PISA
National Writers
Elias Lönnrot (1802-1884)
Elias Lönnrot has been called the second father of the written Finnish language. He was a multidiscplinary academic who had a very long career as a philologist and a medical doctor as well as a journalist and an explorer.
Elias Lönnrot was born to a poor Finnish-speaking family 1802 but his eldest brother supported him financially and gave him the opportunity to go to school. Lönnrot began his studies in the University of Turku 1822 along with two other soon-to-be great men of Finland: J.V.Snellman and J.L.Runeberg. Lönnrot studied various subjects at first but focused on medicine and received a medical degree 1832. In 1833-53 he worked as a district physician in Kainuu. During his years in Kainuu he improved the health of common people by founding a doctor’s house (later these became health centres) to every parish and writing health instructions.
In addition to his responsibilities as a doctor he continued to collect folk poems (Kalevala 1835, The New Kalevala 1849, Kanteletar 1840), he was a founding member of The Finnish Literature Society (SKS), he compiled a large Finnish-Swedish-dictionary (200 thousand words), and developed new lexicon to the Finnish language. In 1853-1862 he worked as the professor of the Finnish language and literature.
Maija: Did you know that Lönnrot
had the major Greek epics The Iliad and The Odyssey
as his models when he compiled our national epic Kalevala?
Matti: I bet he did, because he managed
to create a book which is as great as the other famous
national epics, like The German Nibelungenlied, The French
Song of Roland and The Scottish Poems of Ossian. But did
you know that Kalevala in turn acted as a model for the
Estonian national epic Kalevipoeg, and that even the American
epic, The Song of Hiawatha, is similar to Kalevala?
The Kalevala started the golden age in Finnish culture. The compiling of the Kalevala started when the Swedish-speaking elite, inspired by the spirit of Romanticism, started to search for the roots of the Finnish nation and collected folklore and folk poems from ordinary people in Finland and Karelia. Elias Lönnrot was the main collector of the poems on his numerous trips that he took on foot to the Eastern parts of Finland and Karelia. The Finnish Literature Society was founded to support this project.
Kalevala was published in 1835 by Elias Lönnrot who compiled it based on the poems that he had collected. He edited a continual story that starts from the birth of the world and tells the story of Väinämöinen and his people. In 1849 he published an expanded version of Kalevala, the new Kalevala which is the one that is read today.
The poems of Kalevala are based on the oral tradition of the speakers of the Balto-Finnic languages. The poetic song tradition is over two thousand years old and it is sung in an unusual archaic trochaic tetrametre which can nowadays be also called the Kalevala metre.
The Kalevala has inspired many artists: authors, painters, poets and composers in Finland and abroad. It started the golden age of Finnish art, for example Akseli Gallen-Kallela illustrated Kalevala 1891 and composer Jean Sibelius was also inspired by Kalevala and Karelianism in the 1890's. In the 20th century Eino Leino, the Finnish poet, wrote his masterpiece Helkavirsiä fusing Karelianism and European symbolism. Kalevala's myths inspired also playwrights; especially the story of Kullervo was dramatized by Aleksis Kivi.
The Kalevala is still very popular. It has been translated into more than 50 languages and reprinted several times. Numerous special editions have appeared during the years since its publication and one of their main target groups have been children and young people. Mauri Kunnas for example has done significant work in order to familiarize Finnish children with Kalevala. In 1992 he published The Canine Kalevala which tells the story in way which children find fascinating. It is nicely illustrated and all its characters are dogs.
Kalevala:
www.sacred-texts.com/neu/kveng/index.htm
Kalevala-multimedia: www.europeoftales.net
Finnish Literature Society: www.finlit.fi
Elias Lönnrot: www.juminkeko.fi/lonnrot/en/index.html
The power of the word is well illustrated in the third poem of Kalevala which tells about a singing competition between the famous wise man Väinämöinen and young Joukahainen. They pit their wits and knowledge against each other and the competition ends with Väinämöinen singing Joukahainen into a swamp. The reason for this was Joukahainen’s proposition: he wanted to challenge Väinämöinen to a battle with swords. However, Väinämöinen does not want to use physical force and decides to beat Joukahainen by the power of the word. This is very typical in Kalevala; the heroes fight with words, not with swords, whereas in other epics heroes take up arms.
J. L. Runeberg (1804-1877)
Johan Ludvig Runeberg is Finland's national poet. He belonged to the Swedish-speaking elite and wrote all his works in Swedish but he advanced the cause of Finland in many ways. Many of Runeberg’s epic and lyrical poems describe the people and the nature of Finland. He has also written the words for the Finnish National Anthem (Maamme-laulu). Runeberg attained the status of a great man already in his own lifetime and his poems were translated into several languages. His birthday is still celebrated annually in Finland by eating traditional Runeberg Tarts, round gateaux with jam and sugar icing on top.
His best-known work is a collection of poems Tales of Ensign Ståhl which describes the events in the war 1808-09, when Finland was wrested from Swedish rule and incorporated into the Russian empire. In his tales of the war he romantically describes the brave Finnish soldier and this romantic style was broken only after the Second World War when realistically written war novels changed description of war in Finnish literature (e.g. Väinö Linna´s war novel The Unknown Soldier).
