LibGuides: Finnish folklore: information sources in English: Studies on Finnish Folklore

On this page, we provide examples of English-language books on Finnish folklore. You can find more books as well as journal articles by searching for information in SKS Finna Search Service.

You are always welcome to ask for help from us via Ask SKS or on-site at the library.

SKS Open Access Publications

The Studia Fennica series, published by SKS since 1933, showcases recent and novel research in English, in the form of both monographs and edited volumes which often combine Finnish and international contributions. The volumes are internationally refereed. Many of the publications of Studia Fennica series are freely available in open access on oa.finlit.fi. The series comprises six sub-series: Anthropologica, Ethnologica, Folkloristica, Historica, Linguistica, Litteraria.

Selected titles:

Folklore Atlas (Open Access)

Sarmela, Matti. Finnish Folklore Atlas. Ethnic Culture of Finland 2
PDF. 4th partially revised edition. 2009.
99 maps on the ethnic culture of the peoples of Finland and Karelia: rites, customs, beliefs, narratives and poetry in archaic meter. The Atlas is a unique cartographic analysis of the culture of northern hunter-gatherers, swidden cultivators and agrarian peasants and their adaptation to the environment of their times; the cultural periods of shamans, sorcerers and Christian villages.

Search for more items

You can find more books as well as journal articles by searching for information in SKS Finna.

See the page Library Services in this guide for instructions on how to get started with searches to find items on your specific topic.

Selected Books (Print)

Finnish Folklore
By Leea Virtanen and Thomas DuBois.
Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 2000.
Guided by Finnish Folklore, readers may learn about 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. Includes an extensive anthology section.
Finnish Folk Culture
By Ilmar Talve.
Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 1997.
The first comprehensive account in English of Finland's material folk culture, habits and folklore.
Mythic Images and Shamanism. A Perspective on Kalevala Poetry
By Anna-Leena Siikala.
Helsinki: Suomalainen tiedeakatemia, 2002.
This work analyses the shamanistic images and metaphors encountered in the oral poetry of the Baltic Finns and at the same time examines the action of the ecstatic tietäjäs and the seers who fell into trance.
Kalevala Mythology
By Juha Pentikäinen.
Exp. ed. Bloomington (IN) : Indiana University Press, 1999.
This work is a comprehensive examination of the origins, world view, and process involved in the creation of the Finnish national epic.
Gender and Folklore: Perspectives on Finnish and Karelian Culture
Edited by Satu Apo, Aili Nenola, Laura Stark-Arola.
Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1998.
This collection of articles expands perspectives of both gender and folklore by exploring not only what gender relations and concepts in Finland have been in the past and are today, but also the different channels of oral discourse and ritual expression through which gender is and has been expressed.
Songs Beyond the Kalevala
Edited by Anna-Leena Siikala & Sinikka Vakimo.
Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1994.
The aim of this collection of articles is to give a picture of the discussion concerning Kalevala poetry. It also attemps to bring out aspects of the rune-singing tradition which have remained hidden to non-Finnish readers.
Finnish Folk Poetry and the Kalevala
By Thomas A. DuBois.
New York (NY): Garland Publishing, 1995.
A study of Finnish folk poetry and of its relationship to Elias Lönnrot's nineteenth-century literary epic, Kalevala.