Kaleva

In Estonian mythology and Kreutzwald’s epic poem “Kalevipoeg,” King Kalev was the father of King Kalevipoeg and Linda’s husband. The Kalevala is a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Finnish and Karelian oral folklore and mythology. It is regarded as Finland’s national epic and is one of Finnish literature’s most significant works. The Kalevala played an instrumental role in developing the Finnish national identity, the intensification of Finland’s language strife, and the growing sense of nationality that ultimately led to Finland’s independence from Russia in 1917. The Estonian “kalev,” meaning ‘red cloth.’