Kalevala

The name “Kalevala” given to the poem by Lönnrot is the epic name of the country in which Karelian folk heroes live and act. The suffix la means place of residence, so Kalevala is the place of residence of Kalev , the mythological ancestor of the heroes Väinämöinen , Ilmarinen , Lemminkäinen , sometimes called his sons. ^[2]

The material for the compilation of an extensive poem of 50 songs (runes) was served by Lönnrot individual folk songs, part epic, part lyrical, part magical, recorded from the words of the Karelian and Finnish peasants by Lönnrot himself and the collectors preceding him. Best remembered are the ancient runes (songs) in Russian Karelia , in the Arkhangelsk (parish of Vuokkininiemi - Voknavolok ) and the Olonets provinces - in Repol ( Rebola ) and Himol ( Gimoly ), as well as in some places of Finland Karelia and on the western shores of Lake Ladoga , to Ingria . ^[2]

1 rune of Kalevala tells of the beginning of the world, when there was no sun, no animals, no birds, no trees. There was only water and the lonely ( yksin ) daughter of the air Ilmatar , who, in grief from the water, conceived Väinämöinen . In parallel with Ilmatar, a duck flies ( sotka : black ), which lays 7 eggs on her knee: six gold and one iron. When broken, the eggs give rise to earth ( maa ), sky ( taivas ), sun ( päivyt ), moon ( kuu ) and stars ( tähiksi ). Ilmatar forms the relief, creating islands, bays and capes. Väinämöinen was born an adult (his constant epithet vanha is old) and swam in the water for several years until he reached the country of Kalevala.

In the 2nd rune, Väinämöinen with the help of Samps Pellerervoinen sows the earth with plants. However, suddenly one magic oak tree grows very much and obscures the sun. A sea dwarf with a copper ax ( vaskikirves ) comes out to fight him. Väinämäinen finds itself in the country of Kalevala and sows barley there ( ohra ).

The 3rd rune tells of a confrontation with Laplander Joukahainen , who redeems his life with a promise to give his sister Aino to Väinämöinen as his wife. However, in the 4th rune, Aino does not want to marry an old man and commits suicide by drowning in the sea.

At the end of 5 runes, Väinämöinen hears the advice of his mother that you need to look for a bride not in Lapland, but in Pohjöl . Väinämäinen goes there, but due to the arrow of Joukahainen he finds himself in the sea and only thanks to the eagle is in Pohjel. The local sorcerer demands that Väinämäinen make Sampo , promising to marry his daughter to him. In rune 8, the hero meets the girl, but during the test he injures himself with an ax , cannot stop bleeding and goes to the old sorcerer ( loitsija ), who in rune 9 tells the legend about the origin of iron ( rauta ). Returning home, Väinämöinen raises the wind with spells and takes the blacksmith Ilmarinen to Pohjela , where, according to the promise given by Väinämöinen, he forges a mysterious object for wealthy North that gives wealth and happiness - Sampo mill. ^[2]

From 11 to 15, the rune is described by the adventures of the hero Lemminkäinen , a warlike sorcerer and seducer of women, who travels to Pohjela, but dies during one of the trials, but comes back to life thanks to his mother’s prayer to Ukko . Further, the story returns to Väinämöinen, who planned to build a boat, but the need to search for magic words leads him to Manala . It also describes his stay in the womb of the giant Vipunen ( Antero Vipunen ), getting him from the last magic words, the hero’s departure to Pohjela in order to get the hand of the northern maiden. However, in the 18th rune, the daughter of the mistress Pokhyoly chooses a blacksmith Ilmarinen to be her husband, whom she marries, moreover, the wedding is described in detail and the wedding songs are presented that set out the duties of the wife (respect her husband’s relatives, maintain fire in the hearth and clean the house, feed the cattle) ^{[3 ]} and the husband.

26-30 runes again tell about the adventures of the restless Lemminkäinen in Pohjöl, where he arrives as an uninvited guest at Ilmarinen’s wedding, kills the owner of Pohjela in a quarrel and flees from retaliation to a distant island.

