Kalevipoeg

In pre-Christian ancient Estonia there existed an oral tradition, known as runic song, of legends explaining the origin of the world.

Early written references are found in Leyen Spiegel in 1641 as "Kalliweh", and in a list of deities published by Mikael Agricola in 1551 as "Caleuanpoiat".

Widsith is for the most part a survey of the people, kings and heroes of Europe in the Germanic Heroic Age.

[2] The main material is taken from Estonian folklore of a giant hero named Kalevipoeg ("Kalev's son").

These tales mainly interpret various natural objects and features as traces of Kalevipoeg's deeds and have similarities with national epics from neighbouring regions, especially the Finnish Kalevala.

In 1839, Friedrich Robert Faehlmann read a paper at the Learned Estonian Society about the legends of Kalevipoeg.

In 1850, after Faehlmann's death, Kreutzwald started writing the poem, interpreting it as the reconstruction of an obsolete oral epic.

[citation needed] The second, thoroughly revised version (19,087 verses) was published in sequels as an academic publication by the Learned Estonian Society in 1857–1861.

Kalevipoeg was the youngest son of Kalev and Linda, born after his father's death and surpassed his brothers in intelligence and strength.

Kalevipoeg's faithful comrades are killed, after which he hands the kingship to his brother Olev and withdraws to the forest, depressed.