Kalevala’s origins and mythsPart 2

Vesa Matteo Piludu, Kalevala SuiteLecture 617.10.2011

Department of Philosophy, History, Culture and Arts

Musicology

University of Helsinki

Daniel Europaeus (1820-1884)

Lönnrot was not satisfied with the Old Kalevala

For the edition of the New Kalevala, he was helped by other collectors of folklore and ethnographer

The most important was Europaeus, who collected more poems than Lönnrot and travelled more

Old Kalevala 1835, Kanteletar 1841-42, New Kalevala 1849

Jacob Grimm, 1845

Gave a notable lecture on the epic of the Finns (the Kalevala was translated into Swedish) at the Science Academy of Berlin

“Here, if anywhere, there is now a pure epic in simple and thus most moving form, an unprecedented treasure”

Kalevala was considered comparable to Omer and the Niebelungenlied

After the Kalevala, Finland has been recognized as a “nation” with his own culture, language and literature

For Grimm, Kalevala was more mythological than historical

Il Kalevala and Comparetti

Domenico Comparetti, Il Kalevala o la poesia

tradizionale dei Finni, studio storico critico sulle origini delle grandi epopoee nazionali (Roma, tip. della R. Accademia dei Lincei, 1891).

Translated in German and English

Relevance of magical charms

Monument of Lönnrot in Helsinki

Kalevala and world epic and literature

The (New) Kalevala become a classic of world literature

It has been a source of inspiration for the Estonian Kalevipoeg and Longfellow’s Song of Hiawatha

It has inspired Tolkien: Gandalf (Väinämöinen) Elfish language