THE following 38 Finnish children’s stories cover almost all of the songs and runes contained in the Kalevala, the epic of the Finnish people in a simpler, story form. These stories will lead English speaking children into an hitherto unexplored region of the fairy world, for the folklore of Finland is the least known in the West. In these 38 stories T. M. Crawford's metrical translation of the Kalevala has been closely followed. As an introduction the first story in the volume is "Father Mikko" who has been chosen as the story-teller. Thereafter you will find stories like “Illmarinen Forges the Sampo”, a classic Finnish tale, an illustration of which has been selected for the cover. Young readers will also find the stories of “The Isle of Refuge”, “Wainamoinen And Youkahainen”, “Aino's Fate”, “Wainamoinen's Search For Aino”, “The Rainbow-Maiden”, “Ilmarinen's Bride Of Gold”and many more. While some of the characters' names will, at first, be unfamiliar, but by the end of the book they will be as familiar as friends. If this volume may in any degree awake some interest in the Finnish people, the storyteller would be amply satisfied, for his objective will have been attained.

'One of the great mythic poems of Europe' The New York Times Sharing its title with the poetic name for Finland - 'the land of heroes' - Kalevala is the soaring epic poem of its people, a work rich in magic and myth which tells the story of a nation through the ages from the dawn of creation. Sung by rural Finns since prehistoric times, and formally compiled by Elias Lönnrot in the nineteenth century, it is a landmark of Finnish culture and played a vital role in galvanizing its national identity in the decades leading to independence. Its themes, however, reach beyond borders and search the heart of human existence. Translated with an Introduction by Eino Friberg

Children's publishing is a huge international industry and there is ever-growing interest from researchers and students in the genre as cultural object of study and tool for education and socialization.