Kalevala

Summary

The Kalevala is the national epic of Finland, compiled by the physician and folklorist Elias Lönnrot from oral songs he and others gathered in Finnish and Russian Karelia. Its fifty runes, or cantos, follow the deeds of the people of Kalevala, chiefly the old singer and sage Väinämöinen, the smith Ilmarinen and the reckless Lemminkäinen, and their long rivalry with Louhi, mistress of the cold northern land of Pohjola. It begins with creation: the Daughter of the Air floats on the sea for centuries until a duck's eggs break on her knee and form the earth, sky, sun and moon, and Väinämöinen is born already old. He clears the land and sows barley, defeats the young Joukahainen in a singing contest and sinks him in a swamp, and is promised Joukahainen's sister Aino, who drowns herself rather than marry him. Drifting to Pohjola, Väinämöinen wins Louhi's help home by promising the Sampo, a magic mill that grinds flour, salt and money, which Ilmarinen forges; but Louhi's daughter refuses the smith. Lemminkäinen carries off the island maiden Kyllikki, goes to Pohjola to woo, and is killed on the river of Tuonela, the land of the dead; his mother rakes his body from the river, joins its pieces and revives him with balm a bee brings from heaven. Väinämöinen builds a boat with spells he must seek in the underworld and inside the giant Antero Vipunen, and after a contest of suitors Ilmarinen wins the Maiden of Pohjola through impossible tasks, followed by long wedding songs. The story of Kullervo, a child of a feuding family sold into servitude, is the epic's tragedy: wronged by Ilmarinen's wife, he takes revenge, unwittingly wrongs his own lost sister, destroys his enemies and dies on his sword. The heroes then sail to Pohjola, where Väinämöinen lulls the household to sleep with a harp made from a pike's jawbone, and they carry off the Sampo; Louhi pursues them, and in the battle the Sampo breaks and its fragments bring prosperity to the Finnish shore. Louhi sends nine diseases, which Väinämöinen heals with sauna, ointment and prayer, then hides the sun and moon until she is forced to free them. In the last rune the virgin Marjatta conceives by eating a lingonberry and bears a son who is baptized king of Karelia, and Väinämöinen departs in a copper boat, leaving his harp and songs to his people. Lönnrot published the Old Kalevala of 32 poems in 1835 and the 50-rune New Kalevala, nearly 23,000 lines, in 1849. John Martin Crawford's 1888 translation keeps the eight-syllable trochaic meter of the Finnish and uses older German-influenced spellings such as Wainamoinen and Pohyola.

Top Lessons

• The power of the word

  In the Kalevala, song is power: Väinämöinen sings Joukahainen into a swamp, needs three missing words to finish his boat, and heals wounds only when he knows the origin of the thing that caused them. Knowledge of beginnings, sung aright, is the hero's real strength, and the poem ends with the singer leaving his songs to his people.

• A mother's love

  The most moving figures in the epic are often mothers. Aino's mother laments that she drove her daughter toward an unwanted marriage, and Lemminkäinen's mother searches land and river until she rakes her son's body from the stream of death and restores him with a balm from heaven.

• Nurture and the tragedy of Kullervo

  Kullervo is the child of a feud who is never rocked, taught or loved; his great strength turns to destruction and finally to self-destruction. Väinämöinen's words at his death draw the lesson that a child badly nurtured will never gain discretion, however strong he grows.

• Wealth, rivalry and the lost Sampo

  The Sampo grinds grain, salt and money, and both Kalevala and Pohjola want it. The rivalry ends with the treasure shattered in the sea, yet even its fragments bring plenty to Finland, while the attempt to own it brings war, sickness and the theft of the sun.

Verified Quotes

Medical Lens

The Kalevala matters to the history of medicine on two levels. Its compiler was a physician: Lönnrot served for two decades as district doctor at Kajaani during years of famine and epidemic, and his doctoral dissertation (1832) dealt with the magical medicine of the Finns, the charms that fill the epic. Inside the poem, healing is done by knowledge of origins: to stop the bleeding of Väinämöinen's axe wound in Runes VIII-IX, an old man must sing the origin of iron before applying a blood-stopping charm, ointment and bandages, and Rune XLV tells how the blind daughter of Tuonela, Loviatar, bears nine diseases that Väinämöinen drives out with the heated sauna, salves and prayer to Ukko. The sauna appears throughout as a place of cleansing, birth and healing. Lemminkäinen's restoration in Rune XV, in which his mother joins the parts of his body and anoints him with balm brought by a bee, combines charm, salve and prayer. These passages are folk-medical and religious, not clinical; their charms are best read as records of traditional belief that Lönnrot himself studied as a doctor. The Aino and Kullervo stories include two suicides and much grief, treated in the poem as tragedy and lament rather than as illness.

• Runes VIII-IX

  Väinämöinen's axe slips and gashes his knee; an old man stops the bleeding by singing the origin of iron and then applies salve and bandages.

• Rune XV

  Lemminkäinen's mother rakes his body from the river of Tuonela, joins it together and revives him with salves, the last fetched by a bee from heaven.

• Rune XLV

  Loviatar bears the nine diseases, which Louhi sends upon Kalevala; Väinämöinen heals the people with the sauna, ointments and prayers.

• Runes IV and XXXV-XXXVI

  Aino drowns herself and her mother laments; Kullervo's sister drowns herself and Kullervo falls on his sword.