Turku 1000
Stop 26 of 50
1817–1826

The Turku Romantics wake up Finnishness

In the 1810s and 1820s a group of young scholars in Turku began to say something new: that Finland was a nation, with a language, poetry and history of its own. They wrote almost everything in Swedish. One of their students was a poor tailor’s son called Elias Lönnrot.

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The big story

The Turku Romantics wake up Finnishness

After 1809 Finland was no longer part of Sweden, but it was not Russian either. What was it, then? In Turku, still the only university town in the country, a generation of young scholars answered: Finland is a nation, and its soul lives in its language and its old songs. Historians call them the Turku Romantics.

A new generation

  • Not quite a club. The Turku Romantics were young intellectuals active in Turku in the 1810s and 1820s. They were not a formal society, and they often disagreed with each other Well documented.
  • The names. Among them were Adolf Ivar Arwidsson, Johan Jacob Tengström, Anders Johan Sjögren, Axel Gabriel Sjöström and Carl Axel Gottlund. Carl Niclas Keckman was one of the few who also wrote in Finnish Well documented.
  • Their ideas. They were inspired by the German thinker Johann Gottfried Herder, who taught that the spirit of a people lives in its language and folk poetry. Their Finnish model was Henrik Gabriel Porthan (stop 23) Well documented.
  • Swedish pens, Finnish dreams. They wrote almost entirely in Swedish, the language of educated people in Finland. But they were convinced that Finnish had to become a written language of culture Well documented.

Journals and newspapers

  • Aura and Mnemosyne. The group’s first journal was Aura (1817–1818). It was followed by the more ambitious Mnemosyne (1819–1823), named after the Greek goddess of memory Well documented.
  • A paper in Finnish. In 1820 Reinhold von Becker founded Turun Wiikko-Sanomat, a weekly in Finnish meant as a model of good language. Becker coined many new Finnish words Well documented.
  • Censored. When Turun Wiikko-Sanomat supported the Greek war of independence, it was banned from printing foreign news Well documented.
  • Too political. In 1821 Arwidsson and Gustaf Idman-Idestam started Åbo Morgonblad, often called Finland’s first political newspaper. Its critical tone angered the authorities, and it was shut down the same year Well documented.

Arwidsson pays the price

  • A rising star. Arwidsson, born in 1791 in Padasjoki, became a doctor of philosophy and a lecturer at the Academy in 1817 Well documented.
  • Dismissed. After Åbo Morgonblad he lost his post in 1822. In 1823 he moved to Stockholm, became a Swedish citizen and found work at the Royal Library, which he later led Well documented.
  • The motto. He is credited with the famous words “Swedes we are no longer, Russians we do not want to become, so let us be Finns”. Some historians think J. V. Snellman coined the phrase, and others that it was attached to Arwidsson later Debated.
  • Home at last. Arwidsson died in Vyborg in 1858 and was buried in Finland. Elias Lönnrot wrote the verses on his gravestone Well documented.

Looking for the old songs

  • Gottlund on the road. The student Carl Axel Gottlund collected Finnish folklore in 1815–1816, and in 1817 he wrote down about fifty poems among descendants of Finnish settlers in Dalarna, Sweden Well documented.
  • Dreaming of an epic. Gottlund suggested that if the old songs were collected, they could be put together into a great whole, a Finnish Homer. Twenty years later Lönnrot did something like that Likely.
  • Lost in the flames. Earlier collections of folk poems kept at the Academy were destroyed in the fire of 1827 (stop 27) Well documented.
How do we know?

The journals, newspapers and dissertations of the Turku Romantics survive, as do many of their letters. Because they were never a formal society, historians argue about who belonged and how much they agreed. Famous quotations, like the motto above, are harder: they were repeated so often that it is difficult to tell who first said them.

The Romantics’ bookshelf

Click a spine. Most of these were written in Swedish or Latin, yet they argued that Finnish deserved a written culture of its own.

De Poësi Fennica1766Aura1817Mnemosyne1819Gottlund1815Turun Wiikko-Sanomat1820Åbo Morgonblad1821De Väinämöine1827Kalevala1835

Pick a book from the shelf.

Who said it? Debated
“Swedes we are no longer, Russians we do not want to become, so let us be Finns.”

Svenskar äro vi icke längre, ryssar vilja vi icke bli, låt oss alltså vara finnar.

This saying is usually credited to Arwidsson. Some historians think J. V. Snellman coined it later, and others that it was put into Arwidsson’s mouth after his time.

The Turku Romantics’ bookshelf. Click a spine, then read the famous motto.The spines are drawn freely; the colours and sizes are not those of the real books.
Why it matters

The Turku Romantics planted the idea that Finland was a nation with its own culture. That idea grew into the Fennoman movement, led to the Kalevala and, in time, to Finnish becoming an official language in 1863. They were also the last generation to take their degrees in Turku: after the fire of 1827 the university moved to Helsinki, and the centre of Finnish intellectual life moved with it.

