The chief monument of Finnish literature is the Ealewala, a sort of epic poem, which, until the present century, existed only in the memory and on the lipS of the peasantry. A collection of some of the scattered parts of this poem was published in 1822 by Zacharias Topelius, but Elias Lonnrot, 13 years later, published a far more complete collection. Dr. Lonnrot wandered from place to place among the peasantry, living with them and taking down from their lips all that.they knew of their popular songs. After unwearied diligence in his researches, he was successful in collecting 12,000 lines, which he arranged into 32 runes or cantos, and published exactly as he heard them sung or chanted. Continuing his researches, he published in 1849 a new edition of 22,793 verses, in 50 runes. The importance of this long-hidden epic was at once recognized in Europe, and translations .of it were made in several languages. Some specimens of it were translated into English by prof. Porter, of Yale, and pub lished in New York in 1868. The poem is written in eight-syllabled trochaic verse, and an idea of its style may be obtained from Longfellow's Hiawatha, which approaches a true imitation of the Finnish epic. Prof. Max Muller bears emphatic testimony to the merits of this ancient poem. " It is," he says, " equal to the Iliad in length and com pleteness; nay—if we can forget for a moinentjt11 thati!et;e'riek our?ytuth learned to call beautiful—not less beautiful. Kalewala will claim its place as the fifth national epic of the world, side by side with the Ionian songs, with the 11fahablidrta, the Shahndmek, and the Nibelunge." The Kalewala is concerned with the mythology or folk lore of the people. In the story there is a certain unity of plot, though the various parts are not perfectly homogeneous, and appear to be the product of different minds at different periods, the various songs having evidently received additions in course of time. They probably originated before the Finns were converted to Christianity, and
when they were not scattered as they are now. When Dr. Lonnrot collected the Kalewala songs, he also gathered a considerable quantity of lyric poetry, which he published under the name of Kanteletar, from the name of the national instrument to which they are sung—a species of harp with five strings. Of recent Finnish poets, the most popular seems to be Paavo Korrhoinen, a peasant, a very sarcastic writer. Other modern poets are Marteska, Kettunen, Ilhainen, Oksaselta. The Finns abound in proverbs, Lonnrot having published a collection of upwards of 7,000, with about 200 charades, while considerable collections of legends and tales have been published. The first printed book in Finnish was probably the Abeeeclarium of Michael Agricola, bishop of Abo, which appeared in the middle of the 16th century. A translation of the New Testament by the same bishop appeared in 1548, at Stockholm. The whole Bible was not translated into Finnish till 1642. During the last and present centuries there has been considerable literary activity in Finland, and books in almost every branch of research are found in the language, mainly translations or adaptations. At the Paris international exhibition of 1878, several native Finnish painters and sculptors exhibited works which would do credit to any country. Finland is rich in periodicals of all kinds, the publications of the Finnish societies of literature and of the sciences and other learned bodies being specially valuable. Works on Finnish history and geography are quite numerous. In language we have Lonnrot's great Finnish-Swedish dictionary, recently published by the Finnish literary society.