Kullervo: Tolkien's fascination with Finland

BBC ^

[Perdogg]

On Thursday JRR Tolkien's early story The Story of Kullervo will be published for the first time. The dark tale reveals that Tolkien's Middle Earth was inspired not only by England and Wales… but also by Finland.

"Hapless Kullervo," Tolkien called him. Kullervo, an orphan boy raised into slavery, a tragic hero who commits incest in the dark forests of Karelia and hurls himself on his own blade.

[Perdogg]

Please, this thread is not about Peter Jackson - take it elsewhere.

[MuttTheHoople]

It seems to me that Scandinavians, Germans, and others of the Nordic race tend to be dark, brooding, pessimistic, and prone to suicide.

I just can't be that pessimistic. It's either Christ who lives in me, or the fact I'm at least 1/2 Irish.

[Perdogg]

ping

[RayChuang88]

According to official biographer Humphrey Carpenter, Tolkien himself loved Finnish because its linguistics really appealed to him, just like Welsh (a Celtic language). That's why the fictional Elven language Quenya is based on Finnish, and the story of The Children of Hürin is based on the original Kullervo legend.

[prisoner6]

Isn’t the original Conan loosely based on Kullervo?

[StoneWall Brigade]

Awesome stuff

[MrEdd]

Finland, Finland, Finland
The country where I want to be
Pony trekking or camping
Or just watching TV
Finland, Finland, Finland
It’s the country for me

You’re so near to Russia
So far from Japan
Quite a long way from Cairo
Lots of miles from Vietnam

Finland, Finland, Finland
The country where I want to be
Eating breakfast or dinner
Or snack lunch in the hall
Finland, Finland, Finland
Finland has it all

You’re so sadly neglected
And often ignored
A poor second to Belgium
When going abroad

Finland, Finland, Finland
The country where I quite want to be
Your mountains so lofty
Your treetops so tall
Finland, Finland, Finland
Finland has it all

Oh focus on Finland friends

Finland, Finland, Finland
The country where I quite want to be
Your mountains so lofty
Your treetops so tall
Finland, Finland, Finland
Finland has it all, Finland has it all

[Celtic Conservative]

I said England!.

CC

[snarkpup]

Valijarvi notices a particular trend among the students who choose to learn Finnish. "They tend to like heavy metal music and fantasy fiction," she laughs.

I've attempted to learn bits of Finnish on and off for many years, sort of as a hobby. Unlike the usual languages taught in school, Finnish is like a language from another planet; but unlike Klingon or the Elvish dialects, it's actually used as some country's language.

As suggested in the article, Finnish is indeed one of the most important languages in the world of heavy metal. In fact, Finland is said to have the highest number of metal bands per capita in the world. A lot of the Finnish metal bands sing (or growl) in Finnish; and just as the Norse sagas are the basis for much of Nordic metal, the Kalevala is the basis for a lot of Finnish metal.

The first bit of Finnish that I memorized several decades ago was the first part of the third chapter. A few years ago, I found a rendition of it by the folk metal band Aurigon Hauta, which can be heard here:

Auringon Hauta - Vaka Vanha Väinämöinen

The lyrics are here:

Finnish
English translation

[Hawthorn]

>> It seems to me that Scandinavians, Germans, and others of the Nordic race tend to be dark, brooding, pessimistic, and prone to suicide <<

Well yeah, but the Finns are neither Germanic nor Scandinavian. They and their language appear to have come from the borderlands near the Ural Mountains, between Europe and Asia.

[rmlew]

I've attempted to learn bits of Finnish on and off for many years, sort of as a hobby. Unlike the usual languages taught in school, Finnish is like a language from another planet; but unlike Klingon or the Elvish dialects, it's actually used as some country's language.
Finnish is a Finnish language. As such it is close to Estonian, Ingrian, and Karelian.

[SunkenCiv]

I hear Peter Jackson was fascinated with Finland. Oh, sorry. ;’)

[blam]

"Well yeah, but the Finns are neither Germanic nor Scandinavian. They and their language appear to have come from the borderlands near the Ural Mountains, between Europe and Asia."

I posted this to FR eight years ago:

Where Do The Finns Come From?

[Hawthorn]

>> I posted this to FR eight years ago:

>> Where Do The Finns Come From?

Thanks!

I have Saami mtDNA (U5b), so the article is definitely of interest.

And BTW, my genealogy has neither “paper trail” nor “oral legend” evidence to explain my Saami ancestry. It came as a total shock.

On the other hand, my mother’s maternal line traces back to a brick wall in Baltimore MD ca. 1810. This clue suggests that the U5b mtDNA could have come from a Finnish woman in the Delaware Swedish colony of the 1600’s, since the colony was only about 50 miles from Baltimore. But I doubt we’ll ever find proof.