Echoes of the Kalevala in the novel Deep River | FNLS

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The Friday Night Lecture Series is one of the many programs presented by Nordic Northwest. FNLS are lively hour-long presentations on a variety of Nordic subjects. Learn more about FNLS here:

About this lecture:
For this Friday Night Lecture Series program, Karl Marlantes will draw parallels between his novel Deep River and the Kalevala epic. The novel’s characters are echoes of the Kalevala characters. For example, the two brothers, Matti and Ilmari, are hot-headed Lemminkäinen and Ilmariinen, the smithy who forges the Sampo, respectively. The younger sister, Aino, is independent Louhi, matriarch of the Northland. Just as the Kalevala is about the emergence of culture in Finland, so is Deep River about the pioneering struggles of Finnish immigrants in the early twentieth century in the logging communities of southern Washington near the mouth of the Columbia River.

Speaker Bio:
Karl Marlantes grew up in Seaside, Oregon. His Finnish roots are through his grandmother, Aina Huntus, who came from Kaustinen, and his Norwegian roots are through his grandfather, Leif Erickson, who came from Hammerfest. Karl attended Yale University on a National Merit Scholarship, where he played football and rugby. He graduated cum laude with a degree in Economics. He served in the Marine Corps where he received the Navy Cross, two Purple Hearts and other awards for his heroism as a Marine rifle platoon commander in Vietnam. After leaving the Marine Corps, Karl entered Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar and earned an M.A. in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.
Karl is also the author of Matterhorn, a novel about U.S. Marines fighting for their lives in a jungle near Laos in 1969 and What It Is Like To Go to War, a non-fiction work about the experience of combat and the psychological and spiritual stresses upon young men in Vietnam in 1968. Both books were New York Times bestsellers. His latest work is Deep River, a saga about the struggles and courage of Finnish immigrants who settle in the Pacific Northwest. Karl currently lives in Woodinville, Washington.