The Story of Kullervo is a prose version of the Kullervo cycle in the Karelian and Finnish epic poem Kalevala. Translated and retold by J.R.R. Tolkien when he was an undergraduate at Exeter College, Oxford, from 1914 to 1915, it was an unsettled period for the author, which is thought to be reflected in the story's dark subject matter. It also marks "the first time that J.R.R. Tolkien, who had been a poet until then, began writing prose".
Known as a source (among others) for the First Age character Túrin Turambar, Kullervo was the center of Tolkien's efforts in 1914, as he was "trying to turn one of the stories [of the Kalevala] — which is really a very great story and most tragic – into a short story".[1]
The Story of Kullervo tells of a doomed young man who is sold into slavery and swears revenge on the magician who killed his father.
"Kullervo, son of Kalervo, is perhaps the darkest and most tragic of all J.R.R. Tolkien’s characters. "Hapless Kullervo," as Tolkien called him, is a luckless orphan boy with supernatural powers and a tragic destiny. Brought up in the homestead of the dark magician Untamo, who killed his father, kidnapped his mother, and tried three times to kill him when he was still a boy, Kullervo is alone save for the love of his twin sister, Wanona, and the magical powers of the black dog Musti, who guards him. When Kullervo is sold into slavery he swears revenge on the magician, but he will learn that even at the point of vengeance there is no escape from the cruelest of fates. Tolkien himself said that The Story of Kullervo was "the germ of my attempt to write legends of my own," and was "a major matter in the legends of the First Age." Tolkien’s Kullervo is the clear ancestor of Túrin Turambar, tragic incestuous hero of The Silmarillion. Published here for the first time with the author’s drafts, notes, and lecture essays on its source work, the Kalevala, The Story of Kullervo is a foundation stone in the structure of Tolkien’s invented world."
—From the publisher
Inspiration[]
Much of the writing of J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium was influenced by the Kalevala, a work of epic poetry from Finnish folklore which was compiled by Elias Lönnrot in the 19th century. It is said that Tolkien learned the Finnish language just so that he could read the Kalevala in its original language.
Medieval poetry and translations by J.R.R. Tolkien
