Elias Lönnrot

Elias Lönnrot was a Finnish polymath, physician, philosopher, poet, musician, linguist, journalist, philologist and collector of traditional Finnish oral poetry. He is best known for synthesizing the Finnish national epic, Kalevala (1835, enlarged 1849) from short ballads and lyric poems he gathered from Finnish oral tradition during several field expeditions in Finland, Russian Karelia, the Kola Peninsula and Baltic countries.

9 April 1802

Born on the same birth day (9 April): Brandon deWilde • Graham Gano • Jeff Turner • Jim Fowler • Joolz Denby • Marc Jacobs • Paule Marshall • Ryan Clark (actor) • Samuel Fritz • Simon Brown, Baron Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood • Tom Phillis • Tony Cragg • Virginia Gibson

Born in the same month (April 1802): Dorothea Dix • Leopold Fitzinger