Johan Ludvig Runeberg

Johan Ludvig Runeberg

born on 5/2/1804 in Pietarsaari, Pohjanmaa, Finland

died on 6/5/1877 in Porvoo, Ostuusimaa, Finland

Johan Ludvig Runeberg

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Johan Ludvig Runeberg

Johan Ludvig Runeberg (portrait by C. P. Mazer)
Born February 5 1804
Jakobstad, Kingdom of Sweden
Died 6 May 1877 (aged 73)
Porvoo, Grand Duchy of Finland, Russian Empire
Signature

Johan Ludvig Runeberg (5 February 1804, Jakobstad – 6 May 1877, Porvoo) was a Finnish (Finland-Swedish) poet, and is the national poet of Finland. He wrote in the Swedish language.

Life

Runeberg studied first in the cities of Vaasa and Oulu, later on at the Imperial Academy of Turku, where he befriended Johan Vilhelm Snellman and Zacharias Topelius. His studies concentrated mainly on the classical languages of Latin and Greek. From 1837 onwards he lived in Porvoo, where he served as professor of Latin literature in the Gymnasium of Porvoo. He was married to his second cousin Fredrika Runeberg, née Tengström, with whom he had eight children and who wrote poems and novels, too. His eldest son was the sculptor Walter Runeberg.

Many of his poems deal with life in rural Finland. The best known of these is Bonden Paavo, (Farmer Paavo, Saarijärven Paavo in Finnish), about a smallholding peasant farmer in the poor parish of Saarijärvi and his determination, "sisu" (guts) and unwavering faith in providence in the face of a harsh climate and years of bad harvests. Three times, a frosty night destroys his crops. Every time, he mixes double the amount of bark into his bark bread to stave off starvation and works ever harder to dry off marsh into dryer land that would not be as exposed to the night frost. After the fourth year, Paavo finally gets a rich crop. As his wife exults, thanks God and tells Paavo to enjoy full bread made entirely out of grain, Paavo instructs his wife to mix bark into grain once more, because their neighbour's crop has been lost in a frost and he gives half of his crop to the needy neighbour.

Legacy

Runeberg's most famous work is Fänrik Ståls sägner (The Tales of Ensign Stål, Vänrikki Stoolin tarinat in Finnish) written between 1848 and 1860. It is considered the greatest Finnish epic poem outside the native Kalevala tradition and contains tales of the Finnish War of 180809 with Russia. In the war, Sweden ignominiously lost Finland, which became a Grand Duchy in the Russian empire. The poem, which is composed episodically, emphasizes the common humanity of all sides in the conflict, while principally lauding the heroism of the Finns. The first poem "Vårt land" (Our Land, Maamme in Finnish) became the Finnish National Anthem.

Runeberg Day (Runebergin päivä) is celebrated on 5 February each year with a delicacy called Runeberg Torte (Finnish: Runebergintorttu; Swedish: Runebergstårta).

Runeberg was selected as the main motif in a recent Finnish commemorative coin, celebrating the 200th anniversary of his birth, the 10 Johan Ludvig Runeberg and Finnish Poetry commemorative coin, minted in 2004. The obverse of the coin features an interestingly stylized portrait of Runeberg's face. The reverse features an 1831 font sample from Helsingfors Tidningar - a Swedish-language newspaper - since Runeberg wrote most of his work in Swedish, representing his versatile literary talent.

Finnish band Ensiferum wrote a song "Old Man" that contains two verses from Johan Ludvig Runeberg's work "The Clouds Brother", where a dead heros girl shows her loss and pride by saying:

"Sweeter far than life I found that love was"
"Sweeter far than love to die as he did"

See also

  • List of Swedish language writers
  • Runeberg's torte

External links

This page was last modified 01.05.2014 10:13:56

This article uses material from the article Johan Ludvig Runeberg from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and it is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.