Routledge Focus on Literature

<p>This book explores J. R. R. Tolkien’s unique and warm relationship to the <i>Kalevala</i>, a poem usually hailed as the Finnish and Karelian national epic, compiled, edited and partly revisioned from older folk poetry by Finnish scholar Elias Lönnrot in the 19th century. J. R. R. Tolkien, an Oxford academic and the greatest author of the 20th-century fantasy, creator of <i>The Hobbit</i> and <i>The Lord of the Rings</i>, was fascinated from early on by the <i>Kalevala</i>. Tolkien himself described the <i>Kalevala</i> as “a germ” of his fantasy fiction. </p>