Sofia Theodolinda Hahnsson (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Limón; 1 February 1838 – 20 April 1919) was a Finnish writer and translator. She is the first known female author to write in Finnish. She was a significant figure in the literary society of

Hämeenlinna Hämeenlinna (; sv, Tavastehus; krl, Hämienlinna; la, Tavastum or ''Croneburgum'') is a city and municipality of about inhabitants in the heart of the historical province of Tavastia and the modern province of Kanta-Häme in the south of F ...

. She had published several popular short stories, novels, and social plays, some of which appeared in newspapers.

Life

Theodolinda was born on 1 February 1838, in

Tyrvää Tyrvää (; sv, Tyrvis) was a municipality in the Satakunta region, Turku and Pori Province, Finland. It was established in 1439 when the Tyrvää parish was separated from the parish of Karkku. In 1915, the market town of Vammala was separated fr ...

, Satakunta,

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. She was the daughter of pastor Karl Magnus Limón, and his wife Maria Kristina Mollin. She did not attend academic schooling, but was homeschooled by her father. She was married to Johan Adrian Hahnsson in 1864, and moved with his family to Hämeenlinna in 1871 when he got a teaching post at a school in the city. She had a daughter,

Hahnsson, who would also become a writer. Upon the death of her husband in 1888, Theodolinda 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 ...

in 1892 and married Senator

Yrjö Sakari Yrjö-Koskinen Baron Yrjö Sakari Yrjö-Koskinen (birth name Georg Zakarias Forsman, author name Yrjö Koskinen; 10 December 1830 in Vaasa – 13 November 1903 in Helsinki) was a friherre, senator, professor, historian, politician and the chairman of the Finnis ...

. She then published under her second married name of Theodolinda Yrjö-Koskinen. Theodolinda Hahnsson died on 20 April 1919, in

Writing

Theodolinda's writing represented a romantic idealism tinted with Christianity and patriotism. Her writings also raised social issues such as poverty, and the power of the father in deciding the marriage of the daughter. She is best known for her 1887 novel ''Huutolaiset,'' where she describes the lives of two girls caught in the vendue system of auctioning the poor out to families. She was most active during the 1870s and 1880s with her writing. After her second marriage, she did translations.

Selected works

* * * * * * *

Bibliography

* Forsman, Jaakko; Havu, I; Salovaara, Hannes; Setälä, Vilho; Wecksell, J. A (1927). ''

Pieni tietosanakirja ''Pieni tietosanakirja'' ("The Small Encyclopedia") (1925-1928), published by Otava in four volumes, was the second Finnish-language encyclopedia. It followed the earlier, eleven-volume '' Tietosanakirja''. Being published more than 70 years ag ...

. 3 3'' (in Finnish). Helsinki: Otava. p. 1439–1440. . * Pynsent, Robert B.; Kanikova, Sonia I. (1993). ''Reader's Encyclopedia of Eastern European Literature''.

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

. . * Lappalainen, Päivi; Rojola, Lea (2007).
Women's Voices: Female Authors and Feminist Criticism in the Finnish Literary Tradition
'. Finnish Literature Society. . * Godenhjelm, Bernard Fredrik (1896). ''Handbook of the History of Finnish Literature''. Butler.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hahnsson, Theodolinda 1838 births 1919 deaths Finnish women novelists 19th-century Finnish novelists 19th-century Finnish women writers 20th-century Finnish novelists 20th-century Finnish women writers Finnish translators 19th-century translators 20th-century translators Writers from Satakunta Finnish-language writers