Tolkien was first introduced to the story when he read a translation of the book during his schooldays, describing it as ‘wild’ and ‘primitive,’ and different from all other European epics. This gave him a desire to read the original version, so he borrowed some Finnish grammar books to teach himself the language.

Kullervo (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈkulːerʋo]) is an ill-fated character in the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic compiled by Elias Lönnrot. Kullervo becomes mad with rage, returns to Untamo and his tribe, destroys them using his magical powers, and commits suicide.

Although he never visited Finland and does not seem to have met any native speakers, Tolkien became captivated by the language. In 1955 he told the poet WH Auden that discovering Finnish had been like “entering a complete wine-cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavour never tasted before”.

there can be no doubt that the wizard Gandalf of The Hobbit (1937) and the trilogy which follows, is drawn from the Merlin of early legend. his capacity for launching splendid displays of pyrotechnics.

don C.S. Lewis
Tolkien’s fellow Oxford don C.S. Lewis (author of The Chronicles of Narnia) is often identified as his best friend and closest confidant.

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. Tolkien’s Kullervo is the clear ancestor of Túrin Turambar, tragic incestuous hero of The Silmarillion.

Finnish is a Finnic language of the Uralic family of languages of northern Europe and one of the few non-Indo-European languages spoken in Europe. It became was the inspiration for the Elvish language which Tolkien named Qenya (later Quenya), a language designed to emulate the beauty evoked by Finnish.

Gandalf the White, or in his true form, is much stronger than wise elf Galadriel in the Lord of the Rings.

Gandalf came back to life and continued to fight and help Frodo on his journey. Making sure somehow and someway there was a chance he could make it possible for the good people to win. Dumbledore, as strong a wizard as he was, would not win in a fight with Gandalf.

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,…

The Story of Kullervo is a book edited by Verlyn Flieger. The work reproduces J.R.R. Tolkien ’s complete draft of ‘The Story of Kullervo’ with commentaries and articles by Verlyn Flieger .

The Finnish mythology, as presented in the Kalevala, had a profound impact on the young J.R.R. Tolkien, and became an inspiration for the creation of his Legendarium. In an early letter to Edith Bratt, Tolkien mentions that he is doing a reworking of one of the stories from the Kalevala (resulting in the manuscript ” The Story of Kullervo “).

This is J.R.R. Tolkien’s first prose work and his earliest attempt to write tragedy. The story, a retelling of the tale of Kullervo from the Finnish Kalevala, is 40 pages long, primarily prose but with some sections in verse.