Dr Valijarvi on Finland's The Kalevala (BBC In Our Time)

On Thursday 28 March, Dr Riitta Valijarvi, Associate Professor of Finnish and Minority Languages, was a guest on the BBC Radio 4 programme In Our Time, to discuss Finland's epic The Kalevala. Riitta was also joined by retired SSEES Professor, Daniel Abondolo (Reader in Hungarian). 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Finnish epic poem that first appeared in print in 1835 in what was then the Grand Duchy of Finland, part of the Russian Empire and until recently part of Sweden. The compiler of this epic was a doctor, Elias Lönnrot (1802-1884), who had travelled the land to hear traditional poems about mythical heroes being sung in Finnish, the language of the peasantry, and writing them down in his own order to create this landmark work. In creating The Kalevala, Lönnrot helped the Finns realise they were a distinct people apart from Sweden and Russia, who deserved their own nation state and who came to demand independence, which they won in 1917.

• Listen to the episode (BBC)