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): Albert Hammond Jr. • Austin Peck • Charles Winckler • John B. Gambling • John Howard (singer-songwriter) • Joseph Krumgold • Joshua Ledet • Leopold II of Belgium • Margaret Peterson Haddix • Robert Bauer (footballer) • Ryan Clark (actor)

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