page_title: Kalevala
section_title: Interpretations
hierarchical_section_title: Kalevala / Interpretations
caption_attribution_description: Considered to be the first visual depiction of Väinämöinen. Located at Old Academy Building in Turku.
context_page_description: The Kalevala is a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology.
  It is regarded as the national epic of Karelia and Finland and is one of the most significant works of Finnish literature. The Kalevala was instrumental in the development of the Finnish national identity and the intensification of Finland's language strife that ultimately led to Finland's independence from Russia in 1917.
  The first version of the Kalevala, called the Old Kalevala, was published in 1835. The version most commonly known today was first published in 1849 and consists of 22,795 verses, divided into fifty folk stories.
context_section_description: The Kalevala has attracted many scholars and enthusiasts to interpret its contents in a historical context. Many interpretations of the themes have been tabled. Some parts of the epic have been perceived as ancient conflicts between the early Finns and the Sami. In this context, the country of "Kalevala" could be understood as Southern Finland and Pohjola as Lapland.
  However, the place names in Kalevala seem to transfer the Kalevala further south, which has been interpreted as reflecting the Finnic expansion from the South that came to push the Sami further to the north. Some scholars locate the lands of Kalevala in East Karelia, where most of the Kalevala stories were written down. In 1961, the small town of Uhtua in the then Soviet Republic of Karelia was renamed Kalevala, perhaps to promote that theory.
  Finnish politician and linguist Eemil Nestor Setälä rejected the idea that the heroes of Kalevala are historical in nature and suggested they are personifications of natural phenomena. He interprets Pohjola as the northern heavens and the Sampo as the pillar of the world. Setälä suggests that the journey to regain the Sampo is a purely imaginary one with the heroes riding a mythological boat or magical steed to the heavens.
  The practice of bear worship was once very common in Finland and there are strong echoes of this in the Kalevala.
  The old Finnish word väinä (a strait of deep water with a slow current) appears to be the origin of the name Väinämöinen; one of Väinämöinen's other names is Suvantolainen, suvanto being the modern word for väinä. Consequently, it is possible that the Saari (Island) might be the island of Saaremaa in Estonia and Kalevala the Estonian mainland.
  Finnish folklorists Matti Kuusi and Pertti Anttonen state that terms such as the people of Kalevala or the tribe of Kalevala were fabricated by Elias Lönnrot. Moreover, they contend that the word Kalevala is very rare in traditional poetry and that by emphasizing dualism (Kalevala vs. Pohjola) Elias Lönnrot created the required tension that made the Kalevala dramatically successful and thus fit for a national epic of the time.
  There are similarities with mythology and folklore from other cultures, for example the Kullervo character and his story bearing some likeness to the Greek Oedipus. The similarity of the virginal maiden Marjatta to the Christian Virgin Mary is striking. The arrival of Marjatta's son in the final song spelling the end of Väinämöinen's reign over Kalevala is similar to the arrival of Christianity bringing about the end of Paganism in Finland and Europe at large.
caption: Väinämöinen Plays Kantele, a 1814 relief by Erik Cainberg [fi] made before the publication of the Kalevala and considered to be the first depiction of Väinämöinen[119]
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