Elias Lönnrot

Elias Lönnrot was born in 1802 in Sammatti, in southern Finland, then part of Sweden, the son of a poor village tailor. Despite his family's poverty, he studied at the Academy of Turku and then at Helsinki, earning a degree in medicine, and he worked for about twenty years as a district physician in Kajaani in northern Finland. During his studies he became interested in the oral poetry of Finland, and he made many long journeys, mostly on foot, to remote villages in Finland and Karelia, writing down traditional songs from singers. From this material he compiled the Kalevala, published in 1835 and expanded in 1849. It weaves songs about heroes such as the old singer Väinämöinen and the smith Ilmarinen into a single epic. The Kalevala helped inspire a Finnish national movement and influenced artists such as the composer Jean Sibelius. Lönnrot also compiled the Kanteletar, a collection of lyric songs, and a Finnish–Swedish dictionary, and he was a professor of Finnish at Helsinki. He died in Sammatti in 1884.

Elias Lönnrot is also an author in the library: author page and works.

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