Elias Lönnrot was born 9 April 1802 and passed away on 19 March 1884. He was a Finnish philologist and collector of traditional Finnish oral poetry. He is best known for composing the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic compiled from national folklore. His true passion had always layd in his native Finnish language. He began writing about the early Finnish language in 1827 and began collecting folk tales from the rural people about that time.

Lönnrot was born in Sammatti, in the province of Uusimaa in Finland. He studied medicine at the Academy of Turku. To his misfortune the year he joined was the year of the Great Fire of Turku, burning down half the town – and the University. Lönnrot (and many of the rest of the University) moved to Helsinki, where he graduated in 1832.
He got a job as district doctor of Kajaani in Northern Finland during a time of famine in the district. The famine had prompted the previous doctor to resign, making it possible for a very young doctor to get such a position. Several consecutive years of crop failure resulted in enormous losses of population and livestock; Lönnrot wrote letters to the State departments, asking for food, not medicines. He was the sole doctor for the 4,000 or so people of his district, at a time where doctors were rare and very expensive, and where people did not buy medicines from equally rare and expensive pharmacies, but rather trusted to their village healers and locally available remedies.

Lönnrot went on extended leaves of absence from his doctor's office; he toured the countryside of Finland, Sapmi (Lapland), and nearby portions of Russian Karelia to support his collecting efforts. This led to a series of books: Kantele, 1829–1831 (the kantele is a Finnish traditional instrument); Kalevala, 1835–1836 (possibly Land of Heroes; better known as the "old" Kalevala); Kanteletar, 1840 (possibly Kantele Daughter); Sananlaskuja, 1842 (Proverbs); an expanded second edition of Kalevala, 1849 (the "new" Kalevala); and Finsk-Svenskt lexikon, 1866–1880 (Finnish-Swedish Dictionary).

Lönnrot was recognised for his part in preserving Finland's oral traditions by appointment to the Chair of Finnish Literature at the University of Helsinki. He died on 19 March 1884 in Sammatti, in the province of Uusimaa.

Botanists remember him for writing the first Finnish-language Flora Fennica – Suomen Kasvisto in 1860; in its day it was famed throughout Scandinavia, as it was among the very first common-language scientific texts. The second, expanded version was co-authored by Th. Saelan and published in 1866. The Flora Fennica was the first scientific work published in Finnish (instead of Latin). In addition, Lönnrot's Flora Fennica includes many notes on plant uses in between descriptions of flower and leaf.

As a botanist he was well-respected, and in the standard botanical author abbreviation Lönnrot is applied to species he described.

 

 

The Finnish graphic artist Erik Bruun used Lönnrot as a motif for the 500 markka banknote in his banknote series.

Don Rosa's "Quest for Kalevala" featuring Scrooge McDuck and Donald Duck has a cameo by Lonnrot.

Based on Elias Lönnrot's fame as a researcher, the Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges used the name Lönnrot for the diligent detective in his story, Death and the Compass (La muerte y la brújula), which was also made into a film by Alex Cox.

The Kalevala, the Finnish national epic that Lönnrot compiled, was an inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien's the Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings.

Elias Lönnrot has been the main motif for a recent commemorative coin, the Finnish Elias Lönnrot and folklore commemorative coin, minted in 2002. On the reverse, a feather (as a symbol of an author) and Elias Lönnrot's signature can be seen.

picture from the finnish society of literature

This saturday I went to shibuya to meet my cousins friend from Finland, Piia. We walked around had lunch and shopped, she showed me a few of the art stores there and I bought a few suplies and some things that I needed in my appartment from a 300 yen shop.

I had alot of fun with her just chatting and, praise all that is holy, I got to speak finnish! It felt SO NICE to just blab in my own language after awhile, especially because she was such good company! It also felt surreal, because veryone else around us speaks japanese and we're speaking finnish, it felt like I was in Finland, sorta.

I hope to visit her too and have her come to Asakusa sometime.

Yesterday(sunday) i walked around with a friend from my share house. I got to explore the streets a bit and had a long walk, which was nice, I haven't really gone off to explore since the streets get a bit confusing, and the weather was so nice, lucky! He showed me supplies stores that have all the supplies you need in a kitchen and also right outside the temple area we got from this tiny shop some dumplings (GAWD were thay good! Mine was a veggie version, I could eat a dozen of them in one go). The coolest thing was when we found a shop that sells those plastic models of foods drinks and dessert that they display in the restaurant windows! They look so real, I was so amazed that I forgot to take any pictures (I just checked my camera :'D )!

He then went to study in a cafe and I headed on home through the temple street. I'd never walked there during the daytime, everything looked so new and different! Even my home street , I had to double check that I was going the right way, I usually get home when it's already dark, so walking there in bright daylight was something new too. When I got home I found some share yeast in the fridge and made some bread. They didn't taste bad, but I'm not used to eating or using wheat, so it took me a minute to get used to the flavor. I've been searching for some sites on japanese cooking so that I won't slip into a restaurant and rice and salmon only diet while I'm here. Would be nice to learn to make something else than just soba, finnish food is too expensive to make here and you can't find all the ingredients, which are usually of more poor quality and way too expensive.

