The Kalevala played an important role in the development of Finnish national identity, which the Russian empire slightly encouraged in order to make it more dif

The Kalevala played an important role in the development of Finnish national identity, which the Russian empire slightly encouraged in order to make it more difficult for the Swedes to retake Finland, which had only recently been ceded to Russia at the time. Which is kind of ironic in a way, given the events of 1917. The epic heavily inspired Tolkien (who ended up adopting a number of Finnish influences in his elvish languages) and Jean Sibelius (himself born to a Swedish-speaking family, although Swedish-speaking Finnish nationalists were not uncommon), Finland's foremost composer after whom the both-loved-and-hated music composition software is named. His most famous work based on a story from the Kalevala is probably the Swan of Tuonela: https://youtu.be/HjyLWoJvtME https://youtu.be/HjyLWoJvtME