{"id":30,"date":"2023-06-24T20:05:15","date_gmt":"2023-06-24T20:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/floyds.space\/blog\/?p=30"},"modified":"2023-06-25T15:54:37","modified_gmt":"2023-06-25T15:54:37","slug":"an-illustrated-kalevala-makinen-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/floyds.space\/blog\/2023\/06\/24\/an-illustrated-kalevala-makinen-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"An Illustrated Kalevala (M\u00e4kinen 2020)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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My daughter loves traditional folktales. I want to expose my children to work from a broad range of cultures. We are also part Finnish on my father’s side, which is a part of our ancestry that I know perhaps the least about. So, I got this illustrated Kalevala for one of the next books to read. (Just to be clear, the images below in this post are not contained in the book. I added them to illustrate related examples of Finnish culture.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Forging of the Sampo<\/em> by Akseli Gallen-Kallela 1893<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Kalevala is the national epic of Finland and of closely related Karelia (now part of Russia). This is a trimmed-down illustrated version to make it accessible to children and for a more informal introduction to the work for a broad audience. The Kalevala itself was first published in 1835 by Elias L\u00f6nnrot (1802 \u2013 1884), who collected the folk tales (traditional runic songs) that make up the stories in the book. It contributed to a sense of Finnish national identity and, ultimately independence of Finland from Russia in 1917. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Playing a kantele in 1930s Finland. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This version, An Illustrated Kalevala: Myths and Legends from Finland<\/em>, was published in 2020 by Floris Books. Kirsti M\u00e4kinen is the author and Pirkko-Liisa Surojegin is the illustrator. It is based on an English translation by Kaarina Brooks. My daughter liked it and flew through it in a couple of days. Then I was able to read it next. I think this is a good “starter” book for an introduction to aspects of traditional Finnish culture and is nicely illustrated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Defense of the Sampo<\/em> by Akseli Gallen-Kallela 1896<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Finnish language has an interesting history. It is not an Indo-European language like most languages in Europe. Finnish is in a completely different language family, Uralic. It is related to Estonian, Hungarian, and S\u00e1mi languages and lesser well-known languages such as Nenets in the Russian Far North, which together have a hypothesized origin near the Ural mountains, thus the name Uralic. Years ago, distant Finnish cousins and I made contact to try to learn more about the shared history of this part of our family, but so far, more details have been elusive. However, that doesn’t stop us from working to learn more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Runic poem singing in 1894. Hands are held while singing in a call-and-response fashion. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Links:<\/p>\n\n\n\n