Abstract This article discusses the Kalevala as literature by focusing on the literary-historical situation of the period in which the epic was written. It opens up perceptions of the epic genre but also examines how the Kalevala relates to drama. Lönnrot's vision of ancient history was made available to his contemporary readers with the genre that was ideal for the creation of a national identity: the epic. However, during the Romantic period, the epic genre was in a state of flux, and the ideas of the epic were rethought. The Kalevala is an epic, but by definition, a nineteenth-century epic. Lönnrot also drew on classical and later drama, tragedy, and melodrama, particularly with reference to the characters Kullervo and Aino. References are made to works like Bacchantes, Oedipus Rex, Hamlet, and nineteenth-century works like Gustaf Brakel's Wäinämöinen (1829).
Hanna Karhu (2026) studied this question.