KALEVALA or KALEWALA, the name of the Finnish national epos. It takes its name from the three sons of Kalewa (or Finland), viz., the ancient Vainamoinen, the inventor of the sacred harp Kantele; the cunning art-smith, Ilmarinen; and the gallant Lemminkainen, who is a sort of Arctic Don Juan. The adventures of these three heroes are wound about a plot for securing in marriage the hand of the daughter of Louhi, a hero from Pohjola, a land of the cold north. Ilmarinen is set to construct a magic mill, the Sampo, which grinds out meal, salt and gold, and as this has fallen into the hands of the folk of Pohjola, it is needful to recover it. The poem actually opens, however, with a very poetical theory of the origin of the world. The virgin daughter of the atmosphere, Ilmatar, wanders for seven hundred years in space, until she bethinks her to invoke Ukko, the modern Zeus, who sends his eagle to her; this bird makes its nest on the knees of Ilmatar and lays in it seven eggs. Out of the substance of these eggs the visible world is made. But it is empty and sterile until Vainamoinen descends upon it and woos the exquisite Aino. She disappears into space, and it is to recover from his loss and to find another bride that Vdind moinen makes his series of epical adventures in the dismal country of Pohjola. Various episodes of great strangeness and beauty accompany the lengthy recital of the struggle to acquire the magical Sampo, which gives prosperity to whoever possesses it. In the midst of a battle the Sampo is broken and falls into the sea, but one fragment floats on the waves, and, being stranded on the shores of Finland, secures eternal felicity for that country. At the very close of the poem a virgin, Mariatta, brings forth a king who drives Vainamoinen out of the country, and this is understood to refer to the ultimate conquest of Paganism by Christianity.
The poem is written in eight-syllabled trochaic verse, and an idea of its style may be obtained from Longfellow's Hiawatha, which is a pretty true imitation of the Finnish epic. Longfellow in fact borrowed his metre from a German translation of the Kalevala in the original metre.
Until the 19th century the Kalewala existed only in fragments in the memories and on the lips of the peasants. A collection of a few of these scattered songs was published in 1822 by Dr. Zacharius Topelius, but it was not until 1835 that anything like a complete and systematically arranged collection was given to the world by Dr. Elias Lonnrot. For years Dr. Lonnrot wandered from place to place in the most remote districts, living with the peasantry, and taking down from their lips all that they knew of their popular songs. Some of the most valuable were discovered in the govern ments of Archangel and Olonetz. After unwearied diligence Lonn rot was successful in collecting 12,000 lines. These he arranged as methodically as he could into thirty-two runes or cantos, which he published exactly as he heard them sung or chanted. Continuing his researches, Dr. Lonnrot published in 1849 a new edition of 22,793 verses in fifty runes. A still more complete text was pub lished by A. V. Forsman in 1887. The importance of this indige nous epic was at once recognized in Europe, and translations were made into Swedish, German and French. Several translations into English exist, the latest being that by W. J. Kirby in 1907. The best foreign editions issued are those of Castren in Swedish (1844), Leouzon le Duc in French (1845 and 1868), Schiefner in German (1852).