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Elias Lönnrot
Elias Lönnrot
Born	9 April 1802; Sammatti, Nyland and Tavastehus County, Swedish Empire
Died	19 March 1884 (aged 81); Sammatti, Grand Duchy of Finland, Russian Empire
Occupation(s)	Physician, philologist, poetry collector
Known for	Kalevala, Flora Fennica

Elias Lönnrot (Finnish: [ˈeliɑs ˈlønruːt] ^ⓘ; 9 April 1802 – 19 March 1884) was a Finnish polymath, physician, philosopher, poet, musician, linguist, journalist, philologist and collector of traditional Finnish oral poetry. He is best known for synthesizing the Finnish national epic, Kalevala (1835, enlarged 1849) from short ballads and lyric poems^[1] he gathered from Finnish oral tradition during several field expeditions in Finland, Russian Karelia, the Kola Peninsula and Baltic countries. In botany, he is remembered as the author of the 1860 Flora Fennica, the first scientific text written in Finnish rather than in Latin.

Education and early life

Lönnrot was born in Sammatti,^[a] in the province of Uusimaa, Finland, which was then part of Sweden. He studied medicine at the Academy of Turku.^[2] The Great Fire of Turku coincided with his first academic year. As the university was destroyed in the fire, it was moved to Helsinki, the newly established administrative center of the Grand Duchy of Finland. Lönnrot followed and graduated in 1832.^[3]

Career

Medicine

Lönnrot lived in the village of Paltaniemi, when he got a job as district doctor of Kajaani in Eastern Finland during a time of famine and pestilence in the district.^[4]^[5]^[6]

Literature

Lönnrot with his family in the early 1860s

He began writing about the early Finnish language in 1827 and began collecting folk tales from rural people around the same time. In 1831, the Finnish Literature Society was founded, and Lönnrot, being one of the founders, received financial support from the society for his efforts to collect folk tales.^[2]

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. This led to a series of books: Kantele, 1829–1831 (the kantele is a Finnish traditional instrument); Kalevala, 1835–1836 (the "old" Kalevala), an edited collection of epic poems collected orally and representing a mythology for Finland; Kanteletar, 1840; Sananlaskuja, 1842 (Proverbs); an expanded second edition of Kalevala, 1849 (the "new" Kalevala). 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 in 1853.^[7]^[8]

Lexicography

Lönnrot undertook the task of compiling the first Finnish-Swedish dictionary (Finsk-Svenskt lexikon, 1866–1880).^[2] The result comprised over 200,000 entries, and many of the Finnish translations were coined by Lönnrot himself.^[9] His vast knowledge of traditional Finnish poetry made him a definite authority in Finland and many of his inventions have stuck. Finnish scientific terminology was in particular influenced by Lönnrot's work and therefore many abstract terms that have a Latin or Greek etymology in most other European languages appear as native neologisms in Finnish. Examples from linguistics and medicine include kielioppi (grammar), kirjallisuus (literature), laskimo (vein) and valtimo (artery).^[10]

Botany

Botanists remember Lönnrot for writing the first Finnish-language Flora Fennica – Suomen Kasvisto ("Flora of Finland") in 1860; in its day it was famed throughout Scandinavia, as it was among the first common-language scientific texts. The second, expanded version was co-authored by Thomas Saelan and published in 1866.^[11]^[12] The Flora Fennica was the first scientific work published in Finnish (instead of Latin). In addition, it includes many notes on plant uses in between descriptions of flowers and leaves.

The standard author abbreviation Lönnrot is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.^[13]

Impact

The Kalevala, the Finnish national epic that Lönnrot compiled, was among the inspirations for J. R. R. Tolkien's the Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings.^[14]

Lönnrot was the main motif for 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.^[15] The Finnish graphic artist Erik Bruun used Lönnrot as a motif for the 500 markka banknote in his banknote series.^[16]

The Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges used the name Lönnrot, possibly alluding to the Finnish author, for the diligent detective in his story Death and the Compass (La muerte y la brújula).^[17]

The main belt asteroid 2243 Lönnrot was named after Lönnrot.^[18]

Gallery

Caricature One Man Saved Everything for Us by Running by A. W. Linsen, 1847
Portrait of Lönnrot by
Bernhard Reinhold [fi], 1872
Lönnrot and the Oral Poets, sketch of how he collected the materials for the Kalevala by Akseli Gallen-Kallela for murals for University of Helsinki, 1912

Publications

Jenny af Forselles (1908), Elias Lönnrots Svenska skrifter utgifna af Jenny af Forselles. 1., Skrifter utgivna av Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland (in Swedish), Helsinki: Society of Swedish Literature in Finland, ISSN 0039-6842, Wikidata Q113396160
Jenny af Forselles (1911), Elias Lönnrots Svenska skrifter utgifna af Jenny af Forselles. 2, Bref, anteckningar och reseskildringar., Skrifter utgivna av Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland (in Swedish), Helsinki: Society of Swedish Literature in Finland, ISSN 0039-6842, Wikidata Q113396181

Notes

^ As of 2009, part of Lohja.

References

^ Elias Lönnrot at the Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c Majamaa, Raija (2014). "Lönnrot, Elias (1802–1884)". The National Biography of Finland. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
^ Kouvalainen, Kauko (1994). "Elias Lönnrotin väitöskirjat" [Elias Lönnrot's dissertations]. Aikakauskirja Duodecim (in Finnish). 110 (22): 2071.
^ "Elias Lönnrotin Kajaani". Visit Kajaani (in Finnish). Archived from the original on 30 September 2020.
^ Piippo, Esko (28 February 2021). "Näkökulma: Elias Lönnrotin Hövelön aika" [Viewpoint: Elias Lönnrot's Hövelö time]. Kainuun Sanomat (in Finnish). Archived from the original on 1 October 2022. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
^ Suutari, Tiina (16 March 2021). "Kotiseutuna Kajaani: Maanjäristys tuhosi ensimmäisen kirkon Paltaniemellä – Kirkkoaholla on toiminut erikoinen eläintarha" [Hometown Kajaani: The earthquake destroyed the first church in Paltaniemi - Kirkkoaho has a special zoo]. Kainuun Sanomat (in Finnish). Archived from the original on 7 February 2023. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
^ "Elias Lönnrot". The Kalevala Society. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
^ Bragg, Melvyn (28 March 2024). "In Our Time: The Kalevala". BBC. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
^ Savolainen, Erkki (1998). "3.6.3 Lönnrotin sanakirja (1880)". Internetix (in Finnish). Otavan opisto. Archived from the original on 1 June 2016. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
^ Pitkänen-Heikkilä, Kaarina (2014). "Coming up with medical, mathematical and grammatical terms". University of Helsinki. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
^ Scan of Flora Fennica, 1860
^ "Flora Fennica - Suomen Kasvio". Henriette's Herbal Homepage (in Finnish). Retrieved 13 August 2023.
^ International Plant Names Index. Lönnrot.
^ Flieger, Verlyn (2005). "The Models". Interrupted Music. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press. pp. 27–31 "The Personal Model: Tolkien and Lönnrot". ISBN 978-0-87338-824-5.
^ "List of Finland Collectors' Coins". Mint of Finland. Archived from the original on 16 June 2010. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
^ "Finland". European Central Bank. 15 January 2021. Archived from the original on 21 July 2024. Retrieved 3 August 2024. Denomination: 500 FIM Elias Lönnrot
^ "Lönnrot, Erik". Borges Center. Retrieved 3 August 2024. detective in Borges story; a possible allusion to Elias Lönnrot
^ MPC