Kalevala: The Epic Poem of Finland
Ancient Finnic Creation Myths, Shamanic Folklore, and Incantatory Songs of Finnish Cultural AwakeningBy Anonymous
Length15h 31m
About this audiobook
*Kalevala: The Epic Poem of Finland* gathers the mythic songs, heroic narratives, charms, and laments of Finnish-Karelian oral tradition into a vast poetic vision of origins, conflict, desire, and loss. Its central figures—including the singer Väinämöinen, the smith Ilmarinen, and the reckless Lemminkäinen—move through a world where language is a form of power and song can create, heal, or destroy. Characterized by repetition, parallelism, alliteration, and incantatory rhythm, the poem preserves the distinctive aesthetics of oral performance while assuming the scale and structural ambition of a national epic. It belongs both to the comparative history of world mythology and to nineteenth-century Europe's powerful movement of cultural nationalism. Although presented here under the name Anonymous, the work derives from generations of singers whose traditional verses were collected and arranged by Elias Lönnrot in the nineteenth century. Lönnrot's editorial labor transformed dispersed regional materials into a coherent literary composition, while retaining the archaic imagery, formulaic diction, and musical cadence of its sources. The poem thus stands at the intersection of communal authorship, scholarly reconstruction, and nation-building: it is neither a purely individual invention nor a transparent transcript of folklore. This edition will reward readers interested in mythology, oral literature, comparative epic, and the formation of national identity. Its imaginative richness invites poetic reading, while its layered transmission encourages historical and anthropological inquiry. Readers should approach it as both an enthralling story cycle and a remarkable record of how cultural memory becomes literature.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 4.2 (12.9K)
Includes Goodreads, LibraryThing, Amazon, StoryGraph
GenrePoetry
Length15 hrs 31 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateOct 21, 2021
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Serbian Folk-lore
2PREFACE
3PROEM
4BOOK I
5RUNE I. BIRTH OF WAINAMOINEN.
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6RUNE II. WAINAMOINEN’S SOWING.
7RUNE III. WAINAMOINEN AND YOUKAHAINEN.
8RUNE IV. THE FATE OF AINO.
9RUNE V. WAINAVOINEN’S LAMENTATION.
10RUNE VI. WAINAMOINEN’S HAPLESS JOURNEY.
11RUNE VII. WAINIOINEN’S RESCUE.
12RUNE VIII. MAIDEN OF THE RAINBOW.
13RUNE IX. ORIGIN OF IRON.
14RUNE X. ILMARINEN FORGES THE SAMPO.
15RUNE XI. LEMMINKAINEN’S LAMENT.
16RUNE XII. KYLLIKKI’S BROKEN VOW.
17RUNE XIII. LEMMINIKAINEN’S SECOND WOOING.
18RUNE XIV. DEATH OF LEMMINKAINEN.
19RUNE XV. LEMMINKAINEN’S RESTORATION.
20RUNE XVI. WAINAMOINEN’S BOAT-BUILDING.
21RUNE XVII. WAINAMOINEN FINDS THE LOST-WORD.
22RUNE XVIII. THE RIVAL SUITORS
23RUNE XIX. ILMARINEN’S WOOING.
24RUNE XX. THE BREWING OF BEER.
25RUNE XXI. ILMARINEN’S WEDDING-FEAST.
26RUNE XXII. THE BRIDE S FAREWELL.
27RUNE XXIII. OSMOTAR THE BRIDE-ADVISER
28RUNE XXIV. THE BRIDE’S FAREWELL.
29BOOK II
30RUNE XXV. WAINAMOINEN’S WEDDING-SONGS.
31RUNE XXVI. ORIGIN OF THE SERPENT.
32RUNE XXVII. THE UNWELCOME GUEST.
33RUNE XXVIII. THE MOTHER’S COUNSEL.
34RUNE XXIX. THE ISLE OF REFUGE.
35RUNE XXX. THE FROST-FIEND.
36RUNE XXXI. KULLERWOINEN SON OF EVIL.
37RUNE XXXII. KULLERVO AS A SHEPHERD.
38RUNE XXXIII. KULLERVO AND THE CHEAT-CAKE.
39RUNE XXXIV. KULLERVO FINDS HIS TRIBE-FOLK.
40RUNE XXXV. KULLERVO’S EVIL DEEDS.
41RUNE XXXVI. KULLERWOINEN’S VICTORY AND DEATH.
42RUNE XXXVII. ILMARINEN’S BRIDE OF GOLD.
43RUNE XXXVIII. ILMARINEN’S FRUITLESS WOOING.
44RUNE XXXIX. WAINAMOINEN’S SAILING.
45RUNE XL. BIRTH OF THE HARP.
46RUNE XLI. WAINAMOINEN’S HARP-SONGS.
47RUNE XLII. CAPTURE OF THE SAMPO.
48RUNE XLIII. THE SAMPO LOST IN THE SEA.
49RUNE XLIV. BIRTH OF THE SECOND HARP.
50RUNE XLV. BIRTH OF THE NINE DISEASES.
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