Kalevala, Runos 1--23

For the March meeting, we will be going through roughly the first half of the Kalevala, the narrative poem that was compiled by Elias Lönnrot in the 19th century from Finnish folklore and myths as a national epic poem for Finland, which captivated a young J.R.R. Tolkien's imagination and inspired his quest to make the same for England's Anglo-Saxon background, which became eventually his "Legendarium," the Silmarillion materials that led to the Lord of the Rings.
There are fifty ronos, or chapters, which would make twenty-five per meeting for two meetings, but I am going to break it into twenty-three this time and twenty-seven in April, which splits the length more equally.
There seem to be a number of translations out there. I have the Penguin Classics edition translated by Eino Friberg, but I would say to get whatever translation you locate most easily. It should be interesting discussion if there are differences in translations that yield different takes on the material, discussion of the way translation impacts meaning.