Jyskyjärvi

Jyskyjärvi belonged to the eastern Karelian villages whose river routes and commerce connected them toward the White Sea and Russian-speaking communities. Its cultural life stood at a meeting point of Karelian song traditions and influences from farther east. In 1829 the Finnish traveller and clergyman Jaakko Fellman visited the village.

Elias Lönnrot arrived in 1835 during his sixth journey to collect oral poetry. He made eight records at Jyskyjärvi, two of them charms. Travelling along the Kem River, he had found that epic songs became less frequent east of the border villages; his correspondence attributed part of this change to the influence of Russian songs. Jyskyjärvi nevertheless supplied several pieces. The manuscript of the first Kalevala was already complete by the time of his visit, so these records belonged to the continuing collection of oral literature rather than the making of that first edition.