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Kalevala Bone Setting is an ancient medical practice based on an oral rune tradition that has sustained itself to this day among Finnish tribes around the area of the Baltic Sea, Ladoga, and the White Sea (Vienanmeri). The name Kalevala refers to a collection of runes compiled by anthropologist Elias Lönnrot and published in Finland in the year 1840. Lönnrot culled the runes from singers in Finnish villages during the early 19th Century. He created a cohesive and dramatic storyline between a particular set of runes, ignoring a large share of other runes (including healing spells). Runes collected in Finnish Literature Society’s Archives of Old Folk Poems form the largest collection of folklore in the Western hemisphere (Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden seuran arkistoSuomen kansan vanhat runot”). Nevertheless, as a result of a continued construction and re-construction of Finnish national identity during the past two centuries, Lönnrot’s Kalevala has become a widely accepted term to describe the Finnish oral tradition and indeed Finnish identity and culture in general.

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