Elias Lönnrot (; 9 April 1802 – 19 March 1884) was a
Finnish physician,
philologist
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined ...
and collector of traditional
Finnish oral poetry
Oral poetry is a form of poetry that is composed and transmitted without the aid of writing. The complex relationships between written and spoken literature in some societies can make this definition hard to maintain.
Background
Oral poetry is ...
. He is best known for creating the Finnish national epic, ''
Kalevala
The ''Kalevala'' ( fi, Kalevala, ) is a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling an epic story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies and ...
'',
(1835, enlarged 1849), from short
ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or '' ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...
s and
lyric poems gathered from the
Finnish oral tradition during several expeditions in Finland,
Russian Karelia, the
Kola Peninsula
The Kola Peninsula (russian: Кольский полуостров, Kolsky poluostrov; sjd, Куэлнэгк нёа̄ррк) is a peninsula in the extreme northwest of Russia, and one of the largest peninsulas of Europe. Constituting the bulk ...
and Baltic countries.
Education and early life
Lönnrot was born in
Sammatti, in the province of
Uusimaa
Uusimaa (; sv, Nyland, ; both lit. 'new land') is a region of Finland. It borders the regions of Southwest Finland, Tavastia Proper (Kanta-Häme), Päijänne Tavastia (Päijät-Häme), and Kymenlaakso. Finland's capital and largest city, ...
, Finland, which was then
part of Sweden. He studied medicine at the
Academy of Turku.
The
Great Fire of Turku
The Great Fire of Turku ( fi, Turun palo, sv, Åbo brand and russian: Пожар Або) was a conflagration in the city of Turku in 1827. It is still the largest urban fire in the history of Finland and the Nordic countries. The city had burned ...
coincided with his first academic year. As the university was destroyed in the fire, it was moved to
Helsinki
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...
, the newly established administrative center of the Grand Duchy and the present capital city of Finland. Lönnrot followed and graduated in 1832.
Early medical career
Lönnrot lived in the village of
Paltaniemi, when he got a job as district doctor of
Kajaani in Eastern Finland during a time of
famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompan ...
and
pestilence in the district. The famine had prompted the previous doctor to resign, making it possible for a very young doctor to get such a position. Several consecutive years of crop failure resulted in losses of population and livestock. In addition, lack of a hospital further complicated Lönnrot's work. He was the sole doctor for 4,000 or so people, most of whom lived in small rural communities scattered across the district. As physicians and novel drugs were expensive at the time, most people relied on their village healers and locally available remedies. Lönnrot himself was keen on traditional remedies and also administered them. However, he believed strongly that preventive measures such as good hygiene, breastfeeding babies and vaccines were the most effective cures for most of his patients.
Linguistics work
He began writing about the early Finnish language in 1827 and began collecting
folk tales from rural people about that time. In 1831, the
Finnish Literature Society
The Finnish Literature Society ( fi, Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura ry or fi, SKS) was founded in 1831 to promote literature written in Finnish. Among its first publications was the ''Kalevala
The ''Kalevala'' ( fi, Kalevala, ) is a 19th ...
was founded, and Lönnrot, being one of the founder members, received financial support from the society for his collecting efforts.
Lönnrot went on extended leaves of absence from his doctor's office; he toured the countryside of Finland,
Sapmi (Lapland), and nearby portions of
Russian Karelia. This led to a series of books: ''Kantele'', 1829–1831 (the ''
kantele'' is a Finnish traditional instrument); ''
Kalevala
The ''Kalevala'' ( fi, Kalevala, ) is a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling an epic story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies and ...
'', 1835–1836 (the "old" Kalevala); ''
Kanteletar'', 1840; ''Sananlaskuja'', 1842 (''Proverbs''); an expanded second edition of ''Kalevala'', 1849 (the "new" Kalevala). Lönnrot was recognised for his part in preserving Finland's oral traditions by appointment to the Chair of
Finnish Literature at the
University of Helsinki
The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the R ...
in 1853.
He also undertook the task of compiling the first Finnish-Swedish dictionary (''Finsk-Svenskt lexikon'', 1866–1880).
The result comprised over 200,000 entries, and many of the Finnish translations were coined by Lönnrot himself.
His vast knowledge of traditional Finnish poetry made him a definite authority in Finland and many of his inventions have stuck. Finnish scientific terminology was in particular influenced by Lönnrot's work and therefore many abstract terms that have a Latin or Greek etymology in most other European languages appear as native
neologism
A neologism Ancient_Greek.html"_;"title="_from_Ancient_Greek">Greek_νέο-_''néo''(="new")_and_λόγος_/''lógos''_meaning_"speech,_utterance"is_a_relatively_recent_or_isolated_term,_word,_or_phrase_that_may_be_in_the_process_of_entering_com ...
s in Finnish. Examples from linguistics and medicine include ''kielioppi'' (grammar), ''kirjallisuus'' (literature), ''laskimo'' (vein) and ''valtimo'' (artery).
