Sources and development of the Kalevala as an example for the quantitative analysis of literary editions and sources

Abstract

This paper describes ongoing work to quantitatively analyse the development of the Finnish national epic Kalevala. The analysis targets both the oral poetry sources used and the development of the final edition through multiple preparatory publications and manuscripts. In terms of methodological development, the paper relates to prior research on how to visualise relations between texts. However, the particular nature of oral poetry and the editing process at play here precludes using the established methods directly, leading instead to the development of complementary approaches.