This is the first comprehensive account in English of Finland's material folk culture, habits and folklore. It contains a wealth of photographs and maps and provides a good insight into Finnish folk culture against the general cultural trends in Europe. The subject is made all the more interesting by the fact that Finland has for centuries been a melting pot for cultural influences from both East and West. Finnish Folk Culure is a handbook both for students and for anyone interested in folk tradition and its history. It contains an index and a bibliography of works in English and German.

CultureShock! Finland guides you on a fun-filled crash course on getting to know this rarely explored country. Find out why the Finns are so proud of their motherland and why others fall in love with it from their first visit. From cosmopolitan Helsinki to traditional Lapland, discover the gems of each region and be charmed by the magical winters and the long summer days. Be acquainted with the Finns and find out what lies behind their silence and the desire for personal space. Understand how environmental consciousness and gender equality play an important role in Finnish society and be initiated into the delights of the Finnish sauna. This book also covers a wide range of practical topics to enable you to settle in seamlessly, such as how to set up home, how to conduct business effectively and what leisure activities are available. CultureShock! Finland is the all-encompassing guide that will help you to find your way in Finland and make it your own.

Ilmatar gave birth to the bard who sang the Finnish landscape into being in the Kalevala (the Finnish national epic). In Ilmatar's Inspirations, Tina K. Ramnarine explores creative processes and the critical role that music has played in Finnish nationalism by focusing on Finnish "new folk music" in the shifting spaces between the national imagination and the global marketplace. Through extensive interviews and observations of performances, Ramnarine reveals how new folk musicians think and talk about past and present folk music practices, the role of folk music in the representation of national identity, and the interactions of Finnish folk musicians with performers from around the globe. She focuses especially on two internationally successful groups—JPP, a group that plays fiddle dance music, and Värttinä, an ensemble that highlights women's vocal traditions. Analyzing the multilayered processes—musical, institutional, political, and commercial—that have shaped and are shaped by new folk music in Finland, Ramnarine gives us an entirely new understanding of the connections between music, place, and identity.

This book presents an overview of Finnish folklore from the nineteenth century to the present. The Nordic country of Finland has been influenced by both east and west and serves as an excellent showcase of European folklore in general. Guided by Finnish Folklore, readers will learn how folklore has been collected and researched in Finland, what regional distinctions exist in the country's traditions, and how traditions have changed in the process of modernization. An extensive anthology section features ancient alliterative poetry, such as formed the basis of the Finnish national epic Kalevala. The book contains translated examples of rhymed folk songs, folktales, legends, and other narratives, proverbs, riddles, jokes, and contemporary genres like children's folklore, urban legends, and anecdotes. Tradition continues to live on in communications from person to person, sometimes travelling thousands of miles and over many national borders in the process. The same item of folklore may acquire new meanings in new contexts. What is the linking thread of tradition? Humour, sexuality, fear, or laughter? Is it our eternal longing for happiness or just the endless need of human beings to pass the time with each other?

Made in Finland: Studies in Popular Music serves as a comprehensive and thorough introduction to the history, culture, and musicology of twentieth and twenty-first century popular music in Finland. The volume consists of essays by leading scholars in the field, and covers the major figures, styles, and social contexts of popular music in Finland. Each essay provides adequate context so readers understand why the figure or genre under discussion is of lasting significance. The book is organized into five thematic sections: Emerging Foundations of Popular Music in Finland; Environments, Borderlines, Minorities; Transnationalisms; Sounds from the Underground; and Redefining Finnishness.