In the 31-36 runes, the sad fate of the hero Kullervo , who seduced his sister through ignorance, as a result of which both brother and sister, commit suicide, belongs to the best parts of the whole poem in the depths of feelings, sometimes reaching true pathos ^[2] . The runes about the hero Kullervo were recorded by the assistant of Lönnrot folklorist Daniel Eurepius ^[4] .

Further runes contain a lengthy story about the common enterprise of the three Karelian heroes - how Sampo’s treasures were obtained from Pohjela, how Väinämöinen made a pike cantele ^[5] and, by playing on it, he enchanted the whole nature and euthanized the population of Pohjela, as Sampo was taken away by heroes. It tells about the persecution of heroes by the witch-mistress of the North with the help of Ututar, Ukko and Iku-Turso ^[6] , about the fall of Sampo in the sea, about the good deeds rendered by Väinämöinen his native country through the fragments of Sampo, about his struggle against various disasters and monsters sent by the mistress Poh to Kalevala, about the hero’s marvelous game on a new kantel created by him from birch when the first one fell into the sea. After Louhi was kidnapped by the sun, the heavenly god Ukko creates a new one that falls into Lake Alue ^[7] . Having received severe burns from the Ukko fire, Ilmarinen forges another sun, but the present is still hidden in Pohjel near Louha. And the heroes in 49 runes go for the sun and Louhi goes back down.

The last rune contains a folk apocryphal legend about the birth of a wonderful child by the virgin Marjatta . Väinämöinen gives advice to kill him, since he is destined to surpass the power of the Karelian hero, but the two-week-old baby showers Väinämöinen with reproaches for injustice, and the ashamed hero, having sung the last wonderful song, leaves forever in the shuttle, giving way to the recognized child. ^[2]

Kalevala itself is the country where the main character Väinämöinen lives. Kalevala is traditionally opposed to Pohyol , where the heroes of Kalevala get by sea. Just outside the inhabited land is Manala . Nevertheless, quite familiar countries are mentioned: Estonia ( Viro - 11:43; 25: 290), Ingria ( Inkeri - 11:44, 55), Karelia (20:75; 48: 258), Suomi (20:76 ), Savo (35: 352; 48: 257), Russia ( Venäjä - 20:77; 22: 319), Sweden ( Ruotsi - 20:78), Lapland ( Lappi - 20:79), Vienne ( Viena , White Sea - 25: 619; 46: 312) and Germany (Saxony, Saksa - 21: 168; 25: 289). In the vicinity of Lapland and Pohjela, the country of Turia is mentioned ( Turja - 26: 295). Of the rivers, Vuoksa (30: 209) with the waterfall Imatra (30: 210) and Neva (47: 139) is mentioned. Of the cities, only Tallinn is mentioned ( Tanikan linna - 25: 613).

It is difficult to indicate a common thread that would link the various episodes of Kalevala into one artistic whole. E. Aspelin believed that her main idea was the chanting of the change of summer and winter in the North. Lönnrot himself, denying the unity and organic connection in the runes of Kalevala, admitted, however, that the songs of the epic are aimed at proving and figuring out how the heroes of the country of Kalev subjugate the population of Pohola. Julius Kron claims that Kalevala is imbued with one idea - about creating Sampo and getting it into the ownership of the Karelian people - but admits that the unity of the plan and ideas are not always seen with equal clarity. The German scientist von Pettau divides Kalevala into 12 cycles, completely independent from each other. The Italian scientist Comparetti, in his extensive work on Kalevala, concludes that it is not possible to assume unity in the runes, that the combination of runes made by Lönnrot is often arbitrary and yet gives the runes only a ghostly unity; finally, that from the same materials it is possible to make other combinations according to some other plan. ^[2]

Lönnrot did not discover a poem that was in a hidden state in runes (as Steintal believed) - it did not open because such a poem did not exist among the people. The runes in the oral transmission, at least, were connected by several singers (for example, several adventures of Väinämöinen or Lemminkäinen), just as little represent a whole epic, like Russian epics or Serbian youthful songs. Lönnrot himself admitted that when he connected the runes into an epic, some arbitrariness was inevitable. Indeed, as verification of the work of Lönnrot showed by the options written by himself and other collectors of runes, Lönnrot chose such paraphrases that were most suitable for the plan he had drawn, rallied the runes from particles of other runes, made additions, compiled separate verses for a more connected story, and the last the rune (50) can even be called his composition, although based on folk legends. For his poem, he skillfully utilized the entire wealth of Karelian songs, introducing, along with narrative runes, ritual, conspiratorial, family songs, and this gave Kalevala considerable interest as a means of studying the worldview, concepts, life and poetic work of the Finnish common people. ^[2]

