Kalevipoeg
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Kalevipoeg

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Kalevipoeg

Kalevipoeg (Estonian pronunciation: [ˈkɑ.le.ʋiˈpoe̯ɡ], Kalev's Son) is a 19th-century epic poem by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald which has since been considered the Estonian national epic.

In pre-Christian ancient Estonia there existed an oral tradition, known as runic song, of legends explaining the origin of the world. Within old Estonian folklore, a benevolent giant by the name of Kalev, Kalevine, Kalevipoiss, Kalevine poisikine and Kalevin poika appears, battling with other giants or enemies of the nation. Early written references are found in Leyen Spiegel in 1641 as "Kalliweh", and in a list of deities published by Mikael Agricola in 1551 as "Caleuanpoiat".

The earliest remaining written reference to Kalevipoeg – also known as Kaleva in Finland – is by many experts considered to be one found in Widsith, also known as The Traveller's Song, which also provides the earliest known written usage of the name Viking, with the spelling wicing. Widsith is a 6th or 7th century Anglo-Saxon poem – or song – of 143 lines, which became copied into the Exeter Book, a manuscript of Old English poetry compiled in the late 10th century. Widsith is for the most part a survey of the people, kings and heroes of Europe in the Germanic Heroic Age.

The following is stated in Widsith:

"Caesar ruled the Greeks, Caelic the Finns ... I was with the Greeks and Finns and also with Caesar ...".

Many historians and folklorists believe Widsith's "Caelic" to be a reference to the ancient Finnic ruler Kaleva/Kalevi, discussed in both the Finnish epic Kalevala and the Estonian epic Kalevipoeg.

The main material is taken from Estonian folklore of a giant hero named Kalevipoeg ("Kalev's son"). These tales mainly interpret various natural objects and features as traces of Kalevipoeg's deeds and have similarities with national epics from neighbouring regions, especially the Finnish Kalevala.

In 1839, Friedrich Robert Faehlmann read a paper at the Learned Estonian Society about the legends of Kalevipoeg. He sketched the plot of a national romantic epic poem. In 1850, after Faehlmann's death, Kreutzwald started writing the poem, interpreting it as the reconstruction of an obsolete oral epic. He collected oral stories and wove them together into a unified whole.

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