Finnish literature (the s.c.nordic FAQ)
SCN FAQ-robot
The article below is currently being accessed by about 26 www-surfers weekly
(according to the log files). Regarding its accuracy, it must be stated that
also _if_ the text initially were quite up to date, this might have changed.
The www-version at http://www.lysator.liu.se/nordic/scn/faq47.html
may look slightly different due to sparsely added links and illustrations.
The www-version has been html-ized, however not "web-ized" - the texts are
not edited to comply to web-readability findings. The pages are supposed to
get printed out by readers who find them interesting.
Feel free to propose changed wordings for paragraphs and sections in need
of that. Also relevant links are more than welcome, in particular links to
serious www-pages which are not supposed to change address too often. :->>
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Subject: 4.7 Finnish literature
Fire has destroyed most of the early literature the Finnish church and
monasteries must have produced. The first known Finnish author was
Jöns Budde, a Franciscan monk who lived in the Brigittene monastery at
Naantali in the latter part of 15th century, chiefly translating from
Latin to Swedish, but he also wrote a few things of his own. Codex
Aboensis written probably in Turku in the 1440's is an important
collection of law texts; Missale Aboense printed in 1488 for the
Finnish church is a beautiful book and a source of medieval Finnish
religious life.
Mikael Agricola (ca.1510-57), a bishop of Turku and great advocate of
Lutheranism, is considered the father of Finnish literature. His
ABC-book published 1538 is the first known book in Finnish, but the
translation of New Testament (1548) is his greatest achievement.
Paavali Juusten (?1512-72) was another important 16th century author;
his Chronicon episcoporum Finlandensium (Chronicle of the Finnish
Bishops) is an important source of early Finnish history. Erik
Sorolainen (1545-1625) did most of the translation of the Old
Testament when the whole Bible was eventually published in Finnish in
1642, delayed by the Thirty Years' War. The first grammar of Finnish,
Linguae Finnicae brevis institutio, was written by Eskil Petraeus in
1649.
Daniel Juslenius (1676-1752) was an enthusiastic advocate of things
Finnish. He wrote a baroque study on Finland (Aboa vetus et Nova,
1700) which among other things traced the origins of Roman
civilization to Finland; a defense of Finnishness (Vindicae Fennorum,
1702); and most importantly, the first major Finnish dictionary
(Suomalaisen Sana-Lugun Coetus, 1745), containing 16,000 entries. He
and his ideological followers became known as Fennophiles
(proto-nationalists, but not separatists). Jakob Frese (1691-1729) and
Gustaf Filip Creutz (1731-1785) contributed importantly to the
Swedish-language poetry of the era.
The first major Finnish poet, however, was Frans Mikael Franzén
(1772-1847), whose fresh, romantic poetry was enormously popular in
Sweden-Finland in his time. His teacher was the great scholar Henrik
Gabriel Porthan (1739-1804), a student of Juslenius and a Fennophile,
who brought Finnish history-writing, study of mythology and folk
poetry, and other humanistic sciences to an international level. His
De Poësi Fennica (published in five parts 1776-78), a study on Finnish
folk poetry, had great importance in awakening public interest in the
Kalevala-poetry and Finnish mythology, and the study was also the
basis of all later study of the poetry. He was among the founders of
the Aurora Society that advocated Finnish literary pursuits and was
the editor of the first Finnish newspaper, Tidningar utgifne af et
sällskap i Åbo, founded in 1771. Antti Lizelius (1708-1795) published
the first newspaper in Finnish, Suomenkieliset Tieto-Sanomat, 1776.
Porthan inspired the following generation of Finnish authors, poets
and researchers, many of whom were among the founders of the Finnish
Literature Society in 1831. A movement literary trend known as
Helsinki Romanticism was born in the 1830's when the university was
moved to the new capital. Four young university students came to have
towering importance to the forming of the Finnish literature, and
ultimately, the Finnish national identity. These were the poet Johan
Ludvig Runeberg (1804-77), the scholar Elias Lönnrot (1802-84), the
author Zachris Topelius (1818-1898) and the Hegelian philosopher and
statesman Johan Vilhelm Snellman (1806-81).
