Kalevi (mythology)

Kaleva or Kalevi or Kalev and his sons are very important people or creatures in Finnish, Karelian and Estonian mythology. However many things about them are forgotten. In Estonian stories sons of Kaleva are sons of King. In Finnish stories they are more often giants who built several castles and lived in various regions of Finland. People told that some things in nature, like big or weird stones, are made by Kaleva's sons. Stories tells that while people became Christians, they started to hate Kaleva's sons who remained pagans. Soon Kaleva's sons had to go away. All the time Christian people invaded more land, Kaleva's sons had to go further away. They stayed on an island and did not want to leave. Priests came and they cursed Kaleva's sons until they took a big stone and sailed away with it. They have not seen since that, but sometimes they come at night and hit crop or cut down forests.

Almost the same thing happened to Hiisi people who resembles trolls. Christians made them flee also.

The name of Estonian national Epos Kalevipoeg means "sons of Kalevi" (or "sons of Kalev") and the name of Finnish national epos Kalevala means "Land of Kaleva".

Finnish people called Sirius "Kalevantähti" which means "Star of Kaleva". Belt of Orion was called Kaleva's sword.

According to 18th century Finnish folklore-collector Kristfrid Ganander, Kaleva had 12 sons in total which included such heroes as Väinämöinen, Ilmarinen and Hiisi amongst them.

Oskar Kallis, an Estonian painter from the 1900's, produced the Kalevipoeg series of paintings portraying the epic. These paintings are viewable at a museum in Estonia. Oskar died at a young age in Sebastopol on the Black Sea in the 1920's from illness.