On the lighter side

Young Lönnrot, student in Turku

Elias Lönnrot is famous as the man who made the Kalevala. Before that he was a tailor’s son from a poor village who had to fight his way into school, and much of that fight took place in Turku.

A hard start

  • Sammatti. Lönnrot was born on 9 April 1802 in Sammatti, west of Helsinki. His father was a poor village tailor Well documented.
  • School in Turku. With help from his elder brother he started at the Cathedral School in Turku on 5 April 1816. In the spring of 1818 he had to leave, and back home he worked as a tailor Well documented.
  • Second chances. In 1820 he went to the upper secondary school in Porvoo, and then worked for about two years as an apprentice in a pharmacy in Hämeenlinna Well documented.

Student in Turku

  • The Academy. On 11 October 1822 Lönnrot enrolled at the Academy of Turku, Finland’s only university. He studied medicine, Latin, Greek, history and literature Well documented.
  • Earning a living. He paid his way by working as a tutor, as a tailor or as a pharmacist’s assistant when he needed money Well documented.
  • Famous fellow students. J. V. Snellman, later the leading thinker of the Finnish national movement, and J. L. Runeberg, later Finland’s national poet, were students in Turku at the same time Well documented.
  • The right teacher. His Finnish teacher, Reinhold von Becker, sparked his interest in folk poetry and let him use his own collection of poems and notes on mythology Well documented.

Väinämöinen and the fire

  • A dissertation on a god. In 1827 Lönnrot wrote his Latin dissertation De Väinämöine priscorum Fennorum numine, “On Väinämöinen, the ancient god of the Finns” Well documented.
  • The fire. In September 1827 most of Turku burned (stop 27). The university stopped working for a year and a half and then moved to Helsinki, where Lönnrot finished his studies and became a doctor in 1832 Well documented.

From Turku to the Kalevala

  • The first trip. In 1828 Lönnrot went to Karelia to collect folk poems. At Kesälahti he met the singer Juhana Kainulainen, who knew many old songs. It was the first of eleven collecting trips between 1828 and 1844 Well documented.
  • The Kalevala. He signed the preface of the Kalevala on 28 February 1835. The first edition had 32 poems and 12,078 lines, and only 500 copies were printed Well documented.
  • Bigger and better. The new Kalevala of 1849 had 50 poems and 22,795 lines. It is the version read today, and it has been translated into dozens of languages Well documented.
  • Kalevala Day. Finland celebrates 28 February as Kalevala Day, the day of Finnish culture Well documented.
Gulf of BothniaGulf of FinlandSammattiTurkuPorvooHämeenlinnaKesälahtiHelsinkiKajaani
The Kalevala grows
183532 poems, 12,078 lines
184950 poems, 22,795 lines

The 1849 “New Kalevala” is the version read today.

Lönnrot’s road from Sammatti to the Kalevala, 1802–1835. Step through it or press Next.The map is simplified, and the dotted lines show the order of places, not real roads.
How do we know?

Lönnrot left many letters and travel diaries, and his dissertations and books survive. Some details of his early life come from later biographies, and sources disagree on small points, such as whether he moved to Kajaani in 1833 or 1834.

Why it matters

The Kalevala gave Finland an epic of its own at the moment the country was looking for an identity. It inspired artists such as Jean Sibelius and Akseli Gallen-Kallela, and it is still read in schools today. Its roots lie partly in Turku, in a poor student’s years at the Academy and a teacher who shared his collection of old songs.

Sources and further reading

  1. Marjanen, J. (2022). Turku Romanticism. Encyclopedia of Romantic Nationalism in Europe: the group, its journals Aura and Mnemosyne, its members and aims.
  2. Bouwhuis, M. (2022). Arwidsson, Adolf Ivar. Encyclopedia of Romantic Nationalism in Europe: Åbo Morgonblad, dismissal and exile, the motto.
  3. University of Turku Library, 250 Years of Finnish Newspapers: Turun Wiikko-Sanomat (1820–1827, 1829–1831) and Reinhold von Becker.
  4. Adolf Ivar Arwidsson — life dates, career in Turku and Stockholm, and the debate about the motto.
  5. Fennoman movement — how the ideas of the Turku Romantics grew into a national movement, and who coined the motto.
  6. Carl Axel Gottlund — student in Turku, folklore collecting in 1815–1817 and the trip to Dalarna.
  7. Kalevala Society. Elias Lönnrot’s Kalevala process: studies in Turku, von Becker, the dissertation of 1827, the first trip of 1828 and the editions of 1835 and 1849.
  8. Elias Lönnrot — birth, schooling in Turku, Porvoo and Hämeenlinna, enrolment at the Academy on 11 October 1822.
  9. Lönnrot, Elias. Encyclopedia of World Biography: student jobs, von Becker, classmates, medical degree and the Kalevala.
  10. Johan Vilhelm Snellman — student at the Academy of Turku from 1822, alongside Runeberg and Lönnrot.
  11. Johan Ludvig Runeberg — student in Turku from 1823 and later national poet.

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