h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello Titania,
We've nearly met, once or twice. Now seems as good a time as any.
I'm really pleased that someone has taken on the Kalevala, and I wanted to add some words of encouragement.
I was lead to it during an 18-month workspell in Finland, back in the early 80s. I still count that time as a personal formative experience. When I first set foot in the country, I could name about six Finns with confidence, and only Sibelius wasn't a rally driver.
So what drove Sibelius? I was drawn to his time, to his circle, and on to this epic. There is probably nothing in world literature that so singularly expresses a national psyche. The Kalevala, as you well know, inspired the flowering of modern Finnish culture.
I love it. I only wish I could read it in its original language.
Pin

Hi Pin!

I tried making a university project of it, because I've started on an entry over and over again, and finally realized that I had to split it up into several - I had planned on spending the entire last weekend writing in frenzy, but a very bad cold put an end to that... I think I'm running out of time to have it published as a project now...

Would you have the time to read some of the stuff and give me some feedback?

The thing that draw me to Kalevala was one (or maybe several) of Akseli Gallen-Kallela's paintings with motives from Kalevala - my favourite is probably this one:

http://www.niksula.cs.hut.fi/~xyu/kale-gb/pics/gallen/lemminkainens_mother.jpg

Hi Titania
I'd be delighted. Back on this soon.
(Gallen-Kallela's a passion of mine too)
Pin

Hi Titania

I can only find the Loennrot bio (including take 2).
That's good - I couldn't add much there.
The one thing I'd change is the statement that Loennrot wrote it. He didn't. He collected and arranged parts of a two-thousand year-old store of folk verse.

Have you done anything on the rest?

The four-part structure described on the Uni page sounds good too.

The "metre" part should really be about all aspects of structure, maybe. Id include : origins in oral tradition; runos singers. Alliteration/Parallelism; significance of Finnish language.
Tiers of the tradition - creation myth, ancient religion, hero tales, modern religion. Other translations. Longfellow's bastardisation in Hiawatha.

The "influences" part could include Sibelius, Gallen-Kallela and the Mantaa set - and maybe Tolkein?

But the main part must be the stories themselves. Did you plan to pick out the main characters?

This is a big project by anyone's standards...

I know it's big - it's so big I keep getting overwhelmed by it every now and then...

Lönnrot did actually write minor parts of the epic himself, to tie bits and pieces together, and he also modified some of the songs he had collected to make them fit in with each other better

I thought I'd add Longfellow to the 'influences' entry - definitely Sibelius and Gallen-Kallela and Tolkien, and Don Rosa (Donald Duck) - but I don't think I've heard of Mantaa?

The story itself is the piece I'll leave until last - once I've managed to write separate entries on everything *but* the story I'll see what's left, and then sit down and start some serious writing - I'm afraid it'll be the longest entry of them all... *sighs*

Yes, Lönnrot take 2 is the latest version and the only entry I feel more or less finished with, so far

Hi Titania

I defective memory added an extra "a". It should be Manta.
Here's the statue - you know her?
www.helsinki.fi/imua2001/ images/manta.jpg
Unless I've got it wrong, the circle that included Gallen and Sibelius frequented the Helsinki cafe in the same square - it was their salon.

You're right, of course, Loennrot did write splicing-bits and adjust some characters to try and retain a coherent story. But he didn't do that very much. Accrediting him with writing Kalevala makes it sound like an individual creation suggested by the runot he'd heard. I don't think that's right. I think he saw himself as a collector and not an author, and he surely sought to leave the source material as intact as possible.

Am I helping, or should I shut up?

Pin
(btw : congrats on getting poetry published/recognised - I'm jealous!)

Ooops - broken link.
Anyhow just Google/Images on Manta and there she'll be...

You are helping a lot, I assure you! I've been trying to find people for some feedback, people who know at least something about Kalevala - keep the ideas coming...

I'll think about the wording about Lönnrot writing Kalevala

Ah - the publishing seems to be a bit of a scam - it seems other have fallen for it, but a book has never been published... nevertheless, it was a very nice boost for my self esteem!

Oh - and there's nothing wrong with the link of you remove that extra space...

http://www.helsinki.fi/imua2001/images/manta.jpg