On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the (New) Kalevala thirty experts on comparative epic research from 12 countries met in Turku, Finland in August 1999 to debate the role of the Finnish national epic and its scientific significance. As material for comparison they used textualised epics from Europe and epic traditions, some of them still preserved in oral form, from America, Africa, Central and Southern Asia. A special look was taken at the Baltic-Finnish and Baltic epics.