J. L. RUNEBERG

Until about fifty years ago, on the fifth day of February you would find lit candles in the windows of many Finnish homes. Helsinki took on a Christmas feel and large bonfires were lit at the Johan Ludwig Runeberg statue in the centre of the capital to honor the poet's birthday.

Today a new generation hardly recognizes the plaster of paris bust of the national poet that you find in most classrooms. Bakeries in Finland still however make the Runeberg astrv with a touch of rum just the way the poet liked them, in the beginning of February.

This year the International Runeberg Lodges, the Runeberg Chorus and Runeberg Social Club in Vancouver have decided to honour their namesake with a celebration (on Saturday February 3 at the Scandinavian Centre, Burnaby. Info: Greta Nelson 604-433-4070).

Johan Ludwig Runeberg (l804-77) studied languages at Åbo University, became a lecturer, and later a newspaper man in Helsinki, before he was offered a position as a Latin teacher in the sleepy provincial town of Borgå. By this time J.L.Runeberg was already well-known for his love poems, and his Elk Hunting on Skis, and other writing. His poem "Maamme" (Our Land) about the beauty of Finland's summer landscape which he later set to music, became Finland's national anthem.

The first Tales of Ensign Stål were published in 1848 and launched Runeberg as both a "national poet" and Finland's first great man. In his popular works, Runeberg created an idealized picture of the Finns as poor but industrious, a people living in harmony and contentment, even under the severest of circumstances.

In the Tales of Ensign Stål, that really describe Sweden's loss of Finland to Russia in the 1808-09 war, Runeberg expresses a Finnish patriotism in the midst of Czar Nicolas' dictatorial rule of his country. The tales are still read in Finnish schools and many a Finn will still spontaneously quote some of the eternal lines from heart.

Scandinavian Press, Issue 1, 2001