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Finnish scholars have said that "Kalevala is a prison of folk poetry" because it has become a canon that sidelined everything else. Kalevala contains what was
by nabla9 4y ago
Finnish scholars have said that "Kalevala is a prison of folk poetry" because it has become a canon that sidelined everything else. Kalevala contains what was considered great poetry in the 1800s. It has been sanitized to match norms of that time. There is much more more material.
Even the Kanteletar, the sister opus for Kalevala compiled by Lönnrot has been ignored.
- vintermann 4y agoThat's a common complaint about collection work. I've heard it about an epic poem we have in Norway (not on the scope of Kalevala), Draumkvedet, or the song of the dream. Molkte Moe published a "restored" version in the 1890s, which I think is very good. But the purists complained that it supplanted the oral versions, of which there were many. (The final part of Draumkvedet, the "beautitudes" section listing good deeds and their rewards in the afterlife, is conspicuously similar to the Lyke-wake dirge to me.)