This may be well contrasted with the so-called
inkhorn debate of English, in which proponents of Saxon-based words were largely defeated.
Work in botany
Botanist
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...
s remember him for writing the first Finnish-language ''Flora Fennica – Suomen Kasvisto'' in 1860; in its day it was famed throughout
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and S ...
, as it was among the first common-language scientific texts. The second, expanded version was co-authored by Th. Saelan and published in 1866.
[This version is online her]
henriettesherbal
. The Flora Fennica was the first scientific work published in Finnish (instead of Latin). In addition, Lönnrot's Flora Fennica includes many notes on plant uses in between descriptions of flower and leaf.
Impact
The Finnish graphic artist
Erik Bruun used Lönnrot as a motif for the 500
markka
The markka ( fi, markka; sv, mark; sign: Mk; ISO code: FIM, typically known outside Finland as the Finnish mark) was the currency of Finland from 1860 until 28 February 2002, when it ceased to be legal tender. The mark was divided into 100 p ...
banknote
A banknote—also called a bill (North American English), paper money, or simply a note—is a type of negotiable instrument, negotiable promissory note, made by a bank or other licensed authority, payable to the bearer on demand.
Banknotes w ...
in his banknote series.
The coat of arms of Sammatti has a maple leaf in the middle of it (''lönn'' means 'maple' in Swedish).
Don Rosa
Keno Don Hugo Rosa (), known simply as Don Rosa (born June 29, 1951), is an American comic book writer and illustrator known for his Disney comics stories about Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck, and other characters which Carl Barks created for Di ...
's story "
The Quest for Kalevala
"The Quest for Kalevala" is a 1999 Uncle Scrooge comic book story written and drawn by Don Rosa. The story was first published in the Danish '' Anders And & Co.'' #1999-48; the first American publication was in ''Uncle Scrooge'' #334, in October 20 ...
" featuring
Scrooge McDuck
Scrooge McDuck is a cartoon character created in 1947 by Carl Barks for The Walt Disney Company. Appearing in Disney comics, Scrooge is a Scottish-American anthropomorphic Pekin duck. Like his nephew Donald Duck, he has a yellow-orange bill, l ...
and
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a bow tie. Donald is known fo ...
has a cameo by Lönnrot.
Based on Elias Lönnrot's fame as a researcher, the Argentine author
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...
used the name Lönnrot for the diligent detective in his story, ''
Death and the Compass
"Death and the Compass" (original Spanish title: "La muerte y la brújula") is a short story by Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986). Published in '' Sur'' in May 1942, it was included in the 1944 collection ''Ficciones''. ...
'' (''La muerte y la brújula''), which was also made into
a film by
Alex Cox
Alexander B. H. Cox (born 15 December 1954) is an English film director, screenwriter, actor, non-fiction author and broadcaster. Cox experienced success early in his career with '' Repo Man'' and '' Sid and Nancy'', but since the release and c ...
.
The Kalevala, the Finnish national epic that Lönnrot compiled, was among the inspirations for
J. R. R. Tolkien's the ''
Silmarillion'' and ''
The Lord of the Rings
''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's bo ...
''.
Elias Lönnrot has been the main motif for a recent commemorative coin, the Finnish
Elias Lönnrot and folklore commemorative coin, minted in 2002. On the reverse, a feather (as a symbol of an author) and Elias Lönnrot's signature can be seen.
The
main belt
The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, called ...
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...
2243 Lönnrot was named after Lönnrot.
Ellen Kushner's short fantasy story 'The Threefold World' features Elias Lönnrot as the protagonist.
Gallery
Publications
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See also
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Day of the Finnish Language
Notes
References
External links
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Lönnrot, Elias''Biografiskt lexikon för Finland''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lonnrot, Elias
1802 births
1884 deaths
People from Lohja
Finnish philologists
Linguists from Finland
Mythopoeic writers
Finnish naturalists
19th-century Finnish botanists
Finnish lexicographers
Finnish folk-song collectors
Swedish Lutheran hymnwriters
Finnish folklore
Finnish Lutheran hymnwriters
Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)
Karelian-Finnish folklore
Paremiologists
19th-century Lutherans
19th-century lexicographers
Lutheran poets
19th-century musicologists