This book is a reproduction of the first complete English translation of the Kalevala, the epic poem of Finland, which was originally published in 1888 by John Martin Crawford. Crawford-who kept to the original meter, the "archaic trochaic tetrameter" or Kalevala-meter, unlike some later translators-based his translation on Franz Anton Schiefner's earlier (1852) German edition, which was in turn based on Elias Lönnrot's. Lönnrot, who originally compiled the Kalevala, significantly edited the work to form a coherent whole. His publication, "The Kalevala, or old Karelian poems about ancient times of the Finnish people" (also called the Old Kalevala), was published in two volumes in 1835-36.This volume is complete and unabridged.

Reproduction of the original. The publishing house Megali specialises in reproducing historical works in large print to make reading easier for people with impaired vision.

The Kalevala is the national epic of Karelia and Finland and one of the most significant works of Finnish literature. Today's modern version was compiled in the 19th century by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology. The epic tells the story about the Creation of Earth, describing the controversies and retaliatory voyages between the peoples of the land of Kalevala called Väinölä and the land of Pohjola and their various protagonists and antagonists, as well as the construction and robbery of the mythical wealth-making machine Sampo.