MASTERED by desire impulsive,
By a mighty inward urging,
I am ready now for singing,
Ready to begin the chanting
Of our nation's ancient folk-song
Handed down from by-gone ages.
(from the start of the epic poem "Kalevala", translation by John Martin Crawford, 1888)

The lands of Kaleva, Fennia, Finland, Suomi - whatever you might call them - are situated between Sweden and Russia. The first mention of the people, Fenni, is from Tacitus' "Germania": "In wonderful savageness live the nation of the Fennians, and in beastly poverty, destitute of arms, of horses, and of homes; their food, the common herbs; their apparel, skins; their bed, the earth; their only hope in their arrows, which for want of iron they point with bones. Their common support they have from the chase, women as well as men; for with these the former wander up and down, and crave a portion of the prey."
Tho later research has abandoned that this description refers not to the real Finns (but to the Sami), the name stuck, and so the people of Kaleva came to be known as Finns.

Elias Lönnrot, a Finnish physician, made several field trips to Kainuu and Viena Karelia in the 19th century collecting old foktales and poetry, from which he compiled the folklore of Kalevala - The Old Kalevala (1835) and the new Kalevala (1849).

According to Kalevala, the world was made from the egg of the Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula);
From one half the egg, the lower,
Grows the nether vault of Terra:
From the upper half remaining,
Grows the upper vault of Heaven;
From the white part come the moonbeams,
From the yellow part the sunshine,
From the motley part the starlight,
From the dark part grows the cloudage;

Now I end my measured singing,
Bid my weary tongue keep silence,
Leave my songs to other singers...
...To the singers better gifted,
For the good of future ages,
For the coming generations,
For the rising folk of Suomi.
(from the epilogue of the epic poem "Kalevala", translation by John Martin Crawford, 1888)

Sources:
Kalevala translation from: Project Gutenberg
Virtual Finland: Kalevala
Juminkeko.fi: Lönnrot
Project Runeberg: Kalevala
Tacitus quote from: Wikipedia
Images: Wikimedia Commons

Other links of interest:
Kalevala – The Finnish National Epic (@ Virtual Finland)
Kalevala-links at Helsinki.fi (by Ritva Raesmaa)
Kalevala at Pegasos - A literature related site in Finland
Pronunciation guide to Finnish names in Kalevala
Hiawatha, Native American Kalevala?
Finland, by The New Human Interest Library, 1928
The Kalevala Graphic novel
Kalevala in PlayMobil, three parts in Spanish

Ahti Karjalainen