The Kalevala: Problems of Interpretation and Identity

Chapters in this book

1. I-X I
2. Prologue
3. The Kalevala and the World's Epics: An Introduction 1
4. Models
5. The Homeric Epics and Greek Cultural Identity 29
6. Virgil's Aeneid as Homeric, National and Universal Epic 49
7. The Old Norse Analogue: Eddic Poetry and Fornaldarsaga 73
8. Kalevala and Nibelungenlied: The Problem of Oral and Written Composition 93
9. Macpherson's Ossian: Ballad Origins and Epic Ambitions 115
10. Result
11. Epic Cycles as the Basis for the Kalevala 133
12. The Kalevala as Epic 157
13. The Kalevala: The Processual View 181
14. The Reception of the Kalevala and Its Impact on the Arts 231
15. Points of Comparison Europe
16. The Kalevala and the Epic Traditions of Europe 247
17. The Kalevala and Kalevipoeg 265
18. Russian and Finnish Epic Songs 287
19. The Väinämöinen Poems and the South Slavic Oral Epos 311
20. Epics of the Eastern Uralic Peoples 343
21. Frédéric Mistral's Poem Mireille and Provençal Identity 359
22. Points of Comparison Africa
23. Is Epic Oral or Written? 381
24. Identity and Epics: African Examples 403
25. Arabic Folk Epics 425
26. Points of Comparison Asia
27. The Iranian Book of Kings: A Comparativistic View 441
28. Motif Correspondences between Mongolian Epics and the Kalevala 455
29. The Singers of the King Gesar Epic 471
30. The Life and History of the Epic King Gesar in Ladakh 485
31. Epics in China 503
32. The Yukar of the Ainu and Its Historical Background 519
33. Epilogue
34. The Role of Mythologism, Past and Present 537
35. The Kalevala: Problems of Interpretation and Identity 555
36. Index of Names 577
37. Index of Epics and Epic Heroes 583