Each country has its well-known and loved literary characters whose essence is deeply connected to the identity of a nation or region. This exhibition is about those characters, introducing the fictional world, authors and cultural surrounding of smaller European states. Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary and Luxembourg are represented with their literary characters. Learn about the project
Kalevipoeg is a mythical character in Estonian literature whose highest aim is to serve his country and its people. He is an oak-like giant who ploughs the fields, builds towns and fights with the evil forces of the underworld and the invading enemy. Inquisitiveness drives him to seek for the end of the world. He is, simultaneously, naively trusting, protective of the weaker ones, erroneous when vehement or furious, suffering for his mistakes. He is one of the people, the embodiment of our dreams but also of our errors and vices.
The epic Kalevipoeg (Son of Kalev) belongs to these literary works that Estonians know even without reading them and think they are competent to praise and criticise at will.
Several verses of the epic have become favourite quotations in various occasions, most significantly the final lines:
But one day, there comes a time,
When all spills at both their ends will
Start outright to flare up bright;
Flames of fire will cut outright
His hand from stone fetters loose –
Surely Kalev will then come home to
Bring his people fortune true,
Build Estonia anew.
Animation by schoolchildren for literature class
The 19th century was the period of the Estonian national awakening and the century of the nation’s birth. The national movement changed the traditional culture, revealing the people’s endeavours to become free in mind after serfdom and servility. The idea of founding the Alexander School and corresponding appeals, establishment of the first Estonian newspaper Postimees/The Courier (1864), the first general song festival (1869), the beginning of Estonian national theatre (1870) and music, the establishment of the Estonian Literary Society (1872) were all characteristic events of the time.
The epic Kalevipoeg compiled by Fr. R. Kreutzwald became the literary and national-political groundsel that inspired L. Koidula, J. Hurt, M. Veske, J. Köler, C. R. Jakobson, J. Weitzenberg, A.Weizenberg, A.Reinwald, K.A. Hermann and several others. Thanks to C.R. Jakobson’s textbooks and readers Kalevipoeg became known to schoolchildren and Kalevipoeg became a symbol of national pride. The epic Kalevipoeg has managed to retain its symbolic value to the Estonian people throughout the hard times (Russification, wars, deportations and occupations). It was reborn again in literature, art and music. By today 19 editions of the epic have been published. Kalevipoeg has become internationally known as well. It has been translated into the German, Russian, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Finnish, Swedish, English, Czech, Romanian, French and Hindi languages. In addition to these full translations there are about a dozen prose reproductions and brief introductions.
The would-be European culture – a small spark of hope from the works of Kreutzwald
Peter Petersen, publisher of the epic Kalevipoeg in the German language
Kreutzwald’s House museum in Võru
Text by Aimi Hollo
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