Finnish Literature
Finland has great and varied history in the field of literature. A great deal of the major literary works are historical in nature and depict life in Finland in the yesteryears. A common theme in many of these books is to touch upon the metaphysical concept of what being a true Finn actually is.
Possibly the greatest Finnish authors of all time are Aleksis Kivi, Väinö Linna and Mika Waltari. In the following paragraphs, I will present one book from each of these great men. Please remember that this is not meant to be a comprehensive listing of Finnish literature, but is here just to give you a small taste of it.
Aleksis Kivi - The Seven Brothers (Seitsemän veljestä)
This book is story about seven men who escape the laws and restrictions of society and everyday life and move to live into the forests. Their return to nature is, in addition to giving the brothers unrestricted freedom, a mixture of belief and knowledge, of fairytale and truth. The underlying point is the group of men who make their insane or ingenious decisions as a group and actualize them: they labour, they fight, they drink and they feel shame for their wrongdoings collectively. The Seven Brothers is a story about young men growing onto manhood and accepting the responsibilities that come with it.
The story is set in either the village of Toukola or in the woods which Kivi depicts with a blinding attention to detail. It takes place in the early 19th century and is told over a time span of 10 years. Recommend to everyone, a thoroughly fascinating read.
Mika Waltari - The Egyptian (Sinuhe egyptiläinen)
Mika Waltari's "The Egyptian" tells us the story of one physician of ancient Egypt, Sinuhe, set against the background of the reign of the fourth pharaoh Amenhotep, whose attempt to impose monotheism on his polytheistic country was one of the strangest and most fascinating experiments of early civilization. Sinuhe is a foundling, adopted by a lowly physician, and in the tradition of ancient times, trained to follow in his adopted father's footsteps, coming of age at the same time a decisive event is about to take place: the death of the reigning pharaoh, Amenhotep III, around 1380 BC, and the accession of his son, Amenhotep IV, who styled himself Akhenaton.
Sinuhe is a loner and a wanderer, whose self-imposed exile from his native country takes him to Syria, the ancient Hittite kingdom of Hatti, and Crete, before finally returning to Egypt, at the same time that Akhenaton attempts to overthrow the reigning god Ammon and his priests, and install his own vision, Aton, the one and eternal god, in Ammon's place. As a political move, trimming Ammon's power in Egypt may have been a wise idea; the priests' power had grown so great that it was challenging that of pharaoh himself. But as a religious experiment it was a disaster, especially in a country as rigidly conservative as ancient Egypt where change of any kind was anathema. We see Akhenaton as a visionary out of touch with reality and with his people, a tragic figure doomed to failure. And we share Sinuhe's ambivalence about this enigmatic figure, intrigued by pharaoh's vision of one just god who brings equality to all mankind, but repelled by the spreading social chaos this vision brings with it, especially when it threatens his own security and the lives of those he loves.
Waltari is not only a great novelist but a fine historian, and he kept the background scrupulously accurate. The book is true to its time and its location, and Naomi Walford's excellent translation into English keeps the reader moving along effortlessly from the first page to the last. "The Egyptian" is Waltari's masterpiece; it's one of the best historical novels ever written.
Väinö Linna - The Unknown Soldier (Tuntematon Sotilas)
Väino Linna's Tuntematon sotilas (The Unknown Soldier) caused a scandal when it was first published in 1954. Finnish politicians, literary critics and patriots were outraged that the novel, which chronicles the experiences of a fictional machinegun company (though nearly every soldier in the book is based on Linna's actual war-time acquaintances) in the Continuation War of 1941-1944, depicted Finnish soldiers in a very different manner from other contemporary books.
Other books on the Second World War tended to accept the inevitability of the Continuation War during which Finland joined forces with Nazi Germany. But Linna's novel showed the conflict as a needless waste of energy and human life, an endeavor which was doomed to fail. Whereas earlier books depicted Finnish soldiers as valiant fighters battling hordes of barbarian Communists, Linna's characters were often shown running for their lives, roaring drunk on home (or rather camp) brewed alcohol, insubordinate towards their superiors and generally mostly unheroic. And one of them was a Communist ! When they died they did so for no real reason, often accidentally or due to bad planning. They were usually scared and sometimes outright cowardly.
But despite the initial scandal, or perhaps partly for the same reasons as the scandal was originally caused, The Unknown Soldier has over time been transformed into a loved classic. Today, it is the country's all-time best-selling novel. Phrases from the book such as "I'm a Finn, I eat metal and I shit chain" and "One Finn is equal to twenty Russians. But what do you do when the twenty-first comes along?" and many, many others have become almost proverbs and are often quoted by people without knowledge that they are in fact from Linna's book.
Translated into 17 languages and filmed twice, in 1955 and again in 1985, The Unknown Soldier is a novel with unique appeal. No matter how one looks at it - as a work of literature, a war story, a critique of war or a monument for the Finnish soldier - this book stands alone.
