Rune Singing

Rune singing is the ancient sung poetry of the Finnic peoples of Finland, Karelia and Estonia: epic, lyric, ritual and magical songs performed in the trochaic Kalevala meter, traditionally by two singers seated hand in hand, answering each other line for line, to the kantele or unaccompanied. Estonian regilaul is its southern branch. Collected by Elias Lönnrot into the Kalevala and Kanteletar, the repertoire survived in Karelian and Ingrian villages into the twentieth century and was revived by folk groups such as *Värttinä*, *Hedningarna* and *Loituma*.