Kalevala

Kalevala, ‘Land of Heroes’ ,
the national epic poem of Finland, transmitted orally until 1822 , when a pioneering first collection was published by physician Zacharius (Sakari) Topelius ( 1782 – 1831 ). A fuller version was collected and published in 1835 by Elias Lönnrot ( 1802 – 84 ), who was influenced in his task by an admiration for Macpherson 's creation of Ossian. It was translated into English by W. M. Crawford in 1887 , and tone-poems have been composed around some of the myths by Sibelius.