It is difficult to realize this. But if you know where to look, you will find a thousand signs of the Kalevala when traveling through Finland: some ugly statues under the names of Pohjola and Kullervo, some offices of the LähiTapiola group, a district called Sampo, some Aino brand ice creams... All these clues point in the same direction.
They are names drawn from the Kalevala, the epic poem published in the 19th century by Elias Lönnrot, which has become an indissoluble part of national identity. Not only is it venerated and studied in the school which Quixote, but it forms part of the common language. In Finnish the adjective kalevalainen (what would come to be “kalevalian”) is used to refer to the quintaessence of what is Finnish.
To give an idea of the importance of this work we must go back to 1809, the year in which Finland became independent from Sweden and became a grand duchy of the Russian Empire. It marked the beginning of an intense search for its historical roots, through language and a rich popular tradition, which would end up bearing fruit in a nationalist current. Lönnrot would become one of its most prominent promoters.
Son of a humble family from Sammatti, an old town in the south of the country, he had to work to pay for his studies. He earned his doctorate in Philosophy and Letters with a thesis on the Finnish mythological hero Väinämöinen, which was published in 1827. And during the summer of the following year, he traveled through some regions of the country to collect popular poetry. Until 1844, Lönnrot made eleven more long forays through the Finnish-speaking territories with the same purpose. From all that material the Kalevala would be born.
Kalevala is the name of the country founded by the hero Väinämöinen, after imposing order on primal chaos. The poem basically focuses on the fight of his people against the inhabitants of Pohjola, the northern land. Throughout its pages, multiple bizarre characters and fantastic creatures appear. And the tone is eminently popular: a universe full of hills, forests, roads, rivers, islands and the wide sea.
What Lönnrot did was gather popular songs around this myth, giving them a coherent form. He linked stories from the oral tradition, shortened the names of characters, and specified his traits (from his personal notes and diaries, we know that only 3% of the 22,795 verses were his creation). Taking none other than Homer as an example, he set out to create a great historical-mythological poem that would bring together the Finnish people.
The first version of his Kalevala was published in 1835; specifically, February 28, celebrated since then as the national day of Finnish Culture or Kalevala Day. And the second and final one, with double the extension, did not see the light until 14 years later: in 1849.
The poem stirred the national consciousness and awakened love for one’s own language. His influence on art, in fact, reaches to our day through works such as the illustrations of the Kalevala by painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela, the comic book adaptation of Kristian Huitula, the poetic work of Paavo Haavikko or the Four Legends of the Kalevala of composer John Sibelius.
And beyond its mark on Finnish culture, Lönnrot's poem has left its mark on the Tolkien universe (the author himself cited it as a source of inspiration for his Silmarillion), that of Star Wars (there is a planet Kalevala in the Mandalore system) or that of Disney (Donald Duck starred in a comic story titled The Search for the Kalevala).
In any case, the most palpable example of the validity of the Kalevala is found in the daily lives of Finns. Here is a brief guide to detect its presence.
