Honoring Finland’s National Poet

February 5th is one of those day’s when Finnish flag is held high and we all recall a great Finnish poet and writer  J.L. (Johan Ludvig) Runeberg and his respected wife (also a writer) Fredrika Runeberg. Back then, around 1800’s Finland was getting more and more independent. And writers’ and artists’ job was a big part of that. Luckily, the wave of romanticism and poetry was all over the world of arts, which made it “easier” for writers and artists to get folks turn to nationalism. Poets, writers and painters started put aside the ugly sufferings caused by war, and highlight the beauty and love of same nationed people had for their fatherland. In the literature they describe how this small nation fought bravely to for their mother language and fatherland. For example Runeberg wrote stories and poems on how beautiful it was that young men (around 15 years) left home to fight and make their people proud. And in most poems beauty is captured by describing the young lovers who got separated by war. I think this way of thinking about war was a pretty clever way of creating great art that captures people’s attention in something else than hatred.

On the latest Runeberg’s day we had the pleasure of having an author guest, Maria Peura, to tell us about writer’s job. We have a creative writing course in our school and the students of the class had listed bunch of questions for Maria Peura. Maybe even too many questions. It was pity that she didn’t get to all the questions,because the time ran out. But I guess it is just a sign that shows how much we all enjoyed that little gig. Time just flew!
Maria Peura is an award-winning author and also a columnist of our city’s local paper. And of course she wrote a piece about us too. You can find the column text here:

FACTS ABOUT RUNEBERG:

Lived: 5. February. 1804 – 6. May 1877

Nationality: Was a Finn but spoke Swedish

Hometown: Porvoo

Professions: a journalist, author, poet and headmaster of the highschool of Porvoo

Family: Had a wife (Fredrika Runeberg, writer) and six sons (who all became artists)

Some of the most famous creations:

Vänrikki Stoolin tarinat (eng. The tales of Ensign Stål)

Finland’s National Anthem (eng. Our Land)

Runeberg’s tart (1st time made by Runeberg’s wife Fredrika).
If you’ll get a chance to eat these, I warmly recommend! DELICIOUS!