Kantele, or Both Old and More Recent Poems and Songs of the Finnish People, II

Lönnrot, Elias, 1802-1884Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.6

Word count: 41K words
Chapters: 5

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. Kantele Taikka Suomen Kansan sekä Wanhoja että Nykyisempiä Runoja ja Lauluja, II. Author: Lönnrot, Elias, 1802-1884. Language: Finnish. Class: PH: Language and Literatures: Finno-Ugrian and Basque languages and literatures. Release Date: Feb 6, 2015

Editor's review

This is Volume II of Elias Lönnrot's Kanteletar, or Old and New Poems and Songs of the Finnish People, a compilation of Finnish-language literature and folk poetry. Lönnrot is known for collecting and editing Finnish oral tradition, and this volume continues his editorial approach, gathering old and new songs and poems. It is a primary source for understanding Finnish folk literature and nineteenth-century methods of national textual compilation. For researchers, its value lies in the texts themselves and the editorial arrangement; for general readers, the Finnish original poses a high barrier, and the song conventions are remote from today's reading habits. It is best treated as a source collection rather than a continuous read. Readers should first learn the general background of Lönnrot and the compilation of Finnish national epic poetry, then read by theme or selection, with translations or scholarly literature as aids.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers learning Finnish or studying Finnish folk literature
Scholars interested in nineteenth-century methods of compiling national epics and songs
Readers who need public-domain Finnish texts for linguistic analysis
Readers with research interest in Nordic oral tradition

Not a good fit for

General readers who do not know Finnish and hope to read the stories directly
Readers expecting a continuous narrative in the manner of a modern novel
Beginners who only want a quick overview of Finnish culture

Reading tips

First read introductory scholarly literature to understand Lönnrot's editorial approach, then move on to specific pieces.
Read by song theme or selected groups; it is not necessary to read from beginning to end.
Finnish learners can closely read short songs and compare translations to understand sentence patterns and vocabulary.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What is the relationship between this book and the Kalevala?

Lönnrot is known for collecting Finnish folk poetry and compiling the Kalevala. This book belongs to the same body of work on folk poetry and songs, but it is an independent collection of songs and poems, not the Kalevala itself; it can be read alongside the Kalevala for reference.

Can I read this book without knowing Finnish?

The original text is in Finnish, and direct reading is very difficult without Finnish. General readers can learn about the content through related translations or scholarly literature; if you only want to encounter Finnish folk literature, start with translated selections or a scholarly introduction.

This is Volume II. Do I need to read Volume I first?

Each volume collects songs and poems according to the editorial plan, and the pieces are relatively independent, so reading Volume II directly is possible. But to grasp the overall organizing logic, it will be smoother to first understand the arrangement of Volume I and Lönnrot's editorial approach.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Lönnrot, Elias, 1802-1884 Author

Elias Lönnrot (1802–1884) was a Finnish folklorist and writer best known for compiling the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. The library holds 15 of his works, including the first and second parts of the Kalevala, several volumes of the Kantele, or Old and Newer Poems and Songs of the Finnish People, ancient Finnish incantation poems, a collection of his Swedish writings, and travel notes from 1828–1839 and 1841–1844. These works draw largely on Finnish oral tradition and span epic, lyric poetry, incantations, and folk songs, written in a plain, rhythmic style with a strong ethnographic character. Lönnrot's work preserved a vast body of folk poetry and had a profound influence on Finnish language, literature, and national identity. Public information on his education, posts, and detailed biography is limited, so no speculation is offered here.