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jallanite · 07-21-2015, 04:49 PM

I don’t know what version of the Kalevala Mithalwen read. I first read the two-volume Everyman’s edition, originally translated into English by William Forsell Kirby in 1907. Kirby’s poem translation reproduces with great care the trochaic tetrameter meter of his Finnish source. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trochaic_tetrameter. This was also the English version which Tolkien read. In Letter 163 Tolkien writes:

I mention Finnish, because that set the rocket off in story. I was immensely attracted by something in the air of the Kalevala, even in Kirby’s poor translation.

Indeed later writers to some extent seem to sneer at Kirby, as old-fashioned and out-of-date and annoyingly sing-songy. Keith Bosley in the introduction to his 1989 Kalevala poetic English translation for Oxford World’s Classics writes:

It is a pity that the common sense translators have applied to the question of alliteration in Kalevala poetry has not also been applied to that of metre, especially when the metre of their translations is a travesty of the original. As any reader of Hiawatha knows, the metre is not only monotonous, it restricts language to the point of triviality—in English at least. This matters little in a romance of Indians without cowboys, but it matters a great deal in an epic of world stature, most of whose readers approach it in translation.

Yet, though I purchased Bosley’s translation to provide myself with a more up-to-date and accurate rendering of the Kalevala, it is to Kirby’s translation that I return for the pure joy of reading. Nor have I been bothered by the language of Longfellow’s Hiawatha since I first discovered it. Personal taste is, as usual, unaccountable.

The Kalevala in the original Finnish is found on the web at http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/kvfin/index.htm and the taste of Quenya in Finnish may be seen. The original Kirby translation may be found on the web at http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25953 (volume 1) and http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33089
(volume 2), the story of Kullervo being found in Volume 2, Runno XXXI to XXXVI. It may be listened to at https://librivox.org/kalevala-the-la...lias-loennrot/ as read by “Expatriate”.

An earlier translation than Kirby’s by John Martin Crawford is found on the web at http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/kveng. An audio of Keith Bosley’s English translation is to be found at http://www.naxosaudiobooks.com/0124.htm.

For an hilarious video summary of the Kalevala see https://dotsub.com/view/ba8059a7-0b6...d-270f2aa08995.

For the first six segments of a straight film based on the Kalevala see the 1959 Soviet Finnish film The Sampo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW4C-UZyb6s&list=PLPseHCTkSQZ0x208lQFycY_w-CCO9Vrdm. For the remainder of the film in German: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riyh3BA7m4k.

07-21-2015, 04:49 PM	#9
jallanite Shade of Carn Dûm Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Toronto Posts: 479	I don’t know what version of the Kalevala Mithalwen read. I first read the two-volume Everyman’s edition, originally translated into English by William Forsell Kirby in 1907. Kirby’s poem translation reproduces with great care the trochaic tetrameter meter of his Finnish source. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trochaic_tetrameter. This was also the English version which Tolkien read. In Letter 163 Tolkien writes: I mention Finnish, because that set the rocket off in story. I was immensely attracted by something in the air of the Kalevala, even in Kirby’s poor translation. Indeed later writers to some extent seem to sneer at Kirby, as old-fashioned and out-of-date and annoyingly sing-songy. Keith Bosley in the introduction to his 1989 Kalevala poetic English translation for Oxford World’s Classics writes: It is a pity that the common sense translators have applied to the question of alliteration in Kalevala poetry has not also been applied to that of metre, especially when the metre of their translations is a travesty of the original. As any reader of Hiawatha knows, the metre is not only monotonous, it restricts language to the point of triviality—in English at least. This matters little in a romance of Indians without cowboys, but it matters a great deal in an epic of world stature, most of whose readers approach it in translation. Yet, though I purchased Bosley’s translation to provide myself with a more up-to-date and accurate rendering of the Kalevala, it is to Kirby’s translation that I return for the pure joy of reading. Nor have I been bothered by the language of Longfellow’s Hiawatha since I first discovered it. Personal taste is, as usual, unaccountable. The Kalevala in the original Finnish is found on the web at http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/kvfin/index.htm and the taste of Quenya in Finnish may be seen. The original Kirby translation may be found on the web at http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25953 (volume 1) and http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33089 (volume 2), the story of Kullervo being found in Volume 2, Runno XXXI to XXXVI. It may be listened to at https://librivox.org/kalevala-the-la...lias-loennrot/ as read by “Expatriate”. An earlier translation than Kirby’s by John Martin Crawford is found on the web at http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/kveng. An audio of Keith Bosley’s English translation is to be found at http://www.naxosaudiobooks.com/0124.htm. For an hilarious video summary of the Kalevala see https://dotsub.com/view/ba8059a7-0b6...d-270f2aa08995. For the first six segments of a straight film based on the Kalevala see the 1959 Soviet Finnish film The Sampo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW4C-UZyb6s&list=PLPseHCTkSQZ0x208lQFycY_w-CCO9Vrdm. For the remainder of the film in German: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riyh3BA7m4k. Last edited by jallanite; 07-26-2015 at 05:21 PM.