Matti: Did you know that Runeberg´s wife Fredrika Runeberg
was also a writer? She was one of the first Finnish female
writers but her historical novels were shadowed by her famous
husband.
Maija: Yes, but I bet you didn't know that she was also Finland´s
first woman journalist.
Aleksis Kivi (1834 - 1872)
Aleksis Kivi (born as Alexis Stenvall) is regarded as a national writer. He was born on 10 October 1834 and died on 31 December 1872. It is said that "Kivi lived from autumn to Christmas". Kivi can be regarded as the father of Finnish literature, because he was the first writer who used Finnish language and prose style very skillfully. Romanticism and realism are mixed in his style of writing.
Kivi’s principal work called Seven Brothers was published
in 1870. It took ten years for him to prepare the novel. The
novel received sharp negative criticism. In the same year Kivi
became addicted to alcohol and suffered from depression. He
was diagnosed schizophrenic and died when he was 38 years old.
Besides novels Kivi wrote also some plays and poems. The other
notable texts by Kivi are for example Heath Cobblers (Nummisuutarit)
and Eva (Kihlaus). His texts have been translated into many
languages.
The first novel written in Finnish, Aleksis Kivi's Seven Brothers (originally Seitsemän veljestä), was published for the first time in 1870. At that time it was a daring text because it described people and life in quite a realistic way. It did not receive warm reception in the literary circles; on the contrary it was reviled for its unconventional language and the unflattering image of Finns it presented.
Matti: Did you know that the most eager knocker was August
Ahlqvist who almost took the wind out of Kivi's sails with
his criticism?
Maija: Well, every one is entitled for one mistake. August
Ahlqvist was a distinguished philologist, the founder of Finno
Ugristics and a professor and later rector of Helsinki University.
He had a clear vision how Finns as people should be described
and his and Aleksis' views unfortunately collided.
The novel tells a story about seven brothers of Jukola family. The eldest brother is Juhani and the youngest is Eero. Between them there are two set of twins, Tuomas & Aapo and Timo & Lauri, and the lonely Simeoni which is the only one that does not get married. After the death of their parents they have to take care of their farm.
The novel is a so called bildungsroman which means that it describes personal growth and maturation. It is a story about a quest for identity. During the story the brothers evolve from backwoodsmen into civilized persons. At the beginning they are undisciplined and quarrel with the people of the local community because they do not want to submit to public demands which are expected of adults. One of the characteristics of adulthood at that time was literacy: the Lutheran Church required that citizens were able to read before the confirmation. In the 1620's Bishop Isaak Rothovius ordered that every Finn must be able to read the Catechism before confirmation and getting married. Brothers who were in love with the next door’s girl Venla went to school and tried to learn to read but when they realized that it was difficult they escaped from the school and from the village. For several years they lived outside the community in the middle of wilderness. They encountered all kinds of hardships which gradually matured them. In the end the brothers were ready to change their way and learn to read. After becoming literate they returned to community. Everybody else except Simeoni end up starting a family.
Seven Brothers is an outstanding work in the Finnish literary canon. It paved the way for literature written in Finnish. Today the novel is translated into more than twenty languages. It is still popular and it is often read at school.
Courtesy of Kustannusosakeyhtio Otava
Frans Eemil Sillanpää (1888 -1964)
Courtesy of Kustannusosakeyhtio Otava
Frans Eemil Sillanpää is known as a Finnish writer who was awarded the Nobel Price in Literature in 1939.
F.E. Sillanpää was born to a peasant family in South-West Finland, in Hämeenkyrö in 1888. Although the family was quite poor, parents sent Sillanpää to a grammar school in Tampere. Sillanpää did it well at school and after finishing it he got into the University of Helsinki to study medicine. In Helsinki he entered the cultural circles which included Jean Sibelius and Juhani Aho, among others. During that time he began to drink heavily and that became a problem for him. He did not take a degree. He moved back home to the Töllimäki. Sillanpää got married with Sigrid Maria Salomäki in 1916, and they got eight children.
Typical of Sillanpää´s writing style is a richness of nuances in a description of countryside and human being as a part of nature. He has described different fates during the Finnish civil war.
Sillanpää's works have been translated into some thirty languages. Sillanpää died in 1964 at the age of 75 years.
F.E. Sillanpää: (The Maid Silja/ Fallen
Asleep While young) 1931
The Novel was published in 1931. Fallen Asleep While young
divides into two parts. The first part describes Kustaa Samelius
who is a son of a yeoman. Kustaa’s life goes down when
he loses the domination of his estate. The second part concentrates
in Kustaa’s daughter Silja and describes her phases of
life in the early 20th century Finland. After her father’s
death Silja serves as a wench. Her life comes to an end early
and when she dies the family Samelius becomes extinct.
One of the novel's main themes is the relationship to nature.
Another is the idea of a man which remains forever unchangeable.
The events of this novel are dated in the period of the Finnish
civil war.