The Kalevala

Lönnrot's stitched Finnish epic of Väinämöinen, the Sampo, and the songs of a people finding a nation.

Specifications & Metrics

author

Elias Lönnrot (compiler)

type

Compiled epic poem

era

Finnish nationalism (1835–1849)

language

Finnish

verse form

Kalevala metre (trochaic tetrameter)

cantos count

50

Core Principles & Analysis

• Lönnrot compiled it from oral singers across eastern Finland in two editions, 1835 and 1849.
• Its trochaic tetrameter directly shaped Longfellow's Hiawatha.
• The epic became the anchor of Finnish national identity under Russian rule.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Kalevala