Radio | News week in plain Finnish | Sunday 28 April 2024

Finland’s national epic Kalevala

The topic of the news week is the Finnish national epic Kalevala. The Kalevala has been given the European cultural heritage label. Now we will tell you more about the Kalevala.

Finland’s national epic Kalevala

New editions are taken from Kalevala. Photo: Arja Lento / Yle

The Kalevala is Finland’s national epic. A national epic means a poem, i.e. a large poem that has a special meaning for the nation.

National epics describe the character and history of a nation. For example, Iceland’s national epic is Edda and Greece’s Iliad and Odyssey.

In April, the Kalevala received the European cultural heritage label. The European Commission says that the Kalevala is part of pan-European currents of thought and the epic tradition.

Many national epics contain poems that have been told and sung for many hundreds of years. The Kalevala was put together by Elias Lönnrot.

Elias lönnrot

Elias Lönnrot (1802 - 1884) was a Finnish polymath. He was, for example, a linguist, a doctor and a reformer of the Finnish language. The trips to collect poems were difficult because there were always no roads and crossing the waters was dangerous.

About 200 years ago, the doctor Elias Lönnrot started compiling a collection of folk poems. Kalevala is Lönnrot’s poetry, although its foundation is in folk poems.

Lönnrot created an epic by combining folk poems from different periods. Lönnrot created some of the poems himself.

The first edition of the actual Kalevala, the Old Kalevala, was published in 1835. The New Kalevala was published in 1849.

During the 20 years, Lönnrot made long journeys as he went around collecting poems. It has been calculated that Lönnrot traveled a distance every year that is equivalent to the distance from one end of Finland to the other.

The birth of the world and nations in the Kalevala

The rhyme measure of Kalevala is a Kalevala measure, i.e. a four-knee trochee. It has a lot of initial chords, i.e. the first syllables of the word are similar to each other. In Finnish, it is easy to form initial chords. Photo: Yle

At the beginning of the Kalevala, it is said that the world was born from the egg of a falcon.

There are two nations in Kalevala, Kalevala and Pohjola. The poem describes, for example, the disputes and journeys of these peoples. The events end with the advent of Christianity.

The Kalevala continues to influence, for example, arts and handicrafts. Fantasy literature and, for example, metal music are also influenced by the Kalevala.

The Kalevala has been translated into more than 60 languages - including plain Finnish.

Lemminkäinen’s mother is a painting by Akseli Gallen-Kallela from 1897. Lemminkäinen is a hero of Finnish folklore. Lönnrot created the Lemminkäis character of the Kalevala by combining many characters from folk poetry. Photo: Mårten Lampén / Yle

The topic of the news week was the Kalevala. Let’s repeat the most important things.

The Kalevala is Finland’s national epic.

Elias Lönnrot compiled the Kalevala about 200 years ago.

In April, the Kalevala received the European cultural heritage label.

This was Uutisviikko in plain Finnish, see you again. Goodbye!