Why did Tolkien steal from the Finns? His own imagination was not enough?
>Tolkien declares the following “I mentioned Finnish, because that set the rocket off in story. I was immensely attracted by something in the air of Kalevala. “ (Letters, 214)
>The Kalevala, The Story of Kullervo and Silmarillion are my most important materials as they are all quite directly related to one another. Túrin quite clearly is a counterpart for Kullervo and these three books are linked the most strongly by that one character.
>The character Túrin Turambar who appears in both Silmarillion and Children of Húrin is very like the character or Kullervo of Kalevala in his life story and characteristics. Silmarillion was also said by Tolkien in the Letters to be “the germ of Silmarillion” (Letters, 87)
What about Fëanor, Ilmarinen, Silmarils and Sampo? Those surely have nothing to do with each other and the Silmarils must be invention of Tolkien's? In an essay "What J. R. R. Tolkien Really Did with the Sampo?" Jonathan B. Himes claims Sampo to be the main source of inspiration for these gems. According to Himes in the first paragraph of his essay, Tolkien used for example the themes of paganism, stark moral and corruption caused by the endless riches provided by Sampo in the magical Silmarils.
Tolkien’s attitude towards his own works was (as quoted by him):
>“[He talks] about his book not as work of fiction but as a chronicle of actual historical events.; he seems to himself not as an author who has made a slight error that must now be corrected or explained away, but as a historian who must cast light on an obscurity in a historical document.”
Is it safe to say that he did nothing else than channel the Kalevala, the epic of the Finns, to the ignorant masses that are Tolkien readers? Who cannot see past the Germanic names such as Gandalf and cannot understand/accept that the whole epic of Silmarillion was just Kalevala and actual retelling of the magnificent history of Finns and their ancient demigods/heroes?
There has been countless academic studies written on this matter, yet most people on this board still deny the chief influence of Silmarillion, Lord of the Rings to be the Finnish epic Kalevala, and instead deny its influence and say factually incorrect things like "No. Kalevala was just one of the many influences. Beowulf was a great influence too. So was Bible"
While the truth is, that the main body of Silmarillion, the skeletal structure of the story and even the flesh of its body of work, is literally the Finnish Kalevala.
