The Kalevala is Finland’s national epic, but it has also spread in translation to all continents. The epic poem, compiled by Elias Lönnrot, has become not only our national epic but also part of world literature. In addition to poetry translations, the Kalevala has been translated and published as prose, abridged versions and other adaptations. They have been written for the love of poetry, for educational purposes, as a political example, for children and adults. The first comprehensive rough translation – into Swedish – was already in use around the same time as the Finnish original was published, and the Kalevala has been continually translated from then on. New ones are in the pipeline even now.
In 2011, the Kalevala Society published the book Kalevala maailmalla. Kalevalan käännösten kulttuurihistoria (Kalevala Around the World. The cultural history of Kalevala translations) edited by Petja Aarnipuu (now Kauppi), which contains extensive articles on the Kalevala translations. In addition to the long lines of translation, we wanted to highlight translators as people, and the articles on this website have focused on people. The site has over 100 articles on translators and translations. However, there are certainly many times as many different types of translation and their authors in the world. So how were these selected?
Many of the online articles have been edited and abridged from the extensive collection of articles in Kalevala maailmalla. Another important treasure trove of material has been hidden in plain sight, so to speak: the Kalevala Society’s Yearbooks (1919–). Over the decades, a large number of articles on current Kalevala translations has been published in the Yearbook series – in many of them, translators who have long since passed on tell us about their work on the epic.
How to use this site
When we started to plan how best to present the existing information about the Kalevala translations around the world, we decided to categorise the articles by translation language and translator. By clicking on the language you want to view in the Languages sub-menu, you will see all articles that deal with that translation language. For some languages, there are so many articles that we have not been able to fit them all together – so you should pay attention to the “more articles” button at the bottom of the page. Under the heading “Translators” you will find the people. So both menus lead to the same articles, but in a different order depending on whether you are looking for information about a language or a person.
This page contains general articles on the translation of the Kalevala. Exceptionally, the translations are listed in chronological order rather than language order, and if there is an article about a translator, you will also find it in that list.
About the Editors
The Kalevala Around the World website has been edited by Petja Kauppi, in collaboration with Elina Lampela and Ulla Piela, the Kalevala Society Foundation. It was first published in 2015. The English language version of this website has been produced in 2024. The articles have been translated by Maria Bergenwall.