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Pohjola's daughters also known as Pohjola's maidens are in the kalevala known as mythical and wonderful women who reside in Pohjola or even up in the heavens. In general potrayal of the Pohjola's maidens, they sit in the heavens weaving gold and silver srings. The maidens are the cream of the crop; the maiden is so luminous and bright that in some cases she is glowing and see through.

The common resting place for the maidens has thought to be a rainbow, the top of a mountain or the holding structure of the sky.
The gold and silver strings have been associated with the strings of life and knowledge, though they are not goddesess, still they are above common women.

In the stories many go out to ask for the pohjola's maidens hands, but there are many obstacles on the way, such as rough terraine and monsters and dangerous quests set by Louhi, the mistress of Pohjola. Her quests often seem impossible, which is all well for her, for she does not want to give her daughters to just anyone. But in the Kalevala, the maidens that are wed turn out to be poor wives despite their heritage and beauty.

Yesterday I was able to talk to my friends at school via Skype. We had a quick chat on what it is that I do here, I got to see them (especially my friend Heidi, yay<3) and just laugh, and talk about random things. And as I was at work, Matsunami-san (my desk neighbour, heh) and the vice president Tomizawa-san got to say their hello's too and hear some Finland talk! It was so nice to see them again, though I had so much fun the last time I was with them a month ago, and time flies by so fast, it only felt like I had been with them last a couple of days ago. And it is kind of surreal everytime I use Skype, just to think that the other person is thousand of miles away from you and you can just see them and talk to them via live video feed, it makes me feel grateful that I livein the 21st century.

I hope I get to talk to them again soon, I have to download skype to my work computer so I don't have to drag my laptop that has skype to work.

I also bought  instant miso soup and tried it yesterday.. it was very bitter so I couldn't finish it all. I'll try adding mentsuyu to it today, maybe it wil taste a bit sweeter.

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In Finnish mythology, Tuoni is the god of the underworld, Tuonela, and his wife is Tuonetar, the Queen of death and the underworld. Together they rule over the underworld and when the dead arrive to their kingdom, they are their kind hosts and are delighted to offer their guests a tankard full of frogs and worms. They're also the parents of four daughters, Loviatar, Vammatar, Kipu-tytto and Kivutar. 

Vammatar is the Finnish goddess of pain, disease and suffering, other versions have her as the goddess of all evil and misfortune.

Loviatar (alternative names Loveatar, Lovetar, Lovehetar, Louhetar, Louhiatar, Louhi) is a blind daughter, and she was said to be the worst of them all. She was impregnated by wind and gave birth to nine sons, the Nine diseases. In some poems, she also gives birth to a tenth child who is a girl.

She is mentioned in the 45th rune of the Kalevala as follows;

The blind daughter of Tuoni,
Old and wicked witch, Loviatar,
Worst of all the Death-land women,
Ugliest of Mana's children,
Source of all the host of evils,
All the ills and plagues of Northland,
Black in heart, and soul, and visage,
Evil genius of Lappala,
Made her couch along the wayside,
On the fields of sin and sorrow;
Turned her back upon the East-wind,
To the source of stormy weather,
To the chilling winds of morning.

When Elias Lönnrot compiled Kalevala, he made Loviatar and Louhi two different characters. However, in the old folk poems the names are often used interchangeably. Some poems specify Louhi as the mother of the Nine diseases and others give Loviatar the title "Whore Mistress of Pohjola".  There is one difference between Louhi and the various forms of Loviatar in the poems. The Loviatar name family occurs only in spells where diseases are banished to go back to her, while Louhi occurs also in epic poems. She gives quests to heroes, and opposes Lemminkäinen in a spell contest. One hypothesis is that Louhi and Loviatar were regional names for the same goddess and that the epic poems were composed in an area where Louhi was the primary name. A large portion of the epic poems speak only about the Mistress of Pohjola and don't call her by name at all.

Kipu-tyttö is the Finnish Goddess of illness. Kipu-tyttö sits on a pain rock at the spot where three rivers meet in the underworld, and all of mankind’s diseases live below. She slowly turns the rock, releasing them one at a time. In some spells Kipu-tyttö is said to cry. She is depicted as a young woman with a pockmarked face, and she sings as she sits on her rock, luring the ill with her song. Kipu-tyttö’s name means “pain girl” and she is also referred to as Tuonela's maiden. In the spells people ask for Kipu-tyttö to take their pains to the pain rock that has many holes in it, to put their pains inside the holes, for a rock doesn't cry of pain, doesn't complain of illness. These sorts of rocks can still be found all over Finland and Sweden, they are known as kuppikivi, cuprocks.

 

Loviatar, Vammatar and Kipu-tyttö.

I visited the Museum of Conemporary Art of Tokyo last sunday (16.01.2011) with my new acquaintance Tomoko-san.
The exhibition was named Transformations and artists such as Patricia Piccinini, Tunga, Bharti Kher and Sputniko! had their artworks on display amongst 17 other artists, all of them from 15 different countries.

