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The Kalevala: An Epic Poem after Oral Tradition by Elias Lönnrot (Oxford World's Classics), by Elias Lönnrot
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Review
The original sense Ãof the Kalevala¨ breaks through in a refreshing new way...The philologist and folklorist will welcome the new precision of thought and expression. For English students of Kalevala...this is an indispensable book...Dr. Magoun's re-appraisal of this museum piece from Finland brushes off some of the dust and helps us to see anew something of its originality and distinction. -- W. R. Mead "Folklore"What distinguishes this work from other Kalevala translations is the fact that Professor Magoun presents a prose translation of the national folk epic of Finland, a translation which is accurate and scholarly in every detail...The translator makes his translation agree line for line with the original; the result is that this translation makes readily apparent the parallelisms, the poetic images, and the wry humor as well as the homely realism of the Finnish original.language..."The Kalevala" is a monumental work.significant to students of European folklore...Both Professor Magoun and the Harvard University Press have placed many generations of folklorists in their debt.indispensable book...Dr. Magoun's re-appraisal of this museum piece from Finland brushes off some of the dust and helps us to see anew something of its originality and distinction.Louhi, and old woman who can change into an avenging dragon...This...version, expertly...translated by Francis Magoun and recently issued by Harvard University Press, is probably the best translation readily available in English today.Into the shifting of tone from lyrically tragic poems to those about warfare, from wedding lays to sheer horseplay, Magoun has infused the unmistakable speech rhythm and diction of our own language..."The Kalevala" is a monumental work. -- John Godfrey "Christian Science Monitor"This authoritative new translation of the Kalevala, together with the materials the volume contains relating the poetic style of the Finnish songs to the style of other orally composed poetry, is especially significant to students of European folklore...Both Professor Magoun and the Harvard University Press have placed many generations of folklorists in their debt. -- Robert Kellogg "Journal of American Folklore"The original sense [of the Kalevala] breaks through in a refreshing new way...The philologist and folklorist will welcome the new precision of thought and expression. For English students of Kalevala...this is an indispensable book...Dr. Magoun's re-appraisal of this museum piece from Finland brushes off some of the dust and helps us to see anew something of its originality and distinction. -- W. R. Mead "Folklore"Thanks to a...clear, accurate version by Francis Magoun, "Kalevala" is accessible to interested readers everywhere...The kaleidoscopic "Kalevala" opens with the creation of the world and the birth of the ancient hero, Vainamoinen, a being of supernatural origins. The work then turns to the relations between two communities: "Kalevala" ("Land of the Kaleva"--the poetic name for Finland), led by Vainamoinen, and "Pohjola" ("Land of the North"), ruled by Louhi, and old woman who can change into an avenging dragon...This...version, expertly...translated by Francis Magoun and recently issued by Harvard University Press, is probably the best translation readily available in English today. -- Donald V. Mehus and Thomas J. Martin "Western Viking" (04/13/2001)
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From the Back Cover
The national folk epic of Finland is here presented in an English translation that is both scholarly and eminently readable. The lyrical passages and poetic images, the wry humor, the tall-tale extravagance, and the homely realism of the 'Kaevala' come through with extraordinary effectiveness.
