Elias Lennrot: biography, photo, creativity

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

E. Lönnrot is the compiler of the Karelian-Finnish folk epic "Kalevala". Sometimes people are interested in who Elias Lennrot was by profession. The answer is a linguist and a journalist. In Finland, Lönrot is considered one of the founders of the Finnish language for his contribution to linguistics. He also practiced medicine.

Biography of Elias Lennrot

By nationality, Lönrot is a Finn, born on April 9, 1802 in the Finnish town of Sammati (then owned by Sweden). His family was poor and large - Elias became the fourth child. His father was a tailor. Already at the age of six, the boy learned to read, although he only got to school at twelve. Because of the need, he had to work to find money for education and food, and from childhood Elias was engaged in tailoring, like his father. And sometimes I had to earn extra money even with songs in the villages. In 1815-1818 Elias studied in Tammisaari and Turku. In 1820, Lönnrot entered the city of Porvoo and at the same time got a job as an assistant in a pharmacy, he studied Latin himself. Despite the difficult financial situation, the stubborn young man managed to fulfill his dream - to enter the university.

The only Swedish university was then located in the city of Åbo. Lönnrot entered there for a philosophicalfaculty in 1822. At that time there was no faculty or department of philology, so Elias could not study Finnish language or literature. Lönnrot decided to become a doctor and, after graduating from the Faculty of Medicine, practiced medicine all his life. He made his folklore expeditions during his holidays.

The main business of Elias Lönnrot's life was the creation of the Kalevala. For more than twenty years, with unflagging interest, he has been collecting folk song tales of Karelians and Finns - runes. In search of material, he also visited many places in northwestern Russia - it was not for nothing that he was awarded the title of member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Family life

Lönnrot got married late, only in 1849, after the completion of work on the Kalevala. The wife of forty-seven-year-old Elias Lönnrot was twenty-six-year-old Maria Piponius. The family settled in the city of Kajaani. Lönnrot's first child was a boy named Elias after his father. But he did not live long and died of meningitis in 1852 at the age of two.

In the same year, the head of the University of Helsingfors (Abo University moved there after a fire in 1927) asked Lönnrot to take the position of his deceased friend Mikael Castren, who was the first professor in the department of the Finnish language. After defending his doctoral dissertation in 1853, Elias Lönnrot moved with his wife to Helsingfors (Helsinki). In 1856, he gave the first university lecture in Finnish, which was a significant event.

At the Lönnrotsfour more children, daughters, were born. In addition, Elias took care of the children of his deceased friends, took care of the unsecured, financed an orphanage in Helsinki. With the money bequeathed to him, a home economics school was opened in Sammati. She is still working.

In 1862, having retired, Lönnrot went to his homeland, to Sammaty, where he led a prosperous, happy life, taking care of his family and science. But in 1868, Elias Lönnrot's family happiness ended - his wife Maria died of tuberculosis, and soon, in the 1870s, three of his daughters (Thekla, Elina, Maria) died of tuberculosis and diphtheria.

Elias spent the rest of his life in seclusion, with the only surviving loved one - his daughter Ida. He worked hard, finding some consolation in this. In 1880, after 40 years of work, the Finnish-Swedish Dictionary was completed. This was a huge achievement, because before Lönnrot there were no Finnish words to denote many concepts. He was literally engaged in word creation.

In 1884, 82-year-old Elias Lönnrot died in Sammaty. His death was accompanied by national mourning.

Below is a photo of Elias Lennrot.

Lennrot's work today

Currently, the work of Elias Lönnrot is still popular: the film called "Warrior of the North", released in 2006, is partly based on the Karelian-Finnish epic "Kalevala". This year, a new film based on Kalevala is planned - Iron Danger, as well as a game and comics. This and newreprints of the epic show that the Finno-Ugric culture is still of interest.

"Kalevala" by Elias Lennrot: summary

The epic begins with cosmogonic myths - stories about the creation of the world, as well as the birth of the main character Väinämöinen. The name of the epic repeats the name of the country in which the main events unfold - Kalevala. She is opposed by another country, the northern and gloomy Pohjola. The mistress of Pohjola is the evil sorceress Louhi.

Creation of the world

In the beginning the land and waters were empty. The airy daughter Ilmatar yearned and began to create mountains and bays. And then she gave birth to a son, a big and strong Väinämöinen. He began to live in the country of Kalevala, but nothing grew there. But a boy, Sampsa Pellervoinen, came to the hero and brought seeds. A variety of plants appeared from the ground, only the oak did not grow. Väinämöinen asked for maternal help. At her command, the girls came out of the water, mowed the grass; the hero came out and burned it. A mighty oak tree grew in this place, covering the whole sky. Väinämöinen called again to Ilmatar. Then a tiny man appeared out of the water, grew huge and cut down the recalcitrant oak. When the rays of the sun again fell on the ground, Väinämöinen sowed bread.