Especially important was Elias Lönnrot (1802-84), who did a huge task
of collecting folk poetry from the remote wildernesses of Karelia, and
compiling these to what was to become Finland's national epic, the
Kalevala. (1849). It is composed of 50 poems (sometimes called runes),
altogether 22,795 verses. The book starts with a creation-myth, then
goes on to recount the deeds and adventures of the three protagonists,
Väinämöinen the magician and bard, Ilmarinen the smith, and
Lemminkäinen the wanton loverboy and warrior, and ends with the
introduction of Christianity to Finland. Lönnrot was under the
influence of Homeric ideals and tried to forge the poems into a single
epic, adding bits and pieces of his own and altering some parts to
make them appear a whole, which they however never have been.
Nevertheless, its role to the development of Finnish literature, arts
and identity can hardly be over-estimated, and having been translated
to all major world languages and lots of minor ones, it is no doubt
the most important contribution of Finland to world literature.
Lönnrot also published a counterpart to Kalevala, the Kanteletar, a
collection of ancient lyrical poetry often sung by women. These two
books, however, cover but a small part of the recorded Finnish folk
poetry. For instance, between 1908-48 was published a massive,
33-volume book series called "Suomen Kansan Vanhoja Runoja",
containing altogether 85,000 poems, with well over a million verses.
Kalevala & Kanteletar can be found (in Finnish) at the URLs
<http://www.sci.fi/kalevala/> &
<http://www.joensuu.fi/HumanistinenTDK/Kalevala/kalevala/hyperkalevala
.html>.
Runeberg's main works were the realist/idealist poem Älgskyttarna (Elk
Hunters, 1832), which can be called the first major literary portrayal
of ordinary people in Scandinavia, the Ossianic epic Kung Fjalar (King
Fjalar, 1844) and the emotional and humane heroic poem Fänrik Ståls
Sägner (The Tales of Ensign Stål, I 1848, II 1860) on the war of
1808-09, which enjoyed huge popularity in both Finland and Sweden and
became something of a national romantic symbol. Topelius was a
full-blooded romantic, more superficial as a literary artist than
Runeberg, and less of an innovator. His Fältskärns Berättelser
(1851-67, The Barber-Surgeons Stories) is a historical novel set in
the Thirty Years' War, in the tradition of Sir Walter Scott; he is
also well known in Finland for his fairy tales. Snellman's chief
achievement was in his role as a national awakener, the editor of two
newspapers, strongly encouraging literature as part of the process
leading to independence.
The first great prose writer in Finnish - considered by some to be the
most genial - was Aleksis Kivi (1834-72), a novelist and playwright
who during his lifetime was largely ignored. Major works include
Seitsemän Veljestä (The Seven Brothers, 1870), his most celebrated
play, and the comedy Nummisuutarit (The Heath Shoemakers, 1864). He
was more modern and many-sided in his expression than Runeberg, but
his image of the Finnish people was too "raw" and realistic for most
people of his era, and he died in extreme poverty, suffering from a
mental illness.
Minna Canth (1844-97), an energetic fighter for women's rights and
social justice, was a contemporary of Juhani Aho (1861-1921), a
novelist and short-story writer known for his humorous sketches and
lyrical, dreamy descriptions of nature. Eino Leino (1878-1926) was a
poet of exceptional talent, drawing heavily on the Kalevala tradition.
His main themes are love and nature, and poem collections such as
Helkavirsiä (Helka-hymns, 1903), Halla (Frost, 1908) which includes
the wonderful love/nature poem Nocturne, and Hymyilevä Apollo (The
Smiling Apollo) are still much-loved. V. A. Koskenniemi often turned
to classical themes. Uuno Kailas wrote harsh, self-analytic verse,
whereas Kaarlo Sarkia sought solace in aestheticism and fantasy. The
personal, abrupt, and humorous poetry of Aaro Hellaakoski and the
equally humorous, learned, yet folklike verse of P. Mustapää were only
appreciated after 1945. The generation of the 1950s, including Paavo
Haavikko and Eeva-Liisa Manner, introduced new poetic forms to which
their successors often added absurd humor, formalist experimentation,
and social criticism.
Finland-Swedish modernism was introduced by Edith Södergran
(1892-1923). She didn't receive much recognition in her lifetime, but
is now regarded one of Finland's foremost poets. She was first
influenced by French symbolism, then German expressionism and Russian
futurism, and creatively applied these to her own poetry. Her free
rhythm, strong, challenging images fired by a Nietzschean
self-conscience and conviction of the importance of her message were
new and baffling to the Finnish audience, and she was almost without
exception misunderstood and even ridiculed. Her first collection of
poems was Dikter (Poems, 1916), which was followed by Rosenaltaret
(The Rose Altar, 1919) and Landet som icke är (The land that is not,
1925) among others. Always physically weak and somewhat sickly, she
died young just as she was starting to get followers. Among these the
most important were Elmer Diktonius (1896-1961), Gunnar Björling
(1887-1960) and Rabbe Enckell (1903-74).
