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Stealing of the Sampo
Heroic tales, ancient rites, shamanic rituals, amazing wildlife and thriving traditions are just some of the delights enjoyed by Anna Maria Espäster as she ventured to Kuhmo in Finland to share in the riches of the Kalevala – a national treasure of epic proportions The small town of Kuhmo, with just 10,000 souls to its name, lies nestled in the midst of lakes and forests a stone’s throw from the Russian border on Lake Lammasjarvi, in deepest Finnish Karelia. The area of Karelia has long been a bridge between East and West and it was one of the regions that in the 1830s inspired Elias Lonnrot, a scholar and district health officer, to travel its width and length collecting the oral folk poetry and stories that were to become what is today known as the Finnish national epic – the Kalevala. Many of the stories, traditions and folklore that inspired the Kalevala are still kept alive to this day and I’d travelled to the area to see the re-enactment of a legend from the Kalevala – the Sampo Rite – by the shaman of the Kalevala village in Kuhmo.
by ks
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