Kalevala

The Kalevala is an epic poem which Elias Lönnrot in the 19th century said that he had compiled from Finnish folk sources. It is commonly called the Finnish national epic and is one of the most significant works of Finnish-language literature. The Kalevala is credited with inspiring the nationalism that ultimately led to Finnish independence from Russia in 1917. The name means "land of Kaleva". The text of the Kalevala consists of 22,795 verses, divided into 50 poems or chapters (finnish runot, singular runo, from Germanic rune).

The quest for Kalevala

Some parts of the epic probably capture ancient conflicts between Finnics and Samis. In that context, the country of Kalevala is usually understood as Southern Finland and Pohjola as Lapland. However, the place names in Kalevala seem to transfer the Kalevala further south, which have been interpreted as support for theories of a Finnic migration from the South that came to push the Samis further to the north, while some scholars locate the country of Kalevala to East Karelia, where most of the Kalevala stories were written down. In 1961 a small town of Uhtua in East Karelia was renamed to "Kalevala", perhaps to promote that theory.

Related Topics:
Finnic - Samis - Lapland - East Karelia

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Proponents of a Southern Kalevala argue, that the name Kaleva probably was first recorded in an atlas of al Idrisi of year 1154, where a town of qlwny (or tlwny) is recorded. This is probably present day Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, known in old East Slavic sources as Kolyvan. The Finnish word Kalevan ("of Kaleva") has almost the same meaning as Kalevala. The Saari (literally "the island") might be the island of Saaremaa in Estonia, while the people of Väinöla has strong resemblance with the Livonian tribe of Veinalensis in present-day Latvia, that is mentioned in the 13th century chronicle connected to Henry of Livonia. The ancient Finns, Estonians and Livonians spoke similar Finnic dialects and share common ancestry.

Related Topics:
Al Idrisi - 1154 - Tallinn - Estonia - Saaremaa - Livonian - Latvia - Henry of Livonia - Finns - Estonians - Livonians - Finnic

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~