Tolkien & Kalevala

[The Ripper]

Tolkien's connection to and development of Finnic languages and myths deserves its own topic.

Here's an article called The Finnicization of Quenya

THE DISCOVERY OF A FINNISH grammar had a profound impact on Tolkien. He said: “It quite intoxicated me; and I gave up the attempt to invent an ‘unrecorded’ Germanic language, and my ‘own language’ — or series of invented languages — became heavily Finnicized in phonetic pattern and structure” (L 163:8). Thus was created Qenya, the Elf-latin1 of the High Elves. Qenya was the name of Tolkien’s Finnish-inspired Elven language from its conception until it was changed to Quenya by the end of the 30s. The change seems to be only ortographical, but there is also a slight change in pronunciation from q marking a double consonant to qu marking a single consonant (see under “Phonology” below). Neither does Finnish allow double consonants word-initially, so this can be seen as an example of continued Finnicization beside the original inspiration.

Link

Here's a paper on Tolkien and the Kalevala, Identifying England's Lönnrot

Tolkien’s fascination with the Finnish national epic, Kalevala, created by nineteenth-century physician and folklorist Elias Lönnrot, is well recognized. Anyone who has read his collected letters knows this. In 1914, he wrote the following to his fiancé Edith Bratt: “Had an interesting talk with that quaint man Earp I have told you of and introduced him (to his great delight) to the ‘Kalevala,’ the Finnish ballads. Amongst other work I am trying to turn one of the stories—which is really a very great story and most tragic—into a short story somewhat on the lines of Morris’ romances with chunks of poetry in between” (Letters 7).

Fifty years later he was still fascinated, as he revealed in a 1964 letter to Christopher Bretherton: “The germ of my attempt to write legends of my own to fit my private languages was the tragic tale of the hapless Kullervo in the Finnish Kalevala. It remains a major matter in the legends of the First Age (which I hope to publish as The Silmarillion), though as ‘The Children of Húrin’ it is entirely changed except in the tragic ending” (345).

That fascination went further and deeper than the single story idea of the hapless Kullervo, as I intend to show in this study. The attractiveness of the Kalevala, according to Michael Branch, in A History of Finland’s Literature, “lies in the grandeur and universality of its themes, the coherence of its plots, and the splendor of its poetry” (4), qualities that kept Tolkien engaged with the material for many years of his life.

DL link

[The Ripper]

Here's a more accessible article from National Geographic for the casual reader:

Lord of the Rings Inspired by an Ancient Epic

Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic News
Updated March 1, 2004

Generations of readers have cherished Middle-earth, the fantasy universe sprung from the mind of storyteller J.R.R. Tolkien. His magical world has been brought to life in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, the third of which, The Return of the King, swept every category it was nominated for at the Academy Awards ceremony last night. The movie most notably won Oscars for Best Picture and Directing, among 9 others.

While the author's imagination was vast, Tolkien's world and its cast of characters do have roots in real-world history and geography, from the world wars that dominated Tolkien's lifetime to the ancient language and legends of Finland.

National Geographic

[Lisa]

Ellias Lönnrot collected the runes Kalevala in Russian Karelia and in the Arkhangelsk region. It is interesting that the Russian bylina is analogous to the Finnish Epic and the Scandinavian sagas, were collected by Alexander Hilferding in Northern and central part of Russia.

[The Ripper]

Ellias Lönnrot collected the runes Kalevala in Russian Karelia and in the Arkhangelsk region. It is interesting that the Russian bylina is analogous to the Finnish Epic and the Scandinavian sagas, were collected by Alexander Hilferding in Northern and central part of Russia.

Yes, it is true that the vast majority of the epic oral poetry was collected from outside of Finland. Those Finnics who came under Eastern Christianity seem to have been able to preserve their pre-Christian traditions much better (take for example the Estonian Seto), up until Russification and Sovietization that lead to their assimilation.

[Eldritch]

Yes, it is true that the vast majority of the epic oral poetry was collected from outside of Finland. Those Finnics who came under Eastern Christianity seem to have been able to preserve their pre-Christian traditions much better (take for example the Estonian Seto), up until Russification and Sovietization that lead to their assimilation.

Then again, East Karelia is Russian only in an administrative sense.

[Lisa]

Yes, it is true that the vast majority of the epic oral poetry was collected from outside of Finland. Those Finnics who came under Eastern Christianity seem to have been able to preserve their pre-Christian traditions much better (take for example the Estonian Seto), up until Russification and Sovietization that lead to their assimilation.

I think correctly say Slavonisation instead of Russification. Russians formed as the result of mixing Slavic and Finnish tribes .
Russian bylina are unique to the Slavs. Maybe they exist only because of conservation in people's memory of old Finnish tradition ...

[The Ripper]

I think correctly say Slavonisation instead of Russification. Russians formed as the result of mixing Slavic and Finnish tribes .
Russian bylina are unique to the Slavs. Maybe they exist only because of conservation in people's memory of old Finnish tradition ...

What happened in the Soviet Union was Russification. We can speak of Slavonisation before the birth of the Russian nation.

[The Ripper]

Here is an actual example of "Kalevaic" Runo-singing.

[YOUTUBE]A8UfdehDqm4[/YOUTUBE]

[Taiga Lake]

I'm very interested in this stuff too even though i identify as a Sami because tbh i'm genetically speaking more finnish than a Sami just like all(?) Samis are