Väinämöinen - Central character of Finnish poems - Martti Haavio

"The most important character in Kalevala and, as has been said many times, the Finnish national man is Väinämöinen.
Everyone who has read our national epic has formed their opinion of him based on it. But there is another Väinämöinen: folk poems. Now that my work has been completed, I notice that I have arrived at results that seriously upset the image that has been created of him based on the Kalevala."

Who really is Väinämöinen - the hero of the Kalevala, a scientist, a god or something else? What connects the Väinämös of the Kaleva stories and the god Odin of Scandinavian mythology?

Martti Haavio's classic work Väinämöinen was published for the first time in 1950. The new afterwords of the anniversary edition were written by Veikko Anttonen, professor emeritus of religious studies.

Martti Haavio (1899-1973) was a researcher of folk poetry and mythology. Along with his academic career, he published poems under the author name P. Mustapää.