Personally I liked Patricia Piccini's piece Newborn and Shahzia Sikander's traditional miniature paintings (watercolor and gouche).
The main thread of the exhibition was that the world is in constant transformation mode, from physical changes to the changes that happen in our minds and perseption of our surroundings. Bharti Kher's pieces, for me, achieved the concept of change, with his photographs and sculptures of human animal mutations.

There was also a second exhibition, Catalysis for Life New Language of DutchArt&Design.
I loved this one, because there were so many things you could get involved in yourself. Before entering the gallery we were given these small pieces of brick but we weren't told what for. After seeing pieces of furniture from Maarten Baas and a performance art video of people moving pieces of garbage like the pointers of a clock, we came to a labyrinth where you had to choose between two doors that had questions on them. The first doors had MAYBE and PROBABLY written on them, I chose probably. The next doors were TOGETHER and FOREVER, from forever I ended up at the doors saying SCREAMER and DREAMER. my end result was that my personality is a LONELY DREAMER (MAYBE). It was fun, especially when we came to Martijn Engelbregt's Restaurant 'Rest' piece, where 21 gardentables had been piled up together to form a sort of pyramid that you could climb on! Guess twice if I climbed it or not >v< (There was even a sign that politely asked you to climb on it).
There was also a market stand that had all these humorous items you could buy for your neighbour, there was this one cd that you could get your neighbour and kindly ask them to play it as loud as possible so you could listen to it too through the wall.
So, finally the mystery of the small piece of brick that was given to us at the beginnig of the exhibition was revealed. There was a pile of the small bricks built by everyone who had visited, everyone could write a message on their brick and place it on top of the rest of the brickpile!

My other favorite was that there was a small room full of information on mythological creatures, pop culture icons and caharacters, advances on technology and so on that had somehting to do with the concept of change and transformation.
When we had taken our time in the exhibitions, we went to the gift shop, I bought a few cards from the transformation exhibition, since photographing wasn't allowed and I bought these tiny animation books, you flip the pages really fast to see the images move!

I had so much fun and yesterday when I was getting lunch with Mami, we drove past the museum, I had noidea it was so close to my work, maybe a ten minute walk or so!
I'll definitely go there again, just to see the park at least.

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In the Kalevala, Joukahainen is Aino's brother and the rival of the main character, Väinämöinen. After losing a singing contest, he promises his sister Aino to Väinämöinen, but she drowns herself rather than marry him. Joukahainen, still envious of Väinämöinen, then shoots the stag of his rival from under him, plunging him into the waters of Pohjola.
Joukahainen has many names in the Finnish folklore, such as Joutavoinen, sometimes his name isn't even mentioned and he is referred to as Lappalainen.

When Elias Lönnrot compiled the Kalevala, in his travels as many other poem gatherers, they would hear of poems about Joukahainen and Väinämöinen having been rivals since the dawn of time during the creation of the world. One of the common stories on the creation of earth, is that the Lappalainen hated Väinämöinen and stalked him. Väinämöinen is riding on the water and Lappalainen shoots him down into the ocean. Some stories go even further back in events. In those stories Väinämöinen and Joukahainen are siblings and they journey on together, but drift apart and start fighting each other. Väinämöinen wins but the bitter Joukahainen seeks revenge and shoots Väinämöinen into the ocean. Väinämöinen floats in the ocean, when a bird lays eggs on his knee. The eggs break and from them the world is born.

Elias Lönnrot moved Joukahainen's and Väinämöinen's singing battle to more natural surraundings and a time well after the world had been created.

Lemminkäinen or Lemminki is a prominent figure in Finnish mythology. He is one of the Heroes of the Kalevala,
where his character is a composition of several separate heroes of oral
poetry. He is usually depicted as young and good looking, with wavy
blonde hair.

The original, mythological Lemminkäinen is a shamanistic figure. In
the Kalevala, he has been blended together with epic war-heroes
Kaukomieli/Kaukamoinen and Ahti Saarelainen.

In one myth he drowns in the river of Tuonela (the underworld) in trying to capture or kill the black swan that lives there as part of an attempt, as Ilmarinen once made, to win a daughter of Louhi as his wife. In a tale somewhat reminiscent of Isis' search for Osiris, Lemminkäinen's mother searches heaven and earth to find her son. Finally, she learns of his fate and asks Ilmarinen
to fashion her a rake of copper with which to dredge her son's body
from the river of Tuonela. Thus equipped, she descends into the
underworld in search of her son. On the banks of the river of the
underworld, she rakes up first Lemminkäinen's tunic and shoes, and
then, his maimed and broken body. Unrelenting, she continues her work
until every piece of Lemminkäinen's body is recovered. Sewing the parts
together and offering prayers to the gods, the mother tries to restore
Lemminkäinen to life, but succeeds only in remaking his body, life is
still absent. Then, she entreats a bee to ascend to the halls of the
over-god Ukko
and fetch from there a drop of honey as ointment that would bring
Lemminkäinen back to life. Only with such a potent remedy is the hero
finally restored.