PREFACE.


The following translation was undertaken from a desire to lay before
the English-speaking people the full treasury of epical beauty,
folklore, and mythology comprised in The Kalevala, the national epic of
the Finns. A brief description of this peculiar people, and of their
ethical, linguistic, social, and religious life, seems to be called for
here in order that the following poem may be the better understood.

Finland (Finnish, Suomi or Suomenmaa, the swampy region, of which
Finland, or Fen-land is said to be a Swedish translation,) is at
present a Grand-Duchy in the north-western part of the Russian empire,
bordering on Olenetz, Archangel, Sweden, Norway, and the Baltic Sea,
its area being more than 144,000 square miles, and inhabited by some
2,000,000 of people, the last remnants of a race driven back from the
East, at a very early day, by advancing tribes. The Finlanders live in
a land of marshes and mountains, lakes and rivers, seas, gulfs,
islands, and inlets, and they call themselves Suomilainen,
Fen-dwellers. The climate is more severe than that of Sweden. The
mean yearly temperature in the north is about 270ºF., and about 38ºF., at
Helsingfors, the capital of Finland. In the southern districts the
winter is seven months long, and in the northern provinces the sun
disappears entirely during the months of December and January.

The inhabitants are strong and hardy, with bright, intelligent faces,
high cheek-bones, yellow hair in early life, and with brown hair in
mature age. With regard to their social habits, morals, and manners,