Oidipus Iänikuinen Kalevalan miesten ja naisten kuvaamana. (The eternal Oedipus as seen in the men and women of the Kalevala.): Tor-Björn Hägglund. Psykoterapiasäätiö Monasteri, Jyväskylä, Finland: Gummerus Oy. 1990. 110 pp.

This collection of essays is inspired by Finnish folk tales from the Kalevala. In his book, Tor-Björn Hägglund studies Finnish Oedipal mythology in the light of the Kalevala and he uses psychoanalytical methods and theory in his work.

Hägglund states, that Doctor Elias Lönnrot, who collected the Kalevala, various Finnish folk stories between 1828 and 1844, and reworked them into a single entity, must have had a clear insight into the meaning of Finnish folklore for young men and women in their formative years. Based on this knowledge, Lönnrot wrote a book which actively contributed to the establishment of a Finnish cultural identity and independence at a time when the culturally and administratively suppressed country was growing towards sovereignty, away from the supremacy of neighbouring countries, i.e., Sweden (Mother-Svea) and Russia (the father figure of the Russian Tsar), as young people achieving independence, not through power or supremacy, but by growing and maturing towards self-sufficiency (Finland was transferred from Swedish to Russian sovereignty in 1809).

Hägglund considers the meaning of the Kalevala for the people of those times, for whom it was not possible to experience youth in the way we do now. They had to live with adult duties and obligations and move directly from childhood to adulthood. He finds that the Kalevala mainly deals with the relationships between young men and women and their inner world in the absence of a father figure, or with a father figure who is weak or rejective towards women and children.

Consequently, the Kalevala describes young peoples’ struggle against dependence on a strong and overpowering mother. The Kalevala does not