he heard of a
renowned Finnish singer, or minstrel, he did all in his power to bring
the song-man to his house, in order that he might gather new fragments
of the national epic. Thus the first glory of collecting the fragments
of the Kalevala and of rescuing it from literary oblivion, belongs to
Topelius. In 1822 he published his first collections, and in 18317 his
last.

Elias Lonnrot, who brought the whole work to a glorious completion, was
born April 9, 1802. He entered the University of Abo in 1822, and in
1832, received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of
Helsingfors. After the death of Castren in 1850, Lonnrot was appointed
professor of the Suomi (Finnish) language and literature in the
University, where he remained until 1862, at which time he withdrew
from his academical activity and devoted himself exclusively to the
study of his native language, and its epical productions. Dr. Lonnrot
had already published a scholarly treatise, in 1827, on the chief hero
of the Kalevala, before he went to Sava and Karjala to glean the songs
and parts of songs front the lips of the people. This work was
entitled: De Wainainoine priscorum Fennorum numine. In the year 1828,
he travelled as far as Kajan, collecting poems and songs of the Finnish
people, sitting by the fireside of the aged, rowing on the lakes with
the fishermen, and following the flocks with the shepherds. In 1829 he
published at Helsingfors a work under the following title: Kantele
taikka Suomee Kansan sek vazhoja etta nykysempia Runoja ja Lauluja
(Lyre, or Old and New Songs and Lays of the Finnish Nation). In
another work edited in 1832, written in Swedish, entitled: Om Finnarues
Magiska Medicin (On the Magic Medicine of the Finns), he dwells on the
incantations so frequent in Finnish poetry, notably in the Kalevala. A
few years later he travelled in the province of Archangel, and so
ingratiated himself into the hearts of the simple-minded people that
they most willingly aided him in collecting these songs. These
journeys were made through wild fens, forests, marshes, and ice-plains,
on horseback, in sledges drawn by the reindeer, in canoes, or in some
other forms of primitive conveyance. The enthusiastic physician
described his journeyings and difficulties faithfully in a paper
published at Helsingfors in Swedish in 1834. He had the peculiar good
luck to meet an old peasant, one of the oldest of the runolainen in the
Russian p