Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden historia I: Kalevala

The book surveys the national epic as both a poetic creation and a historical phenomenon, offering a close literary reading of its unity, metre, and portrayal of figures such as Väinämöinen, Ilmarinen, Lemminkäinen, Aino and the maiden of Pohjola. It traces the geographic and cultural distribution of corresponding runes across Finnish and neighboring Uralic and Indo-European-speaking regions, compares analogous myths among Sámi, Volga and Altaic peoples, and examines the epic’s formation, dating, and whether its foundation is historical or mythic. Appendices present key song cycles (Sampo, courtships, Kullervo and Aino episodes), textual notes, and corrections to earlier editions, framed by the author’s scholarly preface.