Uus Kalevipoeg - Kalevipoeg in the 21st century!

Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald started writing the Estonian national epic, Kalevipoeg, in 1850. It was based on an outline presented by Friedrich Robert Faehlmann at an academic lecture in 1839. He traveled throughout Estonia collecting folk tales and songs, which he compiled into verse. His epic tale first appeared as a series of academic publications; the final version of his epic poem containing 19,023 verses divided into 20 cantos (chapters) was published in 1862 - in Finland. It was banned in Estonia.

Here is a selection of text from the 1975 edition, 17th chapter, Preparations for War.

Estonia has been at peace for seven years, Kalevipoeg and his brothers Alevipoeg and Sulevipoeg have been building cities and towns. Suddenly there are rumours of war, thousands of enemy soldiers have been spotted on the north shore (Viru rand). Kalevipoeg springs into action:

Kalevipoeg  hüppas sõjaratsu sadulasse,  

Võttis kaasa võidumehi, 

Kannupoisiks kangemaida, 

Viisikümmend Virusta, 

Kuusikümmend Kuressaarest, 

Seitsekümmend Soomemaalta, 

Sada teisi saarelasi.

 "Kalevipoeg 2.0" here, download it to your mp3 player or iPod! www.kuula24.ee is an Estonian audiobooks website with a small but interesting selection of books. For kids, you will find many fairy tales by Hans Christian Anderson, recent Andrus Kivirähk stories and Heljo Mänd's "Mõmmi" and the "Laura" collections. All read in slow and clear Estonian. If you like detective stories, you will like the numerous Sherlock Holmes mysteries.

"Kalevipoeg 2.0" on eepose uus, moodne versioon. This is a very short, 11 minutes, totally new.

"Tõelises 21. sajandi rahvuseeposes on sarviku asemel kuri pangahärra, sortside asemel zombid ja tuuslarite asemel aga bemmimehed ning Soome suusahüppajad. Uus Kalevipoeg ise on kõvem action-kangelane ja naistemees kui Chuck Norris ja James Bond kokku!

Käesolev tasuta näidis on rahvuseepose kahekümnendast peatükist ja räägib sellest, kuidas Kalevipoeg kutsub rahvast võitlusesse raudmeestega – terminaatoritega. Produktsioon Harry Kõrvits. (from the website kuul24.ee)

Another modern version of Kalevipoeg, really innovative, the classic tale retold in 12 1/2 minutes by Ekke Vasli.


Kalevipoeg! from Ekke Vasli on Vimeo.

Read more about the Estonian filmaker Ekke Vasli here! Visit his exhibition here!

Kalev ja Kalevipoeg

"Kalevkipoeg" on Eesti rahva eepos, mida Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald kogus ja ümber töötas. Siin on veel lihtsamalt jutustatud noorte võistluseks tema vanematest.

Kui Kalevipoeg ilmuks tänapäeval, mida ta teeks? Keda ta päästaks, mida ta ehitaks? Missuguste kangelastega võitleks ta? Aga algame algusest...

Kristjan Raud, "Kalev kosjas", 1933

Kalevala and Kalevipoeg

The Maiden of Northland
written by Aaron Shepard, illustrations Carol Schwartz
1996, 40 pages

This children's version of the hero tale Kalevala is simply and elegantly written by Aaron Shepard. It tells the story of two friends and rivals, Vainamoinen (greatest of magicians, who helped create the world) and Ilmarinen (the blacksmith who forged the heavens). They travel from Kalevala, set in the south of Finland, to the land of magic (Pohjola) in the north, to win the hand of Aila, daughter of Louhi, a powerful witch with the ability to change shapes. The illustrations are beautiful and wonderfully detailed.

Elias Lönnrot compiled Kalevala in the 1800s as he travelled throughout Finland collecting folk poems and songs. The poetry was usually sung to tunes, sometimes accomonpanied by the kannel-kantele (a five-string zither). The songs were based on folk tales from ancient times that were handed down by word of mouth. The first version, called Old Kalevala, appeared in 1835-1836. The final version of his epic poem, consisting of 22,795 verses, divided into fifty cantos or "chapters", was published in 1849. The first English translation appeared in 1888, the latest in 1998.

Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald started writing the Estonian national epic, Kalevipoeg, in 1850. It was based on an outline presented by Friedrich Robert Faehlmann at an academic lecture in 1839. He also travelled around Estonia collecting stories and songs. His epic tale first appeared as a series of academic publications; the final version of his epic poem was published in 1862 in Finland. It contained 19,023 verses and was divided into 20 cantos.

The word sampo may have originally referred to a pillar, a sort of good luck charm, but the original meaning was lost over the years. It has represented a magical chest, boat, eagle or mill; something that brought good fortune to its owner. In Ancient Powers of the Baltic Sea Finnish author Matti Klinge explores the concept of sampo-sammas as an ancient boundary marker, similar to the Roland statues that appeared all over Europe in medieval times.

The word ausammas in Estonian means monument, hauasammas is tombstone, tugisammas means pillar and ilmasammas is a very old person. Interestingly, the word sammal or moss, is not related to sammas, (although it does grow on old monuments).

Sammas (post) in Estonian derives from an indo-european word stambhas while sammal comes from the same Finnish-Lapland word group as huul, hõbe, ilves, ime, mahl, nina, kurk, nälg, põud, põõsas.

From Lembit Vaba:
Kalima oletus [Kalima 1930: 346–347], et e. sammas võiks tuleneda indo-iraani algkujust stambhas, sm. seiväs ja eL saivas võiksid olla sama ootuspärased balti *steibas ~ *staibas kujude järglased kui eP teivas..”
(Mägiste 1932: 131.)