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PITTSBURGH FINNS
Finnish Room Committee, University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Chapter, Finlandia Foundation
The Kalevala and and The Kalevala Plates
The Kalevala
written by Elias Lönnrot in 1849.
The Kalevala is one of the most significant works of Finnish literature. The Kalevala was instrumental in the development of the Finnish national identity and the intensification of Finland's language strife that ultimately led to Finland's independence from Russia in 1917.
The Kalevala is a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology. The first version of the Kalevala, called the Old Kalevala, was published in 1835. The version most commonly known today was first published in 1849 and consists of 22,795 verses, divided into fifty folk stories.
This essay explains why the Kalevala was so important to the Finnish people.
Here is a story from the Kalevala,
from Runo IX,
The Birth of Iron
We have a set of twenty-five Arabia plates with designs from the Kalevala
Each plate shows a view of life on the land and the Kalevala text it depicts--an example of the Finnish language used in an oral tradition to preserve knowledge, history and skills. There are twenty-four annual plates, issued from 1976 to 1999, and a larger Jubilee Plate, issued in 1985 to celebrate 150 years of the Kalevala.
Click List of Plates to see each plate.
Click Commentary on Plates to see a discussion of each plate.
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