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Kaarle Krohn (10 May 1863 – 19 July 1933) was a Finnish folklorist, professor and developer of the geographic-historic method of folklore research. He was born into the influential Krohn family of Helsinki. Krohn is best known outside of Finland for his contributions to international folktale research. He devoted most of his life to the study of the epic poetry that forms the basis for the Finnish national epic, the ''
Krohn was born in
and comparative folklore. Later, in 1908, when a permanent chair in Finnish and comparative folklore was established, he became its first occupant. In 1907, he created the Federation of Folklore Fellows' Communications with his friends Johannes Bolte and 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 r ...
''.Mary Ellen Brown Bruce A. Rosenberg Peter Harle Kathy Sitarski, ''Encyclopedia of Folklore and Literature'' 1998
Early life
Krohn was born in 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 ...
. He was the son of journalist and poet Julius Krohn
Julius Leopold Fredrik Krohn (19 April 1835 – 28 August 1888) was a Finnish folk poetry researcher, professor of Finnish literature, poet, hymn writer, translator and journalist. He was born in Viipuri and was of Baltic German origin. Krohn wo ...
, and his sisters were Aune
An ell (from Proto-Germanic *''alinō'', cognate with Latin ''ulna'') is a northwestern European unit of measurement, originally understood as a cubit (the combined length of the forearm and extended hand). The word literally means "arm", and ...
, Helmi and Aino Kallas
Aino Krohn Kallas (2 August 1878 – 9 November 1956) was a Finnish-Estonian author. Her novellas are considered to be prominent pieces of Finnish literature.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 ...
, and completed his doctorate in 1888. At the age of 18, he conducted field research in northern Karelia
Karelia ( Karelian and fi, Karjala, ; rus, Каре́лия, links=y, r=Karélija, p=kɐˈrʲelʲɪjə, historically ''Korjela''; sv, Karelen), the land of the Karelian people, is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for ...
. From January 1884 to June 1885, he traveled through Finland collecting samples of Finnish folklore. During his collecting, he focused mainly on folktales because he thought they had been overlooked in the search for epic songs. His doctoral thesis, "Bär (Wolf) und Fuchs, eine nordische Tiermärchenkette historical-geographical_method,_won_him_an_immediate_international_reputation_and_brought_him_fast_academic_advancement._Career
In_1888,_he_was_named_docent_of_Finnish_and_comparative_literature_at_University_of_Helsinki._In_1889,_he_was_named_acting_professor_of_Finnish_and_Finnish_literature_and_in_1898,_extraordinary_personal_professor_of_Finnish_and_comparative_folklore._In_1898,_Krohn_became_a_full_professor_at_the_University_of_Helsinki_for_Finnish_language.html" "title="Historic-geographic method">historical-geographical method, won him an immediate international reputation and brought him fast academic advancement.Career
In 1888, he was named docent of Finnish and comparative literature at University of Helsinki. In 1889, he was named acting professor of Finnish and Finnish literature and in 1898, extraordinary personal professor of Finnish and comparative folklore. In 1898, Krohn became a full professor at the University of Helsinki for Finnish language">Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...Axel Olrik
Axel Olrik (3 July 1864 – 17 February 1917) was a Danish folklorist and scholar of mediaeval historiography, and a pioneer in the methodical study of oral narrative.
Olrik was born in Frederiksberg, the son of the artist Henrik Olrik. Artist ...
. In 1917, he became a chairman of 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 Finnish national epic
A national epic ...
(Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura). Krohn was a co-founder of the magazines ''Virittäjä'' (1896) and ''Finno-ugrische Forschungen'' (Finno-Ugric
Finno-Ugric ( or ; ''Fenno-Ugric'') or Finno-Ugrian (''Fenno-Ugrian''), is a traditional grouping of all languages in the Uralic language family except the Samoyedic languages. Its formerly commonly accepted status as a subfamily of Uralic is ba ...
research) together with Emil Nestor Setälä
Emil or Emile may refer to:
Literature
*'' Emile, or On Education'' (1762), a treatise on education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
* ''Émile'' (novel) (1827), an autobiographical novel based on Émile de Girardin's early life
*'' Emil and the Detecti ...
(1901). He was also famous for his 'historical-geographical' approach to comparing folklore texts.
In 1918, Krohn published ''Kalevalankysymyksia'' (Kalevala Questions), a two-volume handbook designed for students of Finnish Folk poetry. In ''Kalevala Questions'' Krohn completely reworked his position on the historicity of the ''Kalevala''. Krohn had previously argued that the ''Kalevala'' evolved from small "poetic germ cells" that merged to form a heroic epic
An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants.
...
. In ''Kalevala Questions'' he instead took the position that the poems were born as complete works, and had fragmented over time. Krohn argued that the poems were composed at the same time as the Scandinavian Viking Age
The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Ger ...
, and were accounts of real historical events. This was in stark contrast to his previous view of the ''Kalevala'' as a work of Medieval origin that borrowed significantly from hagiography
A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies migh ...
. While Krohn attributed his change in opinion to his further analysis of "observed facts," he also admitted the influence of the political climate that had emerged following Russification
Russification (russian: русификация, rusifikatsiya), or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians, whether involuntarily or voluntarily, give up their culture and language in favor of the Russian cultur ...
and the Finnish Declaration of Independence
The Finnish Declaration of Independence ( fi, Suomen itsenäisyysjulistus; sv, Finlands självständighetsförklaring; russian: Провозглашение независимости Финляндии) was adopted by the Parliament of Finl ...
. Writing for the nationalist paper ''Uusi Suomi'' in defense of his new position, Krohn stated that "The formerly peaceful nation of Finland has become militaristic ..''Kalevala'' scholarship has followed the same road." Eight years later, he reworked the book for a foreign audience, added folktale examples and published it as ''Die folkloristiche Arbeitsmethode'' (Folklore Methodology), which since that time has served as the standard reference work for the Finnish Method.
In 1932, a year before he died, Krohn returned once more to folklore research. He published a review of international folktale scholarship that was based largely on the methodological approach he had developed, called ''Übersicht über einige Resultate der Märchenforschung'' (A Review of Some Results of Folktale Research).
Publications
:''Eliel Aspelin-Haapkylä als Urheber der neueren volkskundlichen Sammelarbeit der Finnischen Litteraturgesellschaft''. Helsinki 1920 (Folklore Fellows' Communications 35). :''K. F. Karjalainen''. Helsinki 1921 (Folklore Fellows' Communications 40) :''Magische Ursprungsrunen der Finnen'' (Magic Runes of the Finns). Painettu Keravalla 1924 (Folklore Fellows' Communications 52). :''Die folkloristische Arbeitsmethode'' (The Folklorist Work Method). Erläutert von Kaarle Krohn. Oslo 1926. :''Übersicht über einige Resultate der Märchenforschung'' (Overview of the Results of Fairy-Tale Research). Helsinki 1931 (Folklore Fellows' Communications 96). :''Antti Aarne''. Helsinki 1926 (Folklore Fellows' Communications 64). German Wikipedia on Kaarle KrohnReferences