Although the Finns are not Sla y s, on topographical grounds mention may here be made of Wainamoinen, the great magician and hero of the Finnish epic Kalevala (" land of heroes ").
These, which bear an unmistakable family likeness to those of the great Finnish epic of the Kalevala, were collected as the Kalevi Poeg, and edited by Kreutswald (1857), and translated into German by Reinthal (1857-1859) and Bertram (1861) and by Lowe (190o).
Elias Lonnrot (q.v.; 1802-1884) is distinguished as the Finnish professor who discovered and edited the Kalevala.
In 1854 hejresigned his professorship. In the following year he gave to the world the Indian Edda, The Song of Hiawatha, a conscious imitation, both in subject and metre, of the Finnish epic, the Kalevala, with which he had become acquainted during his second visit to Europe.