This book explores J. R. R. Tolkien’s unique and warm relationship to the
Kalevala
, a poem usually hailed as the Finnish and Karelian national epic, compiled, edited and partly revisioned from older folk poetry by Finnish scholar Elias Lönnrot in the 19
th
century. J. R. R. Tolkien, an Oxford academic and the greatest author of the 20
-century fantasy, creator of
The Hobbit
and
The Lord of the Rings
, was fascinated from early on by the
. Tolkien himself described the
as “a germ” of his fantasy fiction.