 
Choose another writer in this calendar:
by name: by birthday from the calendar.
TimeSearch |
August (Engelbrekt) Ahlqvist (1826-1889) - wrote also as A. Oksanen | |
|
Poet and critic, linguist, the first professor of Finnish at the University of Helsinki, best remembered as the strongest critic of the Finnish national writer Aleksis Kivi and his masterpiece Seitsemän veljestä (1870, Seven Brothers). Ahlqvist's harsh writings greatly contributed to Kivi's mental collapse and his early death at the age of 38. He did not accept the author's realism and the opposition of his protagonists to authorities. Kivi's humor was strange for his taste, and the language too unpolished and offending. "Runoilijaks" ma ristittiin August Ahlqvist was born in Kuopio as an illegitimate child of Maria Augustina Ahlqvist (1806-1886) and Johan Mauritz Nordenstam (1802-82), a second lieutenant, who had later a distinguished career in the army and as a civil servant. He fought in wars in Turkey and Caucasia, returned to Finland in 1847, and was appointed in 1858 Vice-Chairman of the Senate's economic department. Nordenstam's position at that time corresponded to that of Prime Minister. He was appointed general in 1868. During the years in Kuopio, Ahlqvist started to write under the pseudonym A. Oksanen for the magazine Saimaa. It was edited by J.V. Snellman, one of his early supporters, who became a senator in 1863. Ahlqvist also made friends with Elias Lönnrot. From Johan Ludvig Runeberg, whom he idolized, Ahlqvist adopted romantic view of the Finnish people, especially peasants. In 'Finnish Sonnet' he wrote: "Old Väinämöinen could not have believed / that one among our singers now responds / to the great Sonnet, and within its bonds / sings what by heroes would be well received." At the age of 16 Ahlqvist fell in love with Amanda Granit, but was coldly treated by her parents. Later Ahlqvist returned to his early love in a poem, in which he confessed the pain of the separation. In 1847 Ahlqvist founded with D.E.D. Europaeus and Paavo Tikkanen the newspaper Suometar. He received his M.A. from the University of Helsinki and in 1860 he became a Ph.D. Between the years 1854 and 1855 Ahlqvist made expedition journeys to Estonia and to Russia among Votyaks, and between the years 1856 and 1859 he studied Finno-Ugric languages in the areas of Volga and Ural. Ahlqvist also made later expedition journeys to these regions (1877, 1880). In 1863, after Elias Lönnrot, Ahlqvist became a professor of Finnish language and literature at the University of Helsinki. In the promotion poem from 1869 he welcomed Finnish into the halls of academic research, equally as important as the great world languages: "Käy sisään vaan, sä Suomen runotarkin, / Nyt Suomen suureen oppisaliin." He edited from 1871 to 1875 the philological magazine Kieletär and from 1884 to 1887 he was chancellor of the university. Ahlqvist died on November 20, 1889 in Helsinki. He was married to Marie Antoinette Fabritius (d. 1919) from 1861. Four of their six children died early, three of them during the scarlet fever epidemic of 1869. As a novelist and poet Ahlqvist started his career in the 1840s. He followed in Snellman's footsteps, adopting European poetic metres and forms, chiefly Germanic, into the language. In his anxiety to transform Finnish into a cultural language, Ahlqvist idealized rigid literary norms. Especially Kivi's earthy and realistic work was for him unacceptable. In his handbook on Finnish prosody, SUOMALAINEN RUNOUSOPPI (1863), he stated that where the word stress and length correspond are metrically strongest, hence they must make their effect together. Among his works written under the pseudonym A. Oksanen are SATU (1847), and two collections of poems, SÄKENIÄ (first volume in 1860, the second in 1868). Ahlqvist also wrote the first Finnish-language sonnet in 1854 and the first Finnish-language poetic ballad, "Koskenlaskijan morsiamet," set by the composer for baritone or mezzo soprano and orchestra in 1897. His scientific works include several studies of the Finnish language. He also published memoirs, the first travel book in Finnish, MUISTELMIA MATKOILTA VENÄJÄLLÄ (1859), studies about Kalevala and translations from such writers as Runeberg, Schiller, and Moliére. Suomalainen sonetti Ei tainnut vanha Väinämöinen luulla, Ei ustukaan käkömme mandelpuulla, Suloinen kuulla kuitenkin tuo oisi, Ahlqvist never tried to hide his illegitimate background, but his father's position as one of the most influential figure's in the country helped him to overcome some obstacles. In his youth Ahlqvist experienced all kinds of humiliations and at the age of 20 he swore revenge on behalf of his mother, who had brought up her four illegitimate children in difficult conditions without having much support from the society. As a literary critic Ahlqvist was uncompromising and hard - he avoided sentimentality and did not much care what other people thought of his opinions. Well aware of his double nature, hard and sensitive, he wrote: "Yks' perkele, / yks' enkeli / asuvat sydämessäni." (One devil, / one angel, / dwell in my heart.) Ahlqvist published his first attacks on the novel Seitsemän veljestä in Swedish to gain more audience for his views. The first critic appeared in 1870 and the second in 1873, after Kivi's death. These malicious writings did not rise Kivi's close friends, among them Runeberg, to defend the author and his book. The third text, in Finnish, was printed in the magazine Kieletär. Ahlqvist's characterized the work "ridiculous and shameless". Kivi was dull and boring, and according to Ahlqvist his description of life couldn't be called artistic by any reasonable person. After Kivi's death Ahlqvist published a mock poem, in which he called the author an "incompetent scribbler and a mad drunk". See also critic and writer: Hendrik Wergeland Johan S.C. Welhaven - For further reading: August Ahlqvist runoilijana, arvostelijana ja tyyliniekkana. 1. Runoilijana by Aukusti Simelius (1914); Aleksis Kivi aikalaistensa arvostelemana by J.V. Lehtonen (1931); Ankara puutarhuri by Ilmari Kohtamäki (1956); Suomen kieli, suomen mieli. August Ahlqvist vaikuttajana, ed. by Jaakko Anhava (1993); Skating on the Sea: Poetry from Finland, ed. and trans. by Keith Bosley (1997); A History of Finland's Literature, ed. by George C. Schoolfield (1998) Selected works:
© 2000 |