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Product details
Series: Oxford World's Classics
Paperback: 736 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1 edition (February 15, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0199538867
ISBN-13: 978-0199538867
Product Dimensions:
7.7 x 1.7 x 5.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.4 out of 5 stars
52 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#108,508 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Kalevala is a great body of mythology and folklore that is vital to understanding Finland, and Finnish national identity. In fact, it might not be going too far to say that the Kalevala cycle *is* Finland, in so much as a culture's founding stories can be said to "make" the culture. Aside from the Kalevala's importance in historical and cultural terms, however, this is a great collection of stories that will enchant and delight anyone who likes to meet interesting, larger-than-life characters and see them put in interesting situations.This Oxford World's Classics edition of The Kalevala benefits from a foreword by Albert B. Lord of Harvard University and an introduction by translator Keith Bosley. Both the foreword and the introduction do a very fine job of setting The Kalevala in its historical context, and particularly of explaining the Herculean labor that Finnish folklorist Elias Lönnrot performed in traveling throughout the Russo-Finnish border region of Karelia and recording the oral poetry he found among the Karelians.Yet one goes to The Kalevala not for forewords or introductions, but rather for the poetry itself, and the epic story it tells. The main characters of The Kalevala have that mythic, heroic quality, and it is interesting to wonder about the characters as we meet them in this poetic cycles. Were they originally gods of a polytheistic, pre-Christian religious cycle, and are the poem's references to one god, an Almighty Creator, a way by which the Karelians held on to the old stories under the pressure of adopting a new religion? Were the main characters of these stories originally eminent Karelians of ancient times, whose stories metamorphosed over time into tales of mythic heroes? Or do the stories come from some other source or cause, one that is too far removed in time from us for us to have a chance of discovering it?Whatever the case may be, the characters are vivid, and so are their stories. The elderly Väinämöinen is a great singer who can work magic through the power of his songs; but he is unlucky in love, and he laments that he should have married young (advice that might have been taken seriously by the rural residents of old Karelia, where early marriage might lead to the birth of more children who could help on the farm). The smith Ilmarinen is hard-working and preternaturally skilled at his craft; as the Norse thunder-god Thór was a hammer-wielder with whom working-class Vikings could identify, so Ilmarinen is a hero for the working-day. He is the man who forged the Sampo, a mystical device that is never described very clearly, but brings prosperity to its owner. You grind the Sampo, and it makes you wealthy. I suppose that is all we really need to know. The Sampo is a plot device, a catalyst - the MacGuffin of The Kalevala.Very different from Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen is the Kalevala cycle's third main character, the mischievous Lemminkäinen. On some levels, Lemminkäinen is a trickster-figure like Loki from Norse mythology; selfish and forever in search of gratification, "wanton Lemminkäinen" has a habit of seducing all the young women of a village, and then skipping out just a few steps ahead of a whole village-full of angry fathers and husbands and boyfriends and brothers. Yet his story takes a number of interesting and unexpected directions that the Vikings of pre-Christian times would never have expected to see from Loki. Rune 14, "Elk, Horse, Swan," shows Lemminkäinen journeying into the underworld in search of the swan of Tuonela (a story later adapted into a musical tone poem by Jan Sibelius); he is killed by a blind herdsman whom he had wronged (in a manner somewhat analogous to the way the compassionate god Baldr from Norse mythology is killed, albeit unintentionally, by the blind god Höðr) and torn to pieces. Rune 15, "Resurrection," shows Lemminkäinen's long-suffering mother journeying to the underworld, reconstructing her son's mangled body, and bringing him back to life - a story that invites parallels with the story of Isis and Osiris from Egyptian mythology.One of my favorite tales from the poem is Rune 17, "Inside the Giant," wherein Väinämöinen, seeking songs that he can use to wield magical power, goes inside the mouth of the giant Antero Vipunen, makes his way down to the giant's belly, and gives the giant no end of gastrointestinal discomfort until Antero Vipunen "opened his word-chest/and flung wide his box of tales" (p. 213), providing Väinämöinen with powerful spells that Väinämöinen will henceforth be able to sing when they are needed. In this story, one senses echoes of the various descents-into-the-abyss that one reads of in different mythological traditions - e.g., Odysseus and Aeneas making their respective descents to the Greco-Roman underworld, in order that they may bring back from the land of the dead the information that they need in order to fulfill their respective quests - as well as the story of Jonah's swallowing by the great fish in the Old Testament. Aside from the mythographic qualities and storytelling power of "Inside the Giant," I just find "Antero Vipunen" to be an incredibly awesome name.Another of the most important characters in the Kalevala is Kullervo. The child of one of two families involved in a feud, Kullervo is sent away from his family, made a serf of Ilmarinen, and treated cruelly by Ilmarinen's wife. Kullervo curses Ilmarinen's wife - "[Y]ou too will weep yet --/you'll weep your milch cows" (p. 462) - and transforms her herd of cows, which he had been sent to herd, into bears, instructing them, "Rip the mistress's/thigh, bite half her calf/when she comes to look/and crouches to milk!" (p. 463). Once his