == Lönnrot just ''said'' he compiled the Kalevala? == Wiglaf, care to explain why you think Lönnrot only said that he compiled and edited the Kalevala? Is there a theory that he made up the whole thing? Because that is the way I read your version. My version: ''...compiled and edited by Elias Lönnrot in the 19th century from Finland folk sources.'' Wiglafs version: ''...which Elias Lönnrot in the 19th century said that he had compiled from Finland folk sources.'' The section titled "Writing the Kalevala" should also be changed to reflect this, don't you think? -- User:Jniemenmaa 11:51, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC) :Perhaps I am being rash, but the date of its composition is a bit spurious. How much do we know about the authenticity of the texts? In fact, even Snorri Sturluson took some liberties with the original text in Ynglinga saga, and there are sometimes striking differences between Ynglinga saga and the source text (which is luckily preserved in two versions, as Ynglingatal and Historia Norwegiae). After working with mythological matters for some time, I have grown quite sceptical about the compilation and the editing of folk traditions. In my experience, the same traditions come in very different and conflicting versions, and when they are presented as "consistent", I have my doubts.--User:Wiglaf 11:58, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC) :PS, I am not saying that Lönnroth is a fraud, and I have no doubt about the prior existence of many of these traditions. I am only saying that all we have is Lönnroth's word on the authenticity of Kalevala as a whole.--User:Wiglaf 12:02, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC) ::exactly. People took enormous liberties in those days, to make their sources more conforming with what they believed the "original" version would have looked like. Did Lönnroth take more or fewer liberties than the Grimm brothers? We can't be sure. He collected the tales, no doubt, but instead of presenting them separately, attributing them to individuals, he "reconstructed" an "original" mythological cycle. User:Dbachmann User_talk:Dbachmann 12:25, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC) ::I don't want to start a debate on a trivial matter like this. What we know is that Lönnrot and others collected poems from Viena Karelia (no one doubts this I hope?). Then he used these to compile the Kalevala. Some parts are authentic, some were invented by Lönnrot (how much? I have no clue). Some of the themes that are also found in classical literature were intentionally added to the Kalevala by Lönnrot by combining totally unrelated songs. ::I still think that Wiglaf's version is bad since it implies that Lönnrot is lying. Maybe we could formulate it some other way? -- User:Jniemenmaa 12:31, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
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Kalevala
Kalevala_Township,_Minnesota
Kalevala_Township,_MN
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