Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A Finnish epical compilation, in a meter reproduced in Longfellow's “Hiawatha.”

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun The Finnish national epic.
  • proper noun The mythical location where the heroes of Kalevala live.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Finnish Kalevala.

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Examples

  • I would never think trochaic tetrameters would be so fresh, but the main quality of the Kalevala is how simple it seems, how fresh and uncomplicated, how like the dawn of the world.

    The Music of Reading « Unknowing 2009

  • Kalevala is the Finnish "national epic" but it is really a very late creation, a collection of existing folk tales in the oral tradition, put together by Elias Lonnrot in the first half of the nineteenth century.

    Ingrid Hill - An interview with author 2010

  • The lines are metrical, as in fact they commonly are in the older parts of the Avesta, and the rhythm somewhat recalls the Kalevala verse of Longfellow's

    Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 3 Charles Dudley Warner 1864

  • The Kalevala is a very important part of traditional music; it is a recitation of Finnish legends, and is considered an integral part of the Finnish folk identity.

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows 2009

  • "The Song of Hiawatha," his most ambitious poem, took its content and themes from the legends of Michigan's Ojibwe Indians as collected by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft and its meter from the Finnish epic "Kalevala" as recorded by Elias L ö nnrot.

    Spotty History, Maybe, but Great Literature John J. Miller 2010

  • And the "Kalevala" speaks volumes about how the Finns see themselves.

    The Lure Of The Sampo 2008

  • First published in 1835, the "Kalevala" was compiled by scholar Elias Lonnrot from Finnish folk tales and ballads.

    The Lure Of The Sampo 2008

  • Among other things, the "Kalevala" is the story of the Sampo -- a wealth-generating virtual machine conceived many hundreds of years before the birth of Bill Gates.

    The Lure Of The Sampo 2008

  • The original Sampo is destroyed at the end of the "Kalevala," though its pieces do wash ashore to guarantee prosperity for Finland.

    The Lure Of The Sampo 2008

  • According to Sirkka-Liisa Mettomaki of the Finnish Literature Society, the "Kalevala" embodies "a knowledge-based mythology."

    The Lure Of The Sampo 2008

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