Product Description

The Kalevala, a Finnish epic on the scale of the Iliad and the Odyssey, presents a rare portrait of an ancient people in both peace and at war. It played a central role in the march towards Finnish independence and inspired some of Sibelius's greatest works. This new translation, by a poet and prize-winning translator of Finnish poetry, is a powerful and faithful reflection of a classic of European literature.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #63104 in Books
• Published on: 1999-01-14
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 736 pages

Synopsis
The Kalevala is the great Finnish epic, which like the Iliad and the Odyssey, grew out of a rich oral tradition with prehistoric roots. During the first millenium of our era, speakers of Uralic languages (those outside the Indo-European group) who had settled in the Baltic region of Karelia, that straddles the border of eastern Finland and north-west Russia, developed an oral poetry that was to last into the nineteenth century. This poetry provided the basis of the Kalevala. It was assembled in the 1840s by the Finnish scholar Elias Lonnrot, who took 'dictation' from the performance of a folk singer, in much the same way as our great collections from the past, from Homeric poems to medieval songs and epics, have probably been set down. Published in 1849, it played a central role in the march towards Finnish independence and inspired some of Sibelius's greatest works. This new and exciting translation by poet Keith Bosley, prize-winning translator of the anthology Finnish Folk Poetry: Epic, is the first truly to combine liveliness with accuracy in a way which reflects the richness of the original.

About the Author
Keith Bosley is the author of Finnish Folk Poetry: Epic and was awarded the first Finnish State Prize for translators.

Customer Reviews

The Finnish Epic
The Kalevala is the result of Elias Lönnrot collecting and commiting to paper the oral traditions of the Finnish people to produce an epic tale.
This translation has captured the poetic delivery of the original Finnish as perfectly as these two opposing languages could.
The poetry weaves the tales of Väinämöinen, an old seer and the younger Joukahainen who wishes to challenge him. This angers Väinämöinen who chants him deep into a swamp, a meadow and a heath!! To get himself out of trouble Joukahainen offers the old seer his sister Aino as a bride. Väinämöinen thinking he has been offered a house keeper accepts. Aino is quite taken with being his bride but Väinämöinen has other ideas and heads North to woo the maiden of the North. He can marry her if he forges a Sampo, which is a magical machine that churns out salt, flour and money! He can't do that but he knows a man who can, his good friend Ilmarinen the blacksmith. He has to trick Ilmarinen into going North but he makes the Sampo. Then the marriage requires another task and so the maiden remains unmarried.

Meanwhile, another character Lemminkäinen decides to go North and try his luck winning the maiden. He is given tasks in order to win her hand, capturing the elk of Hiisi and the swan from the river of Tuonela. The latter task nearly kills him and he gives up.

Väinämöinen is now making himself a boat to head back up North but he runs out of spells so he has to go and find Vipunen, a giant who knows all the spells. He gets his spells, finishes his boat and heads North but he is seen by the sister of the blacksmith and the blacksmith rides like the wind on his horse and catches up with him. The two men make a pact that they will let the maiden choose between them. The maiden choose Ilmarinen because he forged the Sampo but her mother still wants more tasks done and she orders Ilmarinen to plough the field of vipers. Ilmarinen finds this easy with his armoured boots and cape and so the crone of the North sets him the task of capturing the giant pike of the chill north sea without line or net!!Ilmarinen forges himself a giant eagle and captures the pike. Now the old crone is satisfied and the wedding takes place. Väinämöinen makes a kantele from the jaw of the pike which produces sweet voiced music such that tames the beasts and even causes the sea king Ahti to rise from the depths. He and Ilmarinen use the sweet music to soothe the beasts of the North whilst they take the Sampo for themselves and set sail for home. Louhi, mistress of the North casts a fog spell to stop them, which Väinämöinen conjures away so Louhi unleashes a terrible storm which sweeps the kantele from the boat whereupon Ahti the sea king thinks it is a present to him and he calms the sea. The crone turns herself into an eagle and attacks Väinämöinen's boat and in the struggle the Sampo is broken into pieces. Some of the pieces are washed up on the shore and from the fragments Ilmarinen makes amulets and rings thinking that perhaps there is still some magic left in the pieces. Each resident of Kalevala wears a magic piece on special occasions, wishing for a peaceful life.

Now I've just condensed an epic piece into a few short paragraphs...for which I apologise but it's a great tale and maybe this will encourage folk to read it themselves.

No Kalevala, no Middle-earth?
Other reviews highlight many of the Kalevala's intrinsic qualities. This epic should be well-known among Tolkien's fans, too. In his published letters, handily indexed in the paperback edition, may be found statements that amount to this: No Kalevala, no legendarium of Middle-earth! - - or at least, Tolkien's mythology would have been markedly different. He specifically related the Kalevala's story of Kullervo and his own cycle of Turin legends. Old Vainamoinen, the singing wizard, has affinities with Gandalf and Tom Bombadil. The hag Louhi's theft of the sun and moon, which plunges Kaleva-land into darkness, suggests Tolkien's myth of Melkor's destruction of the two Lamps. A more homely example of the importance of things Finnish for Tolkien has to do with his naming one of the persons in The Father Christmas Letters: a bear is named Karhu (which is Finnish for bear, as Bosley states in one of the notes to The Kalevala). And the Finnish language was the chief inspiration for the Elvish language Quenya. Awareness of Tolkien's recognized indebtedness to medieval English and Germanic legends - Beowulf, Siegfried, etc. -- must be supplemented by a good acquaintance with the Kalevala. A superb "Kalevala" for younger readers is Babette Deutsch's Heroes of the Kalevala.

About The Kalevala
This is a great book if u want to really know the story about old finnish history