Preview of Land of Heroes: A Retelling of the Kalevala Summary:

The Kalevala is an example of an epic written in modern times that captures much of the flavor of ancient oral narrative. Elias Lonnrot (1802-1884), a gifted Finnish poet-scholar, compiled the materials for his poem from old ballads, lyrical songs, and incantations that were a part of a disappearing Finnish oral tradition. He first published these reworked folk materials in 1835 and later enlarged the work to fifty "cantos" in 1849. "Kalevala" is the name...