Singing contest and matchmaking

When Väinämöinen grew old, he began to sing to people about the creation of the world. We heard these songs in distant Pohjola. And there lived the boastful impudent Joukahainen, and he went to Kalevala to defeat Väinämöinen in a song contest. Joukahainen sang that he was the creator of the world. An old man to teachbraggart, sang incantations. The sleigh, horse and sword of Joukahainen disappeared, and he himself fell into the swamp. The young man was frightened and, bogged down in a quagmire up to his ears, promised Väinämöinen to marry his sister. Väinämöinen was overjoyed and saved Joukahainen.

Joukahainen's mother was pleased that everything turned out this way - she wanted a worthy old man to woo her daughter Aino. But she only cried - she did not want to marry the old one. In desperation, Aino threw herself into the sea to hide. Both her mother and Väinämöinen cried for her. An old man sat on the shore with a fishing rod, grieving, and pulled out a fish. And she spoke with a human voice, and it turned out that it was Aino herself. Väinämöinen missed the fish-bride, and no matter how much he threw tackle into the sea, he could not catch her again.

The beauty of Pohjela and the creation of Sampo

Väinämöinen heard a rumor that the old woman Louhi, the mistress of Pohjela, was going to marry off her daughter. He decided to try his luck there. On the way, Joukahainen lay in wait for him, plotting revenge. He wanted to kill Väinämöinen with a poisoned arrow, but he hit the horse, and the old man fell into the sea. For eight days he rushed over the waves until an eagle pulled him out. But finding the way home was not easy, because the hero turned out to be in Pohjel itself. The maid of the old woman Louhi heard his lamentations and brought him into the house. The mistress of Pohjela offered to help Väinämöinen return to his homeland, but in return she asked to forge the Sampo miracle mill. Väinämöinen promised to send Ilmarinen, the blacksmith, in his place. Louhi promised him to give his daughter as a wife.

Harnessed Louhi's sleigh for Väinämöinen and told her not to look at the sky along the way. But the old manI forgot about the order and, looking up, I saw the beautiful Pokhjela - the daughter of Louhi. Väinämöinen offered her to marry him, and she began to give him various instructions. The hero coped with all but the last. Knocking together a boat from a spindle, he woke up with the sound of the ax of the terrible Hiisi, the owner of the mountains. He got angry and pointed the ax directly at Väinämöinen's knee. The singer knew many spells, but he could not calm the blood. He barely found a doctor, and as soon as the wound healed, he went home.

Väinämöinen told the blacksmith Ilmarinen about his promise, but he does not want to leave his homeland. Then Väinämöinen sent Ilmarinen to Pohjela with the help of song spells. The master blacksmith Sampo forged - everything that is ordered, she grinds: flour, s alt, and money. The greedy mistress of Pohjela hid the mill in the depths of the mountain, and sent the blacksmith home and did not marry her daughter to him, she did not keep her promise.

One more hero, Lemminkainen, wooed the beautiful Pohjela, but he didn’t succeed either, he almost died.

Meanwhile, Väinämöinen couldn't stop thinking about Louhi's daughter. He packed up and sailed with adventures to Pohjola. Ilmarinen found out about this and also rushed off to the Northern Country, on a horse. They decided that the beauty herself will choose the one who is more to her heart. Louhi's daughter likes the young blacksmith more, and the old woman likes Väinämöinen. Louhi came up with all sorts of difficult tests for Ilmarinen, but with the help of the beautiful Pohjela, he overcame them. I had to agree to the wedding. Väinämöinen sang there, he had no resentment towards the young.

Athe frantic Lemminkainen, who was not invited, came anyway. They wanted to laugh at him, but in a rage he cut off the head of the owner of Pohjela. They chased after Lemminkainen to take revenge. On the advice of his mother, Lemminkainen hid on a distant island and made her a promise never to take the sword again.

And Ilmarinen was not married for long. The orphan Kullervo, taken in for education, was offended by the blacksmith's wife, the beautiful but evil beauty of Pohjela. At the instigation of the raven, the young man took revenge on his stepmother - he replaced the herd of cows with werewolves, who tore apart the young mistress of Pohjela. For a long time, Ilmarinen was tormented by longing for his wife. And Kullervo died, freeing his native land from the invader - the evil uncle Untamo.

The end of Sampo and the creation of kantele

In the end, Väinämöinen, Ilmarinen and Lemminkainen decided to take away the miracle windmill from the old woman Louhi. It is wrong to hide Sampo when she can help people.

While the heroes were sailing to Pohjela, they caught a giant pike, from the skeleton of which they made a kantele (Karelian musical instrument). Then it was lost, but Väinämöinen made a new one, from birch. No one could play the kantele so magically as a singer.

The heroes were able to save the miracle mill from under the castles, but they couldn't save it - Sampo fell into the water. The fragments were collected and buried in Kalevala soil. Since then, Kalevala has become a happy country.