Kalevala
Kalevala (1835),Finnish national epic constituted of popular songs, folk tales, myth, and fairy‐tale motifs. The first literary version of some 12,000 verses was compiled and edited in unrhymed alliterative trochaic metre by the Finnish philologist and district health officer Elias Lönrott (1802–44), who wove the individual songs that he recorded in Karelia, a large region on both sides of the Russo‐Finnish border, into a continuous narrative. The second edition of the Kalevala, published in 1849, was composed of 22,900 verses and based on additional research by Lönrott. Kalevala, the abode of Kaleva, an obscure gigantic ancestor like the Greek Titans, is the mythic name of Finland, and the narrative concerns the mythical founding of the country featuring the singer/shaman Väinämöinen, a culture hero, who has numerous marvellous adventures and saves Finland from pestilence and its enemies. The focus throughout...
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