Characteristic of the Karelian epos is the complete absence of a historical foundation: the adventures of the heroes are distinguished by a purely fabulous character; no echoes of the historical clashes of the Karelians with other peoples were preserved in runes. In Kalevala there is no state, people, society: she knows only the family, and her heroes perform feats not in the name of their people, but to achieve personal goals, like heroes of wonderful fairy tales. The types of heroes are connected with the ancient pagan views of the Karelians: they perform feats not so much with the help of physical strength, but through conspiracies, like shamans . They can take a different look, wrap other people in animals, miraculously transferred from place to place, cause atmospheric phenomena - frost, fog and more. The closeness of the heroes to the deities of the pagan period is still felt. It should also be noted the high importance attached by the Karelians, and later by the Finns, song lyrics and music. A proprietor who knows the runes-conspiracies can work miracles, and the sounds made by the wonderful musician Väinämöinen from the kantele conquer all nature. ^[2]

In addition to ethnographic, Kalevala is of high artistic interest. Its advantages include: simplicity and brightness of images, a deep and lively sense of nature, high lyrical impulses, especially in the depiction of human grief (for example, mother’s longing for her son, children for parents), healthy humor permeating some episodes, and a good characterization of the characters. If we look at Kalevala as a whole epic (Kron's view), then it will have many shortcomings, which, however, are more or less characteristic of all oral folk epic works: contradictions, repetitions of the same facts, too significant dimensions of some particulars with respect to to the whole. The details of an upcoming action are often set out in great detail, and the action itself is recounted in a few minor verses. This kind of disproportion depends on the memory properties of one or another singer and is often found, for example, in Russian epics. ^[2]

However, there are historical facts, interwoven with geographical ones, which partially confirm the events described in the epic. To the north of the current village of Kalevala there is Lake Topozero - the sea through which the heroes sailed. On the shores of the lake, the Sami settled - the people of Pohyol. The Sami had strong sorcerers ( Old Lady Louhi ). But the Karelians were able to displace the Sami far north, subjugate the population of Pohjola and conquer the latter .

Every year on February 28th is celebrated the “ Day of the Kalevala’s folk epos ” - the official day of Finnish and Karelian culture, the same day is dedicated to the Finnish flag . Every year in Karelia and Finland, the “Kalevala Carnival” takes place, in the form of a street costume procession, as well as theatrical performances based on the plot of the epic. Every year, since 2006, the International Ethnofestival "Kalevala Land" has been held in St. Petersburg, bringing together leading experts, artists, designers and creative teams from Russia and Finland ^[8] .

