top of page

For thousands of years, an epic poem called the Kalevala was passed from generation to generation in the Finnish north. The keepers of the poem were known as rune-singers, performers who predated written language and later inspired the Elvish language found in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. But centuries of war have left this tradition hanging by a thread. In 2014, I visited Jussi Huovinen, the last surviving rune-singer with the poem committed to memory and the strings of customary instruments. 

03

The Rune-Singer

2014

Austin Hagwood
bottom of page