"The Kalevala" is a Finnish epic poem that tells the story of the creation of the universe, the heroes who inhabit it, and the tales of their struggles and adventures. We learn how existence was created from a duck egg, how forests were created from the chips of a world-tree felled by an ancient wizard, how the mighty Sampo-a multicolored mill of plenty-was created and later stolen, and how the nine dread diseases were created, and many other tales.