The Kalevala

Translated from the Finnish with an Introduction and Notes by Keith Bosley

Elias Lönnrot

679 Pages, ISBN 978 0 19 953886 7     
Published by Oxford World's Classics 1989, reissued 2008     


'Words shall not be hid
nor spells be buried;
might shall not sink underground
though the mighty go.'

The Kalevala is the great Finnish epic which, like the Iliad and Odyssey, grew out of a rich oral tradition with prehistoric roots. During the first millennium of our era, speakers of Uralic languages (outside of the Indo-European group) who had settled in the Baltic region developed an oral poetry that was to last into the nineteenth century. This poetry provided the basis of the Kalevala, assembled by the Finnish scholar Elias Lönnrot and published in its final form in 1849. It played a central role in the process towards Finnish independence and inspired some of the greatest music of Sibelius.

The poet Keith Bosley is the prize-winning translator of the anthology Finnish Folk Poetry: Epic. This translation of the Kalevala is the first to combine liveliness with accuracy in a way that reflects the richness of the original.

This edition includes:
Introduction - Bibliography - Explanatory notes
Note on pronunciation - Appendix

Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Keith Bosley
Foreword by Albert B. Lord


(The text above comes from the back of the book)     



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