• The first written mention of the heroes of Kalevala is contained in the books of the Finnish bishop and first printer Mikael Agricola in the 16th century .
• The first monument to the hero of Kalevala was erected in 1831 in Vyborg .
• The poem was first translated into Russian in 1888 by the poet and translator Leonid Petrovich Belsky.
• In Russian literature, the image of Väinemäuinen is first encountered in the poem of the Decembrist F. N. Glinka “Karelia”
• The first pictorial painting on the plot of Kalevala was created in 1851 by the Swedish artist Johan Blackstadius.
• The first work on the plot of "Kalevala" was the play of the Finnish writer Alexis Kivi "Kullervo" (1860).
• The most significant contribution to the musical incarnation of Kalevala was made by the classic of Finnish music, Jan Sibelius .
• Kalevala was translated into Ukrainian by the linguist Yevgeny Timchenko. In Belarus, the first translation was made by the poet and writer Mikhas Mashara. The newest - by the translator Yakub Lapatka ^[9] .
• The Latvian translation was made by Linard Laicen ^[10] .
• Nenets translation made by Vasily Ledkov ^[11] .
• Plots "Kalevala" are present in the works of many artists. The Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Karelia contains a unique collection of works of fine art on the themes of the epic "Kalevala" ^[12] . The cycle of paintings with scenes from "Kalevala" by Finnish artist Axeli Gallen-Kallel is widely known.
• In 1933, Academia published Kalevala with illustrations and general artwork for students of Pavel Filonov , Masters of Analytical Art T. Glebova , A. Poret , M. Tsybasov and others. Filonov himself was an editor of illustrations and design. ( Electronic version of the publication. )
• On the motives of Kalevala, the Karelian composer Gelmer Sinisalo composed the ballet Sampo , which was first staged in Petrozavodsk on March 27, 1959. This work has been repeatedly performed both in the USSR and abroad ^{[13] [14]} .
• In 1959, based on Kalevala, a joint Soviet-Finnish film Sampo was shot (directed by Alexander Ptushko , script by Väinö Kaukonen, Viktor Vitkovich, Grigory Yagdfeld ).
• In 1982, the Finnish director Kalle Holmberg shot for television a 4-episode film adaptation of Kalevala - The Iron Age. Tales of Kalevala ”, awarded the prizes of the Finnish and Italian film academies. In 2009, the film was released in Russia with a set of two DVDs.
• John Tolkien's Silmarillion was created under the influence of Kalevala ^[15] . The connection with the Karelian-Finnish epic is also visible in another work of this author - “Kullervo Stories” .
• Under the influence of Kalevala, the “ Song of Hiawatha ” by Henry Longfellow was created .

Among the first Kalevala propagandists were Jacob Grott in Russia, Jacob Grimm in Germany.

Maxim Gorky put Kalevala on a par with Homer's epic. In 1908, he wrote: “Individual creativity has created nothing equal to the Iliad or Kalevala.” In 1932, he calls the Finno-Karelian epos "a monument of verbal creativity." “Kalevala” is mentioned in the second volume of “The Life of Klim Samgin”, in chapters devoted to the Finnish impressions of the hero: “Samghin remembered that in his childhood he read“ Kalevala ”, a gift from his mother; this book, written by poems that jumped past memory, seemed to him boring, but his mother still forced to read it to the end. And now, through the chaos of everything that he survived, the epic figures of the heroes of Suomi, fighters against Hiisi and Louha, the elemental forces of nature, her Orpheus Väinemäinen ... merry Lemminkäinen - Baldur Finns, Ilmarinen, fettered Sampo, the treasure of the country "have arisen." The motives for Kalevala are Valery Bryusov, Velimir Khlebnikov, Sergei Gorodetsky, Nikolai Aseev. “Kalevala” was in the library of Alexander Blok.

The national poet of Belarus Yakub Kolas highly appreciated Kalevala, about his work on the poem “Symon the Musician” he said: “Kalevala” gave me a good impetus to work ... And its many creators, and I drank from one source, only Finns on the seashore, among the rocks, and we in our forests and swamps. This living water does not belong to anyone, it is open to many and for many. And in some ways the joy and sorrow of each nation are very similar. So the works may be similar ... I was ready to bow to Lönnrot at the feet. "(According to Maxim Lujanin's book Kolas Tells About Himself)

V. G. Belinsky could not appreciate the global significance of Kalevala. The great critic was familiar with the Finnish epic only in a poor, prosaic retelling. His tense relationship with Y. K. Grot, the main popularizer of Finnish literature in Russia at that time, rejected the Slavophil idealization of folk archaics (Finland of that time, as well as Slavic countries, was cited by Slavophiles, for example Shevyrev, as an example of patriarchal unspoiledness as opposed to “depraved” Europe ) In a review of M. Eman’s book, “The Main Features of the Ancient Finnish Epic of Kalevala,” Belinsky wrote: “We are the first to give justice to Mr. Lönnrot’s beautiful and noble feat, but we don’t consider it necessary to exaggerate. How! all the literature of Europe, except Finnish, turned into some ugly market? ... ". The Frantic Vissarion objected to comparing Kalevala with the ancient epos, pointing to the underdevelopment of modern Finnish culture: “Another national spirit is so small that it fits in a nutshell, and another is so deep and wide that it does not have enough land. Such was the national spirit of the ancient Greeks. Homer far from exhausted it all in his two poems. And who wants to get acquainted and get used to the national spirit of ancient Hellas, Homer alone is not enough, but Hesiod, and the tragedians, and Pindar, and the comedian Aristophanes, and philosophers, and historians, and scientists, will still be needed, and there will still be architecture and sculpture and finally the study of domestic domestic and political life. ” (Belinsky V.G. Complete Works of vol. X, 1956 p. 277-78, 274 M.)

