...lay before the English speaking people the full treasury of epical beauty, folklore, and mythology comprised in The Kalevala, the national epic of the... ...tions the Fenni, as he calls them, in the 46th chap ter of his De Moribus Germanoram. He says of them: “The Finns are extremely wild, and live in abj... ...is his sword, and the rainbow his bow, still called Ukkon Kaari. Like the German god, Thor, Ukko swings a hammer; and, finally, we find, in a vein of... ...s and hidden treasures frequently met with in the myths of the Hungarians, Germans, and Slavs, is not foreign to the Finns. Nowhere are the inconsiste... ...ed by their cunning and ferocity from the stupid, good natured monsters of Germany and Scandinavia.” Soini, for example a synonym of Kullervo, the her... ...eir modern origin by their inability to clear up questions of old Saxon or German mythology. Grimm, furthermore, shows that both the Gothic and Icelan...

...Preface: The following translation was undertaken from a desire to lay before the English-speaking people the full treasury of epical beauty, folklore, and mythology comprised in The Kalevala, the national epic of the Finns. A brief description of this peculiar people, and of their ethical, linguistic, social, and religious life, seems to be called for here in orde...