Finland’s Kalevala vs. The Bible’s Genesis
How was the world made? There exist numerous interpretations, stories, theories, myths, etc. that answer this fundamental question. However, as with most mysteries the answer is never black and white. There is no absolute certainty in anything, and no way to entirely disprove one idea or another. Billions of people know The Bible’s Genesis, which describes God’s creating the heavens and the earth and all its populous. However, significantly fewer people have heard of the Kalevala, a collection of the Finnish traditional epics which describe the pagan theology that existed before that nation was Christianized. Elias Lönnrot compiled The Kalevala near the start of the 19th century from the oral tradition of the Finnish people; and, among other stories, it describes Creation. It’s important to note that the term “Kalevala” directly translates to English as “land of the descendants of Kaleva” which is an imaginary land which is linked with Finland, almost like a spirit-world of the actual nation. This makes the stories more ethereal in nature when relating them to the actual Finnish country and
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Both the two works describe the primeval world: “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (The Bible, New International Version, Genesis 1.2). This description of the world as it was just after God created it is extremely similar to that seen in the Kalevala: “IN primeval times, (The maiden), … live(d) for ages in the infinite expanses of the air above the sea-foam, in the far outstretching spaces, in a solitude of ether, she descended to the ocean, waves her coach, and waves her pillow” (“RUNE I”). In both cases the earth is an expanse of ocean with no land and no defining characteristics, with a deity floating high above the waters and descending to sow the seeds of provenance.