~~THE FINNISH NATIONAL EPIC~~
Foreword
This project was begun in the spring of 2002. Two years before I had come into possession of three American paperbacks: The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien with three parts called The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King. I had The Lord of the Rings available for my reading before that, but in Finnish, and I actually might have read that, if not for the absolutely horrid covers, bad translation of the first part's title (which might be translated as The Knights of the Ring) and a completely uninformed Finnish introduction on the back covers (which, eg. stated that Tolkien, and his son Christopher, were professors of history not philology). Another thing which held me back was that I have a dislike for fantasy in its modern commercial and nerd-like form. The covers did nothing to make me feel that this book was not remotely like that. But the covers and the introduction on the back cover fn the American versions, well, they were something quite different. All of the books had wonderful illustrations by Tolkien himself on them and even a photograph of him. When I was a child, to me and my siblings had been read The Chornicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, and loving them with all my soul I later read them myself. Being informed that Tolkien was a friend of Lewis, I knew that here might be something very different from 'fantasy' as it is today: complete truth.
And there is. I read The Lord of the Rings and immediately turned to all other truly Tolkienian books I could find and read. This included his children's books, The Silmarillion, books associated with it and any well made books about him. But most importantly: The History of Middle-earth: these twelve books hold inside them the majesty and tragedy of all of Tolkien's serious writings about the ancient history of the World. Tolkien's writings have the complete and utter truth found only rarely in modern literature (which it hardly is: its feeling is ancient). The language is gripping, the characters are alive, the history is extremely realistic: the scope of his writings can in my oppinion be only be compared to his eternal source of inspiration: The Holy Bible. Tolkien had been a devoted Catholic from his early childhood. All through his life he read and researced numerous mythologies because of his philological interests and profession. His feelings were that language and mythology are not separable: in fact, in his essay A Secret Vice, he said that language breeds mythology. And so it did with Tolkien. When he was asked about what was behind his mythology, he answered that it is fundamentally linguistic in inspiration.
When I began reading the The History of Middle-earth, I more and more became aware of this. But sadly, I am/was not linguistically trained, though inclined. For example, I could not understand The Etymologies found in the fifth volume at all. But in the end of the year of 2001 I discovered Ardalambion, the best page about Tolkien's invented languages on the net. I learned Quenya, the most impotant of Tolkien's languages, from his highly informed Quenya Course. From it I understood that our knwoledge of the major Elven Tongues, Quenya and Sindarin, is very limited indeed (and of Tolkien's other languages even more so). For example, there is hardly any evidence in Tolkien's writings about how subjunctive is formed in Quenya, or even of its (non-)existence. And thus I started to study and even research Tolkien's languages in earnest. Many of the resulting writings can be found on these Men Eldalambinen pages, others on the archives of the mailing lists Elfling and Lambengolmor.
And now we come into the question of this current task: the translation of The Kalevala into Quenya. Tolkien had read a translation of The Kalevala in 1911, and said of it:"...the more I read of it, the more I felt at home and enjoyed myself." He began searching for a Finnish grammar in order to read the book in its original language, and when he found one 1912 he said afterwards: "It was like discovering a wine-cellar filled with bottles of amazing wine of a kind and flavour never tasted before. It quite intoxicated me." He learned only little Finnish, but it greatly influenced him. He began creating a private language heavily influenced by it. This language later became known as Quenya, the most well preserved of the languages of the Elder Children of God, the Eldar, the People of the Stars. Again quoting Tolkien: "I never learned Finnish well enough to do more than plod through a bit of the original, like a schoolboy with Ovid; being mostly taken up with its effect on 'my language'. But the beginning of the legendarium, of which the Trilogy is part (the conclusion), was in an attempt to reorganize some of the Kalevala, especially the tale of Kullervo the hapless, into a form of my own." The Kalevala is then the beginning of Tolkien's Quenya and all of his mythology, published during his lifetime and afterwards. It takes then hardly a large leap of mind to discover that translating the epic Kalevala into Quenya might be highly interesting.
This project might take years, because of our limited information on Quenya, the length of the work and its archaic language. Anyway, these translations have been and most likely will be continually updated as errors are discovered and our knowledge of Quenya grows. Because of the evident importance of this national epic to Tolkien, as seen in the previous paragraph, and my perfectionism, I want these translations to be as perfect as possible. So, if you discover any errors or mistakes, please inform me one way or another.
Jumala siunatkoon kaikkia! Nai Eru aistuva ilquen! May God bless everyone!
Petri Samuel Tikka Helsinki, Finland 6. 8. 2002
Ensimmäinen Runo / I Minya Laire / The First Poem
Toinen Runo / I Attea Laire / The Second Poem (in progress)