their inability to clear up questions of old Saxon or German mythology.
Grimm, furthermore, shows that both the Gothic and Icelandic
literatures display unmistakable features of Finnish influence.

Max Müller places the Kalevala on a level with the greatest epics of the
world. These are his words:


"From the mouths of the aged an epic poem has been collected equalling
the Iliad in length and completeness; nay, if we can forget for a
moment, all that we in our youth learned to call beautiful, not less
beautiful. A Finn is not a Greek, and Wainamoinen was not a Homer
[Achilles?]; but if the poet may take his colors from that nature by
which he is surrounded, if he may depict the men with whom he lives,
the Kalevala possesses merits not dissimilar from those of the Illiad,
and will claim its place as the fifth national epic of the world, side
by side with the Ionian Songs, with the Mahabharata, the Shalinameth,
and the Nibelunge."


Steinthal recognizes but four great national epics, viz., the Iliad,
Kalevala, Nibelunge and the Roland Songs.

The Kalevala describes Finnish nature very minutely and very
beautifully. Grimm says that no poem is to be compared with it in this
respect, unless it be some of the epics of India. It has been
translated into several European languages; into Swedish by Alex.
Castren, in 1844; into French prose by L. LeDuc, in 1845; into German
by Anton Schiefuer, in 1852; into Hungarian by Ferdinand Barna, in
1871; and a very small portion of it--the legend of Aino--into English,