Lönnrot's compilation and agglutination of Finnish folklore serves as the point of departure. Contrastive and supplementary material is provided by Lönnrot's earlier attempts, The Old Kalevala and the Proto-Kalevala. These three works are available in English, translated by Frances Peabody Magoun. Furthermore, the bilingual edition of folklore variants (Finnish Folk-Lore: Epic. Martti Kuusi, ed.) makes possible a detailed study of Lönnrot's working hypothesis and methodology. The religious-mytho-logical foundation is provided by Martti Haavio (Suomalainen mytologia, and Väinämöinen; Tietäjä iänikuinen), while the periods and genres of Finnish folklore are well described in Suomen Kirjallisuus I (the unwritten literature) and serve as the basic sources for many of the lectures.