Kalevala

Elias Lönnrot • April 9, 1802 – March 19, 1884 • philologist and collector of

traditional Finnish oral poetry– Kantele, 1829–1831

– Kalevala, 1835–1836 (possibly Land of Heroes; better known as the "old" Kalevala)

– Kanteletar, 1840 (the Kantele Maiden)

– Sananlaskuja, 1842 (Proverbs)

– an expanded second edition of

Kalevala, 1849 (the "new" Kalevala)

Elias Lönnrot’s Trip

• he toured the countryside of Finland, Sapmi (Lapland),

• nearby portions of Russian Karelia

Akseli Gallen-Kallela

• April 26, 1865 - March 7, 1931 • painter who is most of all

known for his illustrations of the Kalevala

• 1925 – he began illustrations for Kalevala, but they were still unfinished because of his death

Akseli Gallen-Kallela

Kalevala• National epic of Finland• Name can be interpreted as “Lands of Kaleva” (-la and –lä ending meaning

places)• 22,795 verses, divided into fifty cantos or "chapters" (Finnish runo)• Collected by Elias Lönnrot - It has been estimated that the Kalevala

comprises: one third of word for word recordings by the collectors, 50% of material that Lönnrot adjusted slightly, 14% of verses he wrote himself based on poem variants and 3% of verses purely of his own invention

• Kalewala, taikka Wanhoja Karjalan Runoja Suomen kansan muinoisista ajoista (The Kalevala, or old Karelian poems about ancient times of the Finnish people), known as simply the Old Kalevala, came out in two volumes in 1835–1836; The Old Kalevala consisted of 12,078 verses or thirty-two poems.

• Lönnrot continued to collect new material, which he integrated into a second edition - Kalevala (the Kalevala), published in 1849 - "new Kalevala" contains fifty poems, and is the standard text of the Kalevala read today

• Kalevala has been translated into 49 languages– into Polish: 1974 - Józef Ozga-Michalski based on the work of Karol

Laszecki and 1998 by Jerzy Litwiniuk – into Russian: 1888 - Leonid Petrovic Belsky

Väinämöinen• central character in the Finnish

folklore and the main character in the national epic Kalevala,

• old and wise man, and he possessed a potent, magical voice,

• in the Estonian national epic Kalevipoeg a similar hero is called Vanemuine,

• Central figure in stories about the birth of the world

• son of the primal goddess Ilmatar

Kantele

• Finnish traditional plucked string instrument of the zither family

• Väinämöinen invents the first kantele with the jawbone of a giant pike and a few hairs from Hiisi's gelding

• The music it makes draws all the forest creatures near to wonder at its beauty. The kantele has a distinctive bell-like sound.

• Later Väinämöinen makes a wooden kantele, strung with the hair of a willing maiden, and its magic proves equally profound.

Väinämöinen• Relations in nowadays culture:

– Gandalf in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

– wizard of Tolkien's, Saruman the White

– In art he is described as an old man with a long white beard - popular appearance for wizards in fantasy literature,

– finnish folk metal band Ensiferum – songs "Old Man" and "Little Dreamer“,

– comic strip "Väinämöisen paluu” by Petri Hiltunen

– science-fiction book: Joan D. Vinge’s “The Summer Queen” – characters: Vanamoinen, Ilmarinen and Kullervo