Helkavirsiä

{{Short description|Poetry collection by Eino Leino}}

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{{Use British English|date=December 2022}}

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| name = Helkavirsiä

| image = Helkavirsiä.jpg

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| alt = Part I first edition cover of Helkavirsiä

| caption = Part I first edition cover, designed by painter Pekka Halonen

| author = Eino Leino

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| country = Finland

| language = Finnish

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| genre = Poetry

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| publisher = Otava, Helsinki

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| pub_date = 1903 (part I), 1916 (part II)

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| pages = 160

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Helkavirsiä (Swedish: Helkasånger; English: Whitsongs) is a two-part poetry collection by the Finnish poet Eino Leino, published in 1903 and 1916 respectively.{{cite web |title=Helkavirsiä |url=https://www.kirjasampo.fi/fi/kulsa/kauno%253Aateos_52579 |website=Kirjasampo.fi |publisher=Public Libraries of Finland |access-date=25 June 2022 |language=fi}} Leino wrote the first part in Kangasniemi, in Central Finland, in the summer of 1903, while staying at the summer house of his friend and fellow writer, Otto Manninen.{{cite news |title=Kangasniemi juhlistaa 100-vuotiaita Helkavirsiä |url=https://www.hs.fi/kulttuuri/art-2000004148580.html |access-date=25 June 2022 |work=Helsingin Sanomat |date=20 June 2003 |language=fi}}

The collection draws inspiration from the country's national epic Kalevala and other Finnish mythology, merging legends and ballads with modern themes and structures.{{cite web |title=Helkavirsiä |url=http://vintti.yle.fi/yle.fi/sininenlaulu/yle.fi/teema/sininenlaulu/artikkeli.php-id=32.htm |publisher=Yle |access-date=25 June 2022 |language=fi}}

Helkavirsiä is considered not only Leino's breakthrough and one of his most notable works, but also seminal in the development of modern Finnish poetry and wider cultural identity.{{cite web |title=Leino, Eino (1878-1926) |url=https://kansallisbiografia.fi/english/person/2833 |website=Kansallisbiografia.fi |publisher=National Biography of Finland |access-date=25 June 2022}}{{cite book |last1=Ahokas |first1=Jaakko |title=A History of Finnish Literature |date=1973 |publisher=American-Scandinavian Foundation |page=149 |isbn=978-0-87750-172-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UoVDEup2yDgC |access-date=25 June 2022}}