Possibly the greatest Finnish authors of all time are Aleksis Kivi, Väinö Linna and Mika Waltari. In the following paragraphs, I will present one book from each of these great men. Please remember that this is not meant to be a comprehensive listing of Finnish literature, but is here just to give you a small taste of it.
Aleksis Kivi - The Seven Brothers (Seitsemän veljestä)
This book is story about seven men who escape the laws and restrictions of society and everyday life and move to live into the forests. Their return to nature is, in addition to giving the brothers unrestricted freedom, a mixture of belief and knowledge, of fairytale and truth. The underlying point is the group of men who make their insane or ingenious decisions as a group and actualize them: they labour, they fight, they drink and they feel shame for their wrongdoings collectively. The Seven Brothers is a story about young men growing onto manhood and accepting the responsibilities that come with it.The story is set in either the village of Toukola or in the woods which Kivi depicts with a blinding attention to detail. It takes place in the early 19th century and is told over a time span of 10 years. Recommend to everyone, a thoroughly fascinating read.
Mika Waltari - The Egyptian (Sinuhe egyptiläinen)
Mika Waltari's "The Egyptian" tells us the story of one physician of ancient Egypt, Sinuhe, set against the background of the reign of the fourth pharaoh Amenhotep, whose attempt to impose monotheism on his polytheistic country was one of the strangest and most fascinating experiments of early civilization. Sinuhe is a foundling, adopted by a lowly physician, and in the tradition of ancient times, trained to follow in his adopted father's footsteps, coming of age at the same time a decisive event is about to take place: the death of the reigning pharaoh, Amenhotep III, around 1380 BC, and the accession of his son, Amenhotep IV, who styled himself Akhenaton. Sinuhe is a loner and a wanderer, whose self-imposed exile from his native country takes him to Syria, the ancient Hittite kingdom of Hatti, and Crete, before finally returning to Egypt, at the same time that Akhenaton attempts to overthrow the reigning god Ammon and his priests, and install his own vision, Aton, the one and eternal god, in Ammon's place. As a political move, trimming Ammon's power in Egypt may have been a wise idea; the priests' power had grown so great that it was challenging that of pharaoh himself. But as a religious experiment it was a disaster, especially in a country as rigidly conservative as ancient Egypt where change of any kind was anathema. We see Akhenaton as a visionary out of touch with reality and with his people, a tragic figure doomed to failure. And we share Sinuhe's ambivalence about this enigmatic figure, intrigued by pharaoh's vision of one just god who brings equality to all mankind, but repelled by the spreading social chaos this vision brings with it, especially when it threatens his own security and the lives of those he loves.
Waltari is not only a great novelist but a fine historian, and he kept the background scrupulously accurate. The book is true to its time and its location, and Naomi Walford's excellent translation into English keeps the reader moving along effortlessly from the first page to the last. "The Egyptian" is Waltari's masterpiece; it's one of the best historical novels ever written.
Väinö Linna - The Unknown Soldier (Tuntematon Sotilas)
Väino Linna's Tuntematon sotilas (The Unknown Soldier) caused a scandal when it was first published in 1954. Finnish politicians, literary critics and patriots were outraged that the novel, which chronicles the experiences of a fictional machinegun company (though nearly every soldier in the book is based on Linna's actual war-time acquaintances) in the Continuation War of 1941-1944, depicted Finnish soldiers in a very different manner from other contemporary books. Other books on the Second World War tended to accept the inevitability of the Continuation War during which Finland joined forces with Nazi Germany. But Linna's novel showed the conflict as a needless waste of energy and human life, an endeavor which was doomed to fail. Whereas earlier books depicted Finnish soldiers as valiant fighters battling hordes of barbarian Communists, Linna's characters were often shown running for their lives, roaring drunk on home (or rather camp) brewed alcohol, insubordinate towards their superiors and generally mostly unheroic. And one of them was a Communist ! When they died they did so for no real reason, often accidentally or due to bad planning. They were usually scared and sometimes outright cowardly.
But despite the initial scandal, or perhaps partly for the same reasons as the scandal was originally caused, The Unknown Soldier has over time been transformed into a loved classic. Today, it is the country's all-time best-selling novel. Phrases from the book such as "I'm a Finn, I eat metal and I shit chain" and "One Finn is equal to twenty Russians. But what do you do when the twenty-first comes along?" and many, many others have become almost proverbs and are often quoted by people without knowledge that they are in fact from Linna's book.
Translated into 17 languages and filmed twice, in 1955 and again in 1985, The Unknown Soldier is a novel with unique appeal. No matter how one looks at it - as a work of literature, a war story, a critique of war or a monument for the Finnish soldier - this book stands alone.
posted by Isä Olavi at 4:41 AM