Joel Lehtonen, Volter Kilpi, and especially Frans Eemil Sillanpää
(1888- 1964) dominated naturalistic prose in the first half of the
20th century. Sillanpää was awarded the 1939 Nobel Prize for
literature for the book "Silja, nuorena nukkunut" (Silja, Fallen
Asleep While Young, 1931). Also important are Toivo Pekkanen, who
wrote about the plight of industrial workers, and Pentti Haanpää, who
portrayed with a bitter but defiant humor the struggle of humans
against harsh nature in northern Finland.
After World War II, Vainö Linna had great success with the novel
Tuntematon Sotilas (The Unknown Soldier, 1954) which played a part in
the healing of the wounds of the war and is read by almost every
Finnish schoolkid. The extensive use of dialects make the book quite
impossible to translate; translations into English and many other
languages do exist, but cannot be recommended very highly (although I
hear the Swedish one is pretty good). His other major work is the
trilogy Täällä pohjantähden alla (Here Under the North Star, 1959-62),
a story of the struggles of poor farmers that culminated in the Civil
War of 1918. More recently, Veijo Meri has described the violence and
absurdity of human life, especially during times of war.
Mika Waltari (1908-79) is among the Finnish prose writers best known
to an international audience. He wrote his most successful novels in
the 1940s and 50's, many of them on historical subjects; among these
is Sinuhe egyptiläinen (The Egyptian, 1945), a novel set in ancient
Egypt, about the collapse of traditional ways of life and the
inflation of inherited values. It's also been filmed into a dreary
Hollywood spectacle.
From the 1960s, social issues became central to the young novelists
and poets. Hannu Salama went through a famous trial for blasphemy
(after which the blasphemy laws were repealed) for his novel
Juhannustanssit (Juhannus Dances, 1964). Pentti Saarikoski was the
leading poet of the 60's. Often better remembered for his for his
unhealthy lifestyle, Saarikoski was nevertheless one of the most
genial poets in Finnish and a brilliant translator of e.g Homer and
Joyce. Such younger writers as as Alpo Ruuth and Antti Tuuri have also
dealt with social issues.
The author Tove Jansson (b. 1914) has won much international fame for
her creation of the Moomins, philosophical-minded, friendly trolls who
live in Moominvalley. There are many books on their adventures, e.g
Muminpappan och Havet (Moominpappa and the Sea). Her fantasy world
charms with its richness, inventiveness and wisdom of life spiced with
witty humor. The events and imagery flow freely and uninhibited, yet
reflecting the phenomena of the real world. Another author who has
long been very popular in Finland and has started to win international
fame recently is the humorist Arto Paasilinna; Jäniksen Vuosi (The
Year of the Hare, 1974), is the story of an advertising man who gets
sick of urban life and escapes to the wilderness with his pet hare.
For electronic versions of some of the works of Nordic literature, see
the collection of Project Runeberg:
* <http://www.lysator.liu.se/runeberg/>
* Norwegian Literature
* Icelandic Literature
_________________________________________________________________
- Is the text above really reliable?
- See the discussion in section 1.2.2!
_________________________________________________________________
© Copyright 1994-98 by Antti Lahelma.
You are free to quote this page as long as you mention the URL.
This page was last updated January 1997.
--
e-mail: j...@lysator.liu.se
s-mail: Majeldsvägen 8a, 587 31 LINKÖPING, Sweden
www: http://www.lysator.liu.se/~jmo/
Heikki Kantola
SCN FAQ-robot <j...@lysator.liu.se> informed
soc.culture.nordic with the following:
> Kalevala & Kanteletar can be found (in Finnish) at the URLs
> <http://www.sci.fi/kalevala/> &
> <http://www.joensuu.fi/HumanistinenTDK/Kalevala/kalevala/hyperkalevala
> .html>.
The latter (info pages of HyperKalevala CD) has moved to <URL:http://
www.edita.fi/kustannus/kalevala/paasivu.htm>.
--
Heikki "Hezu" Kantola, <Heikki....@IKI.FI>
Lähettämällä mainoksia tai muuta asiatonta sähköpostia yllä olevaan
osoitteeseen sitoudut maksamaan oikolukupalvelusta FIM500 alkavalta
tunnilta.