• In 2001, children's writer Igor Vostryakov retold Kalevala for children in prose, and in 2011 he retold Kalevala in verse.
• In 2006, the Finnish-Chinese fantasy film “Warrior of the North” was shot, the plot of which is based on the interweaving of Chinese folk legends and the Karelian-Finnish epic.

• In the Republic of Karelia there is a Kalevala national region and the village of Kalevala .
• In Petrozavodsk and Kostomuksha there is Kalevala street.
• "Kalevala" - a corvette in the Baltic Fleet of the Russian Empire in 1858−1872.
• Kalevala is a bay in the southern part of Posyet Bay in the Sea of ​​Japan . Inspected in 1863 by the crew of the Kalevala corvette , named after the ship.
• In Petrozavodsk there is a cinema "Kalevala", a chain of bookstores "Kalevala".
• Syktyvkar has a Kalevala indoor market.
• Kalevala is a Russian folk metal band from Moscow .
• “Kalevala” is a song of Russian rock bands Mara and Chimera .
• Since the 1970s, the Kalevala Hotel has been operating in the Prionezhsky region of the Republic of Karelia in the village of Kosalma .
• Since 1935, in Finland , under the Kalevala Koru brand, jewelry has been produced using traditional techniques with national Baltic Finnish ornaments.
• In Petrozavodsk, in the park named after Elias Lönnrot, a fountain has been erected in memory of the heroes of the Kalevala epic.
• Since 2006, the annual International Ethnofestival "Kalevala Land" has been held in St. Petersburg ^[16]

Russian translations and adaptations

• 1828 - the journal “ Slav ” publishes a poem by F. N. Glinka “Veynamena and Yukovayna” - an arrangement of the 3rd rune “Kalevala”.
• 1840 - Small passages in the Russian translation are given by J. K. Grot (The Contemporary , 1840).
• 1880-1885 - Several runes in the Russian translation were published by G. Gelgren (“Kullervo” - M., 1880; “Aino” - Helsingfors, 1880; runes 1-3 Helsingfors, 1885).
• 1888 - Kalevala: Finnish Folk Epic / Complete poetic translation, with a preface and notes by L.P. Belsky . - St. Petersburg: Printing House of N. A. Lebedev, Nevsky Prospect, 8., 1888.616 p.). Repeatedly reprinted in the Russian Empire and the USSR.
• 1960 - From the poem “Kalevala” (“The Birth of the Kantele,” “The Golden Maid,” “Aino”) // S. Marshak: Op. in 4 vols., vol. 4, pp. 753-788.
• 1977 - Kalevala. Translation from Finnish L. Belsky. Series "World Literature Library", volume 12. Publishing house "Fiction", M.
• 1981 - Lyubarskaya A. Retelling for children of the Karelian-Finnish epic “Kalevala”. Petrozavodsk: Karelia , 1981. - 191 p. (poetic excerpts from the translation of L.P. Belsky).
• 1998 - Lönnrot E. Kalevala. Translation by Eino Kiuru and Armas Mishin. Petrozavodsk: Karelia , 1998. (Reprinted by Vita Nova in 2010).
• 2015 - Pavel Krusanov . Kalevala. Prose retelling. St. Petersburg, K. Publisher Publishing House . ISBN 978-5-8370-0713-2

Foreign translations

• German translations of Kalevala: Schifner (Helsingfors, 1852) and Paul (Helsingfors, 1884–1886).
• French translation: Leouzon Le Duc (1867).
• Swedish translations: Castrena (1841), Collan (1864-1868), Herzberg (1884)
• English translations: IM Crawford (New York, 1889); Keith Bosley (London, 1989)
• Yiddish translation of eighteen runes: H. Rosenfeld , “Kalevala, Finnish folk epos” (New York, 1954).
• Translations into Hebrew: S. G. Chernikhovsky , 1922-1931; (in prose) per. Sara Tovia , “Kalevala, Country of Heroes” (Kalevala, Eretz ha-giborim), Tel Aviv, 1964 (subsequently reprinted several times).
• Translation into Belarusian: Yakub Lapatka Kalevala, Minsk, 2015, simple transfers to the Belarusian language are
• Ukrainian translation: Evgeny Timchenko (Lviv, 1901).

