Elias Lönnrot

Elias Lönnrot, born on April 9, 1802, in Sammatti, Finland, was a folklorist and philologist. He is best known for compiling the Kalevala, regarded as the national epic of Finland. After receiving his medical degree in 1832, Lönnrot became a medical officer, a position that allowed him to make field trips across the remote parts of Northern Europe, collecting the folk poetry that he would turn into the Kalevala. In 1853, he became a professor of Finnish language and literature at the University of Helsinki. Lönnrot died on March 19, in Sammatti.