Kanteletar is a collection of Finnishfolk poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot. It is considered to be a sister collection to the Finnish national epicKalevala. The poems of Kanteletar are based on the trochaic tetrameter, generally referred to as "Kalevala metre". The name consists of the base wordkantele and the feminisingmorpheme-tar and can be roughly interpreted as "maiden of the kantele" or "zither-daughter", a kind of muse.
History
Kanteletar was published in 1840 under the name Kanteletar taikka Suomen Kansan Wanhoja Lauluja ja Wirsiä. Lönnrot got the foundation for the collection on his journeys in 1838 after he met rune singer Mateli Kuivalatar on the banks of the Koitere. The poems sung by Kuivalatar were recorded in Lönnrot's notes. Kanteletar consists of three books. The first book includes 238 lyrical poems which Lönnrot named Yhteisiä Lauluja or "Common Songs". These songs are divided into four sections: common themes, for a wedding crowd, shepherds, and children. The second book contains 354 lyrical poems which was called Erityisiä Lauluja or "Special Songs". These songs are divided as songs for girls, women, boys and men. There are 60 historic poems, romances, legends, ballads and lyrical epic poems in the third book, which is called Virsi-Lauluja or "Hymns". There are 24 new poems in the preface. , 1897 Lönnrot's third edition of Kanteletar in 1887 had the third book revised in full, as it contained 137 poems. Later editions adhered to the original printing with the exception of 10 poems which were taken from the third book as an appendix. The lyrical poetry of Kanteletar comes, for the most part, from Finnish Karelia. In his forward, Lönnrot makes note of Lieksa, Ilomantsi, Kitee, Tohmajärvi, Sortavala, Jaakkima and Kurkijoki as places where he traveled. The poems of the third book have generally been collected from Russia and Karelia.
Reception
Kanteletar and Kalevala has generally been used as a source of inspiration in the arts. They have been used as a source of lyrics for Finnish folk music in addition to archived Finnish folk poetry. The Kalevala-metred poems had originally been sung poetry.
Music
Mari Kaasinen has explained that Kanteletar and Kalevala have been used as a source of inspiration for the music of Värttinä.
For example, the lyrics in the Värttinä song Niin mie mieltynen
Onpa tietty tietyssäni,
mesimarja mielessäni.
Lempilintu liitossani,
soriainen suojassani.
are taken directly from the 31st poem of the second book. The name of the poem is Onpa tietty tietyssäni and has been translated:
His image is fastened in my mind
My sweet one in my memory,
My little bird flies along with me
My dear one under my wing.
Akseli Törnudd had written about twenty songs based on Kanteletar poems, the most popular being perhaps the humorous story about a cat from ViipuriTuomittu katti.
