The Finnish Literature Society was the first publishing house to bring out the Kalevala in book form
The Society’s archive houses documents that reveal the creative process involved in the the Kalevala’s composition. Visitors can view Elias Lönnrot’s notes and manuscripts.
All the editions and translations of the Kalevala can be found in the Society’s library. Visitors can also get acquainted with the scholarly research dedicated to the Kalevala.
These pages provide reliable and authoritative information on the Kalevala; among other things, it is possible to read the corrected 1849 version of the Kalevala in its entirety.
The Kalevala is the national epic of the Finns
Elias Lönnrot completed the manuscript of the Kalevala at the beginning of 1835. He signed the foreword to the book on February 28th of that year. Nowadays, February 28th is a day for commemorating the Kalevala and Finnish culture.
As more and more Kalevala poetry was committed to the written record, Lönnrot began to prepare a new and more extensive version of the Kalevala. First published in 1849, this version of the Kalevala is the one that Finnish people customarily read and regard as their national epic.
