Prof. Galit Hasan-Rokem is the Max and Margarethe Grunwald professor of folklore at the Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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Abstract: 

Myth and Experience: Women, Heroes and Dialogue

Myths had a special significance for Buber’s conceptualization of the human experience in time and space. Impressed by its cosmology, he considered translating the Finnish epic poem Kalevala into German. Kalevala was shaped by Elias Lönnrot from oral epical singers’ performances recorded by him and other early Finnish folklore scholars, first published in 1835 and reedited in the now canonized version published in 1849.  Buber, although he studied some Finnish, ended up editing Anton Schiefner’s German translation (1852) and authoring an influential Nachwort to its 1914 and 1921 editions. I shall discuss Buber’s thoughts on myth as expressed in the afterword titled “Kalewala, das finnische Epos”, in correlation to his ideas on dialogue and with special reference to the female figures and the heroes of the epic.