
The Kalevala
Elias Lonnrot(Author)
Oxford Paperbacks (Publisher)
Published on 14. January 1999
Book
Paperback/Softback
736 pages
978-0-19-283570-3 (ISBN)
Description
The Kalevala is the great Finnish epic, which like the Iliad and the Odyssey, grew out of a rich oral tradition with prehistoric roots. During the first millenium of our era, speakers of Uralic languages (those outside the Indo-European group) who had settled in the Baltic region of Karelia, that straddles the border of eastern Finland and north-west Russia, developed an oral poetry that was to last into the nineteenth century. This poetry provided the basis of the Kalevala. It was assembled in the 1840s by the Finnish scholar Elias Lonnrot, who took 'dictation' from the performance of a folk singer, in much the same way as our great collections from the past, from Homeric poems to medieval songs and epics, have probably been set down. Published in 1849, it played a central role in the march towards Finnish independence and inspired some of Sibelius's greatest works. This new and exciting translation by poet Keith Bosley, prize-winning translator of the anthology Finnish Folk Poetry: Epic, is the first truly to combine liveliness with accuracy in a way which reflects the richness of the original.
More details
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Oxford University Press
Edition type
New edition
Illustrations
1 map
Dimensions
Height: 196 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 45 mm
Weight
575 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-283570-3 (9780192835703)
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Schweitzer Classification