"At the outset of the Kalevala, Finland's national epic, a singer bemoans his separation from a beloved friend who grew up beside him. Today, the friends rarely meet "näillä raukoilla rajoilla, poloisilla Pohjan mailla" - lines which translator Keith Bosley renders "on these poor borders, the luckless lands of the North." The Kalevala, a poetic masterpiece of nearly 23,000 lines, first appeared in 1835. Now, nearly 200 years later, those "luckless lands of the North" are an increasingly tense border zone."
"On one side sits Finland, affluent and famously "happy." The Nordic nation of 5.6 million is a member of the European Union and, more recently, the NATO alliance. On the other side sits the Republic of Karelia, with a population of around a half-million. Originally home to the Karelians, a people closely related to the Finns, today Karelia is part of the Russian Federation - and the percentage of Karelian speakers is in the single digits."
The Kalevala opens with a lament about separation on the "luckless lands of the North," reflecting a shared cultural heritage across the Finland–Karelia border. The epic’s songs were collected in both Finland and Karelia, showing deep linguistic and folkloric ties. Finland is affluent, a 5.6 million–person Nordic state, an EU member and now part of NATO. The Republic of Karelia has roughly half a million residents and is within the Russian Federation, with few Karelian speakers remaining. Historical imperial divisions put Finns under Sweden and Karelians under Russia, producing different religious and political trajectories. The border zone has grown more tense amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Read at The Conversation
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