The Kalevala: Lönnrot's Trips and the Places of the Runes

In 1832, on his third field trip, Elias Lönnrot walked into Viena Karelia and reached Akonlahti, the stop that proved most successful of the journey. The country doctor was after songs, not stories: he sat with the village singers and wrote down what they recited. The trip yielded over 3,000 verses and copious notes, the first real heap of raw material for what became the Kalevala.

Location precision: The sources place Akonlahti in Viena Karelia but map search finds no reliable spot, so this stop has no marker.

In 1833 Lönnrot moved to Kajaani, where he spent the next 20 years as district health officer. He lived at the Hövelö croft near Lake Oulujärvi, in the village of Paltaniemi, and spent his spare time searching for poems. From here the long walks to the singers of Karelia began and ended. Today Paltaniemi is a lakeside village north of Kajaani.

Location precision: The pin marks the village; the sources do not say where exactly the Hövelö croft stood.

Visitor guidance: A lakeside village north of Kajaani.

Around 1834, on his fifth trip, Lönnrot met the runic singer Arhippa Perttunen for three days of recitation. The old man provided some 4,000 verses for the Kalevala, a vast share of the epic's material. Perttunen was probably born in Latvajärvi in 1769. The village is now called Ladvozero, in Russia's Kalevalsky District.

Location precision: The village is left without a marker because its position could not be confirmed.

In autumn 1834 Lönnrot's sixth field trip took him to Kuhmo, a municipality in Kainuu to the south of Viena. There he collected over 4,000 verses and completed the first draft of his work. He wrote the foreword and published in February of the following year, giving Finland the Old Kalevala. The exact house where he worked is not recorded in our sources.

Location precision: The sources name the municipality, not a building; the pin marks the town.

Visitor guidance: A town in Kainuu.

In Runo III the young Joukahainen challenges Väinämöinen and boasts of everything he knows: "Three great waterfalls I know of". None, he says, can match the Vuoksi, "there where Imatra is rushing". The real Imatra rapids became a famed tourist sight after Catherine the Great visited in 1772. Since 1929 a dam has held them back; in summer its gates are opened for visitors.

Visitor guidance: In June–August the dam gates are opened for a short show of the rapids; check the schedule.

In Runo XI Lemminkainen goes to seek a wife among the noble maidens of Saari. The prize is Kylli, the beauteous maid of Saari. Kirby's glossary says Saari is an island, especially the island now called Kronstadt. Kronstadt stands on Kotlin Island, so the pin follows that identification. The glossary hedges with "especially", so treat it as the translator's reading, not settled geography.

Location precision: The poem never places Saari on a map; the pin follows the translator's Kronstadt identification.

In Runo XX the feast at Pohja needs food for a multitude, so a huge ox is raised: "Fat the ox they reared in Suomi". It was so big that it "stooped his head to Kemi's river". Kirby's glossary lists Kemi only as the name of a river. Finland's longest river, the Kemijoki, is 550 km long and is the likeliest candidate.

Location precision: The poem names a river called Kemi; matching it to the Kemijoki is a guess, and the pin is a single point on the river.