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Kalevala
Columbia Encyclopedia entry: Kalevala
Kalevalakä'lĕvä′lä, Finnish national epic. It is a compilation of verses recounting extraordinary deeds of three semidivine brothers from mythical Kaleva, land of the heroes. Zakarias Topelius published fragments in 1822; Elias Lönnrot gave the cycle its present form, editing the material and sometimes writing transitional verses himself. Lönnrot published the collection of 50 runes (nearly 23,000 lines) in 1849. Its effect on Finnish art in all its branches has been great. The rhythms of the epic had a strong influence on the composer. Jan Sibelius, who used it in a number of works, notably Karelia (1893). The eight-syllable trochaic line of the Kalevala was imitated by Longfellow in Hiawatha.

See tr. by W. F. Kirby (1907, new ed. 1956) and F. P. Magoun (1963).

The Columbia Encyclopedia. Copyright © 2001-09 Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

Wikipedia search results for: Kalevala
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Kalevala is a book and epic poem which Elias Lönnrot compiled from Finnish and Karelian folklore in the nineteenth century. It is held to be the national epic of Finland and is traditionally thought of as one of the most significant works of Finnish literature. Karelian citizens and other Balto-Finnic speakers also value the work. The Kalevala is credited with some of the inspiration for the national awakening that ultimately led to Finnish government's independence from that of Russia in 1917. The name can be interpreted as the "lands of Kaleva". The epic consists of 22,795 verses, divided into fifty cantos or "chapters". Elias...more »
Columbia Encyclopedia search results: Kalevala
Results 1 - 5  of 5
  • Lönnrot, Elias

    Lönnrot, Elias, 1802–84, Finnish philologist, compiler of the Kalevala. Although he was trained as a physician, he spent his life, after 1828, traveling through Finland, Lapland, and NW Russia...

  • Gallen-Kallela, Akseli Valdemar

    Gallen-Kallela, Akseli Valdemar, 1865–1931, Finnish painter. He was a student of Bouguereau. His series of stark, linear paintings of the Kalevala epic are among the finest Finnish works on na...

  • Karelia

    Karelia, constituent republic (1990 pop. 800,000), 66,409 sq mi (172,300 sq km), NW European Russia, extending from the Finnish border in the west to the White Sea in the east and from the Kol...

  • Finnish literature

    Finnish literature. The first printed work in Finnish was the ABC book published c.1542 by Bishop Michael Agricola (1508–57). In 1642 the first complete translation of the Bible in Finnish app...

  • Finland

    Finland, Finnish Suomi, officially Republic of Finland, republic (2005 est. pop. 5,223,000), 130,119 sq mi (337,009 sq km), N Europe. It borders on the Gulf of Bothnia and Sweden in the west, ...

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