In the Kalewala and the Traditional Poetry of the Finns (English translation by IM Anderton, 1898) he discusses the national epic of Finland and its heroic songs, with a view to solving the problem whether an epic could be composed by the interweaving of such national songs.
He is most known for his book Kalevala Mythology, which is an in depth analysis of Elias Lönnrot's epic Kalevala.
Lyrics come from many sources, two main traditional sources are the Kalevala, the national epic of Finland, and the Kanteletar.
W.F. Kirby, an English translator of the Kalevala, notes that in Runo 49, Väinämöinen uses rhabdomancy, or divination by rods, to learn where the sun and moon are hidden, but this interpretation is rejected by Aili Kolehmainen Johnson (1950).
McCutcheon has been awarded the International Kalevala Medal for services to Finnish culture (for his work on the Kalevala).
During her work with Hedningarna, she developed a strong interest in the ancient Finnish runo-songs, which compose the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala.
Kalevala (the lyrics of "Cursed Be Iron" contain a section of the poem "The Origin of Iron")
Aside from this, the lyrical concept for this album was based on Nordic myths, the Kalevala (the Finnish national epic), history and stories of Jämsen's own creation.
Kalevala |
Many of these myths were later written down in the 19th century as the Kalevala, which was created to be a national epic of Finland by Elias Lönnrot.
The "worlds" so examined include not only the Norse world of "The Roaring Trumpet," but those of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene in "The Mathematics of Magic," Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso (with a brief stop in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Kubla Khan) in "The Castle of Iron," the Kalevala in "The Wall of Serpents," and finally (at last), Irish mythology in "The Green Magician."
Mari Kaasinen has explained that Kanteletar and Kalevala have been used as a source of inspiration for the music of Värttinä.
The five stories collected in The Complete Compleat Enchanter explore the worlds of Norse mythology in "The Roaring Trumpet," Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene in "The Mathematics of Magic," Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso (with a brief stop in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Kubla Khan) in "The Castle of Iron," the Kalevala in "The Wall of Serpents," and Irish mythology in "The Green Magician."
In the stories collected as Wall of Serpents, the authors' protagonist Harold Shea visits two such worlds, those of Finnish and Irish mythology.