Kalevalamitta oppineiden käytössä uuden ajan alun Suomessa

Authors

• Kati Kallio

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30666/elore.79182

Abstract

The Kalevala metre is an old poetic idiom of Finnic oral cultures. It has been estimated that the metre carried pagan associations and was, thus, avoided by the learned men of the Reformation. On the other hand, the actual literary uses of the Kalevala metre have been regarded as a fail, as the learned men did not know how to use the oral idiom properly.

This article reverses these assumptions with theoretical views and by re-reading a corpus of texts that have, traditionally, been analysed within different scholarly fields – literary studies, hymnology, folklore studies and ethnomusicology. The material consists of hymns, literary poems, mocking songs, dedications and descriptions of Finnish poetics. The analysis is built around the uses and varying combinations of different poetic features and musical structures.

On the basis of the uses of Kalevala-metric features and the metre proper, it is evident that the idiom as such was not strictly avoided, but adapted, in various degrees, to several poetic genres. Indeed, the charms in the old oral idiom were condemned, and the metre was not considered appropriate to Lutheran hymns. Yet, in lesser degrees, it became acceptablesuitable to use Kalevala-metric features and rhythms also in hymns, and the actual metre was even used in a Lutheran Kalevala-metric epic on Passion.