The Key to the Kalevala

Rating:
Summary: Overwhelmed by Atlantean and Blavatsky references
Review: Finding English translations of research about the Kalevala can be difficult so the title and wonderful review of this book led me to choose it as research material. I was open and interested in the theosophist analysis hoping it would provide supplemental material for getting to know the Kalevala characters. Instead, I was overwhelmed and alienated by Ervast's references and comparisons of Kalevala characters and runes to Atlantean mythology and Blavatsky's Secret Doctrines. If you are interested in theosophy, buy this book. If you are interested in mythological and historical analysis of the Kalevala and its characters, buy Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces or Kalevala Mythology by Juha Pentikainen. I hope one day the editor will write his own book about the Kalevala. His review and preface to Ervast's book were the most cogent and lucid parts of the material.

Rating:
Summary: Insights into the deep wisdom within Finnish mythology
Review: Pekka Ervast was a brilliant mystic from Finland who interpreted the Finnish National Epic, the Kalevala, with the "key" of theosophy. His book explains the adventures of the Kalevala's three heroes (who represent emotion, intellect, and will) as windows into the evolutionary struggle of human beings. Integrating these three forces is a challenging process, and their dynamic interplay and ultimate resolution is, amazingly, what we see within the Kalevala if we "read between the lines" with Ervast. There are hundreds of lines of Kalevala poetry in the book, drawing from Eino Friberg's 1988 translation. The deep wellspring of Finnish myth, touching such topics as shamanism, magic, astronomy, cosmology, and wedding rituals, is only recently becoming widely known outside of Finland. This first English translation of Ervast's book is a unique and valuable contribution to understanding the deep wisdom of the ancient Finns. I served as editor on the project and wrote the Introduction for it, and when in 1994 I first received a response from Finland regarding the possibility of translating Ervast's work, I had the sure feeling that the Key to the Kalevala's time had come.