• Latin translation by Tuomo Pekkanen , 1996.

• Kanteletar
• Kalevipoeg

• Miller, V.F. Kalevala, Finnish epic // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1895. - T. XIV. - S. 9-11.
• “Kalevala” - a monument of world culture: Bibliographic index. / Comp. N. Prushinskaya. Sun Art. E. Karhu . - Petrozavodsk, 1993.
• Kalevala. Karelian-Finnish epic / per. L.P. Belsky. - Petrozavodsk, Karelia, 1973.- 176 p.
• Karelia: encyclopedia: in 3 tons / hl. ed. A.F. Titov. T. 2: K - P. - Petrozavodsk, 2009 .-- 464 p. - p. 6-8 ISBN 978-5-8430-0125-4 (t. 2)
• "Kalevala" in the context of regional and world culture / Ed. ed. I.I. Mullonen. - Petrozavodsk: Karelian Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2010. - 554 p.

Foreign language

• Eliel Aspelin, Le Folklore en Finlande (Melusine, 1884, No. 3).
• Jacob Grimm, Ueber das finnische Epos (Kleine Schriften II).
• Moritz Eman, “The Main Features of the Ancient Kalevala Epic” (Helsingfors, 1847).
• Jul. Krohn, Die Entstehung der einheitlichen Epen im allgemeinen (in Zeitschrift far Völkerpsychologie, XVIII, 1888).
  • Him, "Kalewala Studien" (in the German translation from Swedish, in the same place).
  • About the wonderful Finnish book by J. Kron “History of Finnish literature. Part I. Kalevala ”, published in Helsingfors (1883), see an article by Mr. Mainov:“ A new book about the Finnish folk epos ”(in“ J. M. N. Ave. ”1884, May).
  • The self-processing of the vast materials collected by J. Kron and other Finnish scholars to criticize Kalevala is represented by the solid work of the famous Italian scientist Domenico Comparetti, which was also published in the German translation: Der Kalewala oder die traditionelle Poesie der Finnen (Halle, 1892).
• Andrew Lang, “Custom and Myth” (pp. 156-179).
• Radloff, in the preface to the 5th volume, Proben der Volkslitteratur der nurdlichen Turk-Stämme (St. Petersburg, 1885, p. XXII).
• Steinthal, “Das Epos” (in “Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie” V., 1867).
• V. Tettau, Ueber die epischen Dichtungen de finnischen Volker, besonders d. Kalewala ”(Erfurt, 1873).
• Turunen A. . Kalevalan sanakirja. - Hels., 1949.

• Elias Lönnrot (1802–1884) - Creator of Kalevala
• "Kalevala" - a meeting of eras
• Kalevala in Russian, translation by L. P. Belsky
• Kalevala in Russian (all 50 runes)
• Kalevala in Finnish
• Kalevala in Russian, translation by Eino Kiuru and Armas Mishin
• Kalevala on the website of the Finnish Literary Society : Introduction , Contents of Kalevala , Kalevala - Finnish national epic (inaccessible link) , Many-Faced Kalevala (inaccessible link) , Translations of Kalevala (inaccessible link) (Retrieved February 16, 2012)
• Excerpts from Kalevala, translation by S. Marshak
• History of recording (creation) of Kalevala (Retrieved February 16, 2012)
• Kalevala on the information channel of the Institute of Russia and Eastern Europe and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland (Retrieved February 16, 2012)
• Electronic copy of the first edition of Kalevala (1835) (Fin.) (Retrieved February 16, 2012)
• "Kalevala" in the works of artists
• Some Christian motives of Kalevala by E. Lönnrot
• About translations of Kalevala in Russia
• "Kalevala" - a poem by Lönnrot