KALEVALA. The Romantic movement, which in Germany began by the collection of folk-songs and fairy-tales, frequently led in the outlying countries to literary creations of national epics on the basis of actual epic songs. Thus arose in Finland the' syste matically arranged by Dr. A. Lonnrot in 1835, and in 1849 totally rearranged and enlarged to 22,800 verses. Almqvist showed how Lorin rot had eclectically glued together actual variants, sometimes composing himself a few lines in order to bridge over discordant pas sages, more frequently rejecting verses which clashed with the general scheme he had in mind. However, if we disregard the unity of the Kalevala as a whole and the unimportant literary transitions, we have in Liinnrot's pro duction an extremely valuable collection of Finnish heroic and magical songs, which throw a light upon the formation of a popular litera ture among the Finnish tribes. Some archaeol ogists have assumed that in this (Kalevala) we have a documentary record of a primitive state of society, but Comparetti, with far more justice, holds that it is not an invariable docu ment of antiquity, but reflects, in ever changing form, the intellectual condition of the simple folk not far removed from the time when these songs were written down. Therefore it is not correct to speak of the (Kalevala) as an epic, especially since the indeterminateness of images represented and the arbitrary fication of nature permit no set classification. The Finnish mythology is based on shamanistic polydaemonism and is not as highly developed as it was among the Romans, Assyrians or other cultured nations of antiquity, hence it yields no well-defined theogony. Similarly the hero is not always to be separated from the poet and magician, and his chief exploit con sists in song competitions, as is the case with the shamanic wizard, or in wooing of the bride.
The most cherished possession of such a hero is the sampo, a treasure which is hazily iden tified with a precious casket or a mill, but which Comparetti takes to be a Scandinavian word meaning commonwealth,° and which here has become a concrete object to be striven for. Just as indefinite is the Kalevala, the country of Kaleva, one of the heroes, though some authors take it to be ((Finland,)) while the Pohjola, with which it is in conflict, has been supposed to represent the country of the North or the abode of the dead. But, while the Kalevala loses in importance as a national epic with a well-sustained plot, it justly main tains its place in popular literature, on account of the vivid imagery displayed by the popular Wet.
The poem is now accessible to English readers in several translations: 'The Kalevala, the Epic Poem of Finland,) rendered into Eng lish by J. M. Crawford (2 vols., New York 1888); 'Kalevala, the Land of Heroes,' trans lated from the original Finnish by W. F. Kirby (London 1907, in (Everyman's Library,' 2 vols.). Selections from the (Kalevala) are given in (Selections from the Kalevala,) trans lated from a German version by J. A. Porter (New York 1868); 'People of Finland in Archaic Times,' by J. C. Brown (London 1892); 'The Sampo, J. Adventures from the Finnish Kalevala,) by James Baldwin (New York 1912). The best study of the poem is still that by Comparetti, Traditional Poetry of the Finns,' translated by Isabella M. Anderson, with introduction by Andrew Lang (London 1898). The obligation of Long fellow's to the was early pointed out by Th. C. Porter (in the Mercersburg Review, Vol. VIII, 1856).