Suomen kansan vanhat runot

Suomen kansan vanhat runot (The Ancient Songs of the Finnish People), or SKVR, is an edition of traditional Finnic-language verse containing around 100,000 different songs, and including the majority of the songs that were the sources of the Kalevala and related poetry. The collection is available, free, online.

Suomen kansan vanhat runot vols X-2 to XIII-4 on shelf 247 of the north reading room of the National Library of Finland.

Contents
Inside front cover and recto of flyleaf of volume I.1 of Suomen kansan vanhat runot, showing kantele motif.

The original fourteen volumes (published in around 32 physical volumes) were published by the Finnish Literature Society from 1908 to 1948.[1]: 25  A supplement, containing, among other things, some of the field notes of Cristfried Ganander and Elias Lönnrot, was added in 1997. The supplement also contains poems on highly sexual subjects, such as spells to obtain a sexual partner or to improve sexual performance, which had previously been considered unsuitable for publication.[2][1]: 26  Most of the songs in the collection come from the archives of the Finnish Literature Society, but many come from elsewhere, including archives in other countries.

SKVR includes over 89,000 poetic texts in Kalevala-meter, though it is also rich in prose stories and other poetic forms. It does not include all Finnish folklore; around 60,000 texts, for example, are held in unpublished form by the Finnish Literature Society.[1]: 26 

The songs in SKVR are organised into fourteen regions from which they were collected; most volumes then arrange the material by geographical location within the region, and then into four genres:[1]: 26 

  • lyric songs
  • epic or narrative songs
  • occasional songs (in genres such as wedding songs or lullabies)
  • incantations.

Each of these genres is further divided into several subgroups. For example, in 1918 F. A. Hästesko published a sub-genre classification for incantations, which was used in SKVR.[3][1]: 26 

The regions covered are as follows:

SVKR series number number of parts Suomalainen kirjallisuuden seuran toimitusksia series number(s) editor years region
I 4 121 A. R. Niemi 1908–21 Vienan lääni
II 1 144 A. R. Niemi 1921 Aunus, Tver, and Novgorodin-Karjala
III 3 139 Väinö Salminen and V. Alava 1915–24 Länsi-Inkeri
IV 3 140 Väinö Salminen 1925–28 Keski-Inkeri
V 3 141 Väinö Salminen 1929–31 Itä- and Pohjois-Inkeri
VI 2 142 J. Lukkarinen 1934–36 Savo
VII 5 143 A. R. Niemi with Kaarle Krohn and V. Alava 1929–33 Raja- and Pohjois-Karjala
VIII 1 145 Y. H. Toivonen 1932 Varsinais-Suomi
IX 4 146 (first publ. Monumenta Tavastica/Hämeen muistomerkkejä, 1–2) Hämäläis-osakunta Keisarillisessa Suomen Aleksanterin Yliopistossa 1917–18 (first publ. 1915–17) Häme
X 2 147 T. Pohjankanervo and J. Lukkarinen 1933–34 Satakunta
XI 1 148 J. Lukkarinen 1933 Etelä-Pohjanmaa
XII 2 149 Martti Haavio 1934–35 Pohjois-Pohjanmaa
XIII 4 150 Väinö Salminen 1936–45 Etelä-Karjala
XIV 1 151 Väinö Salminen 1948 Uusimaa
XV 1 685 Matti Kuusi and Senni Timonen 1997 various

English translation

A selection of poems is presented in normalised Finnish and in English translation in Finnish Folk Poetry: Epic. An Anthology in Finnish and English, edited and translated by Matti Kuusi, Keith Bosley and Michael Branch (Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuran toimituksia, 329, Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 1977).

References
  1. Tuukka Karlsson, '"Come here, you are needed": Registers in Viena Karelian Communicative Incantations' (PhD thesis, Helsinki University, 2022).
  2. Housumato ja sudenkita – seksi kansanrunoudessa (Arkistoitu artikkeli)
  3. Frans Aleksi Hästesko, Länsisuomalainen loitsurunous (Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 1918).
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