Kalevala

Finnish national epic, compiled by Elias Lönnrot (1835/1849) — the germ of the legendarium

Other names

Kullervo

ca. 1 min

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In briefanswer capsule

Elias Lönnrot stitched the Kalevala together from songs he collected in Karelia: Väinämöinen the old singer, the smith Ilmarinen who forges the Sampo, and Kullervo, the orphan sold into slavery who seduces a girl who proves to be his sister and asks his own sword whether it will drink his guilty blood. Tolkien read it at school in Kirby's translation and never got over it. In 1914 he began to retell the Kullervo story as a tale of his own — the very first step, he said, towards writing legends to fit his private languages — and Túrin Turambar, who also questions his sword before dying on it, is that story grown up.

Kalevala, title page of the first edition, 1835Elias Lönnrot’s collection of Finnish folk poetry. Tolkien read it as a schoolboy in Kirby’s translation and learned Finnish to read it in the original.© Elias Lönnrot · Public domain

Kullervo’s Curse — Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1899The hapless hero of the Kalevala, whose tale Tolkien himself called the germ of his legends — Túrin Turambar bears his features.© Akseli Gallen-Kallela · Public domain

The Forging of the Sampo — Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1893Ilmarinen forges the wondrous object of the Kalevala. Whether the Sampo prompted the Silmaril is a scholarly conjecture — not something Tolkien said.© Akseli Gallen-Kallela · Public domain

The source text itself

Below stands the original wording of the source, public domain, with a translation of our own or one that is public domain. Marked words lead to the entry in the register that took something from them.

Runo 36: Kullervo asks his sword
Kysyi mieltä miekaltansa, tokko tuon tekisi mieli syöä syyllistä lihoa, viallista verta juoa. Miekka mietti miehen mielen, arvasi uron pakinan. Vastasi sanalla tuolla: „Miks' en söisi mielelläni, söisi syyllistä lihoa, viallista verta joisi? Syön lihoa syyttömänki, juon verta viattomanki.“
And he asked the sword's opinion, If it was disposed to slay him, To devour his guilty body, And his evil blood to swallow. Understood the sword his meaning, Understood the hero's question, And it answered him as follows: "Wherefore at thy heart's desire Should I not thy flesh devour, And drink up thy blood so evil? I who guiltless flesh have eaten, Drank the blood of those who sinned not?"
public-domain translationKalevala (Lönnrot 1849), Kuudesneljättä runo
English by W. F. Kirby (1907), the translation Tolkien read as a schoolboy; the German is ours. Compare Túrin's last words to Gurthang in The Children of Húrin.

What became of it

Túrin Turambar
Kullervo, the hapless orphan: the incest with the unknown sister, the talking sword, the self-inflicted death. Tolkien called the Kullervo story the germ of the whole legendarium and named it among Túrin's sources.
- The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien — Letter 257my attempt to write legends of my own to fit my private languages was the tragic tale of the hapless Kullervo
- The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien — Letter 131derived from elements in Sigurd the Volsung, Oedipus, and the Finnish Kullervo

Sources

The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien — Letter 257
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien — Letter 163
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien — Letter 75

Cite this page

Legendarium (2026): „Kalevala“. Last updated September 3, 2026. https://www.legendarium.page/tolkien/kalevala/

APA

Legendarium. (2026). Kalevala. Last updated September 3, 2026. https://www.legendarium.page/tolkien/kalevala/

MLA

„Kalevala“. Legendarium, 2026, https://www.legendarium.page/tolkien/kalevala/. Last updated September 3, 2026.

BibTeX

@misc{legendarium-kalevala-en,
  title        = {Kalevala},
  author       = {{Legendarium}},
  year         = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://www.legendarium.page/tolkien/kalevala/}},
  note         = {Last updated September 3, 2026}
}