magic has brought about the death of Ilmarinen's wife, Kullervo returns home and finds his family, but then leaves them, determined to revenge himself on the family of Untamo, the family that has wronged him. He meets a girl on the road and has his way with her, but with tragic consequences (think Oedipus). And he does get his revenge; but as with those Shakespearean characters who dedicate themselves to revenge, Kullervo destroys himself even as he works the destruction of his enemies. These runes make for profoundly disheartening reading.A highlight of the Kalevala, for me, was the series of runes starting with Rune 39, "Sailing to Northland." In these runes, the three main characters - Väinämöinen, Ilmarinen, and Lemminkäinen - join forces and sail north in search of the Sampo, the mystical prosperity-bringing device forged by Ilmarinen but then taken away to the North by the witch Louhi. (I can't help wondering if such elements of the myth point back to old economic rivalries between the Finnish Karelians on the one hand and the Sami people of Sapmi, or Lapps of Lapland, on the other.) The three make their way successfully to Northland and retrieve the Sampo, but Louhi transforms herself into a bird-monster and pursues them: "[N]ow the North's dame is coming/the wondrous bird glides along --/as for shoulders, like a hawk/a wyvern as for body!" (p. 567). A great battle ensues, and the editors of this edition wisely made Finnish artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela's 1896 painting "Defending the Sampo" the book's front cover illustration (check out Kallela's other Kalevala paintings if you're an admirer of the stories). I won't tell you what happens to the Sampo - no spoiler alert needed here - but I will say that we'd all better plan to keep working for a living; none of us is likely to find the Sampo and grind his or her way to easy money.In modern Finland, the Kalevala is a living force, a benchmark of Finnish national identity and cultural pride. You never know when you'll turn a corner in Helsinki and find a statue of Väinämöinen singing, or Ilmarinen wielding his hammer. One of the best restaurants in the city, close to the waterfront, is named Aino, for the young maiden who threw herself into the sea in order to avoid marrying the elderly Väinämöinen, and in the process became the first mermaid. But you don't have to travel to Finland to appreciate the mythic power and beauty of The Kalevala. It is a great collection of stories, pure and simple, and this translation conveys well the power and beauty of the stories.
This review is in two parts:THE TRANSLATION: When it comes to reading ancient literature there are often numerous versions and translations. Unless a story is REALLY good, I only want to read it once. So it only makes sense that one should want to read the best version/translation available.Thankfully, the Keith Bosley translation of The Kalevala is the most reader-friendly, very much like Seamus Heaney's translation of "Beowulf".The Kalevala does not rhyme, although there are a few instances of alliteration scattered throughout. Each line is usually a handful of words comprising an even larger sentence, but it's done in a tasteful way so that you won't feel like you're reading a James Joyce run-on sentence like in "Ulysses".THE EPIC:The Kalevala bounces around telling tales of several major characters, which is fortunate, considering the length of the work. Without giving anything away, the characters do things like get married, steal precious relics, sing magical songs, go to war and build many more precious relics.There are lots of good "Chapters" in The Kalevala and I was surprised that a few of my favorites had little or no action in them (according to a guy's definition of action, at least). One of which was the marriage sequence of Chapters 21-24. If you've ever heard the advice, "Don't get married", this is probably one of the sources where such advice comes from.It is also noteworthy how much influence The Kalevala has had on Fantasy and Metal. If I remember correctly, Tolkien's "Silmarillion" starts off with beings singing things into existence, much like the characters in The Kalevala do.The Finnish metal band "Ensiferum" has songs that are inspired straight from The Kalevala, such as "Old Man" which refers to Vainamoinen.There are many other bands in the folk metal genre, that, although they don't specifically cite The Kalevala as an inspiration they clearly have songs that are similar to The Kalevala's oral tradition. Some examples (in my opinion) would be Korpiklaani (Finnish), Metsatoell and Raud Ants (Estonian).Overall, I liked The Kalevala much more than I thought I would, given its length and I have to admit: I found it more interesting than Beowulf.
Translation:I started the Kalevala by reading the free public domain translation available on Kindle, and quickly found myself losing motivation to read it. This version is much more readable, and is overall a good translation.I don't know Finnish, but I do have some doubts about the translation. The issue of using "wench" has been brought up, but my bigger concern is the inconsistency in translating proper nouns. Sometimes, these are translated, and other times left untranslated. The -la suffix has been translated as -land in some places, but not others (Kalevala and Tuonela, but Vaino-land and Northland). Some names are translated into English where it would seem better to leave them as Finnish names (although this is useful with the bear's epithet, translated as "Beastie"). This works well for the epithets of Lemminkainen (e.g. Far-Mind instead of Kaukomieli), but with true names, it seems odd.Content:While this is still certainly an epic, don't expect it to fit your expectations of what the epic tradition is meant to be. There are some action-packed episodes in it, but it has just as many depictions of day-to-day life. Since it is cobbled together from various sources, there isn't necessarily an over-arching narrative. It's closer to the Metamorphoses than the Aeneid or Odyssey in its structure, but still very interesting to the philologist or historian.
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