The Kalevala's Languages: Receptions, Myths, and Ideologies

Abstract

In Finland, the epic Kalevala (1835, 1849) and Kalevala-meter poetry, or oral folk poetry more generally, are often seen as nationally significant symbols of Finnishness. The Kalevala is a modern literary product constructed by Elias Lönnrot out of Finnic folk poetry especially from Russian Karelia, Finland, and Ingria. Lönnrot, who was himself among the most significant collectors of oral poetry, created the Kalevala as a synthetic, organized compendium of (reconstructed) pre-modern “Finnish” culture. Beginning from the publication of the first edition in 1835, the Kalevala has been extremely significant in the creation of Finnish national and ethnic identity. In this article, we discuss the engenderment of Finnishness and Finnish culture in terms of language ideologies by looking closely at the Kalevala's languages, language-specific reception of the epic, Lönnrot's language ideologies, and politics of language standardization in the contexts of the Grand Duchy of Finland and Russia. We argue that in these processes, Finnish was strongly symbolized and given a mythological charter: it was the language encapsulating ancestral heritage, and it was the language that theFinns were obliged to develop, learn, and teach. For the needs of the nation, the language had to be refined and homogenized, made into a standard language. In this process, the Karelian language and culture were implicitly absorbed into Finnish cultural heritage but not recognized and valued as coeval cultural realities: in both Finnish and Russian discourses, Karelia represented the past of the present-day Finnishness, but not the present day of Karelianness.

Tradition and ownership

“…In 2019, the young Karelian activist Tuomo Kondie stated in an interview with Yle (the Finnish Broadcasting Company) that the Karelian minority had been oppressed in Finland and the national epic of Finland, the Kalevala, was originally stolen from the Karelians (Mikkonen 2019; about the Kalevala, see Tarkka et al 2018). The interview and Karelian social media activism started a new kind of public discussion about Karelian culture and its uses in contemporary Finland, and it is still ongoing.…”

“…In the national romantic ideology, Karelia was extolled as possessed of ancient and noble (although primitive) Finnishness or despised as filled with backward otherness, corrupted by Russian impacts. This dual perspective is still visible in contemporary popular Finnish conceptions, which often have difficulty accepting Karelian identities that are separate from Finnish and Russian ones (Sihvo 2003(Sihvo [1973; Tarkka et al 2018;Stepanova 2020).…”

“…2. Finnish humanistic research history that has mostly discussed Karelians as a subgroup of the Finnish people and used nineteenth-century Karelian folk culture and belief systems as a source for constructing the Finnish past, thus denying independent Karelian ethnic and linguistic identity (see Sihvo 2003Sihvo [1973; Tarkka et al 2018;Stepanova 2020). The fields of laments and neo-paganism draw on this research, and outdated scholarly attitudes often keep re curring, including in many academic contexts.…”

Kansanperinne 2.0. Sukelluksia 2000-luvun vernakulaariin kulttuuriin

“…Nämä mielikuvat liittyvät erityisesti kulttuuristen ilmiöiden koettuun vanhuuteen, jatkuvuuksiin, suomalaisuuteen, perinteisyyteen ja toisaalta myös mystisyyteen. Olemme toisaalla kollegoideni kanssa kutsuneet tällaista mielikuvavyyhtiä kalevalaisuudeksi, Kalevalan arvoja, kieltä ja estetiikkaa heijastavaksi ei-selvärajaiseksi kokonaisuudeksi, jolla on juuret 1800-luvun kansallisromanttisissa keskusteluissa (Tarkka, Stepanova ja Mäkelä 2018).…”