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(1855-1940). Edelfelt's studio is one of the most popular
museums of Porvoo area, it's located close to the Haikko manor
(now a hotel) a few kilometers from Porvoo. The poet Johan
Ludvig Runeberg spent the 25 last years of his life in Porvoo;
his home at the corner of Aleksanterinkatu and Runeberginkatu
has been a museum since 1880. He is buried in the Näsimäki
cemetary of Porvoo. Next to the Old Town, on a hill across the
Porvoo river, is Linnanmäki or Borgbacken (Castle Hill, which
has given Porvoo its name; Borgå = Castle River). There are no
stone fortifications left, the only remains are moats that have
belonged to hillfort built by the Danes in the late 12th or
early 13th century.
4.5.6 Other places of interest in Finland
Åland islands (Ahvenanmaa in Finnish) are a beautiful
archipelago, perfect for cycling, with medieval churches
scattered around and the castle ruins of Kastelholm.
Naantali/Nådendal, close to Turku, is a charming small,
medieval town by the sea, where a Brigittine cloister was
located (the church still remains). A popular place to visit in
summers. Likewise, Rauma, located 100km north of Turku, has a
very charming old town which is included in the UNESCO world
heritage list, and a church that was part of a Franciscan
monastery. The inland lake-system, with such lakes as Saimaa
and Päijänne is perfect for a canoeing holiday; trips on one of
the many lake steam boats are also recommended. The mightiest
of Finnish medieval castles, Olavinlinna, is located in an
island in the Saimaa, and a famous opera-festival is arranged
in the castle every summer. The province of Lapland is among
the last wild natural areas in Europe; no real mountains
(except in some areas close to Norwegian border), but low fells
that rise to some 500 metres. Good for trekking, but be
prepared for mosquitoes.
For general information through WWW see the clicable map of
Finnish resources at
While the word "sauna" (in the Finnish pronounciation, the "au"
sound is like "ou" in "loud") means different things in
different countries, for a Finn it means an elementary part of
everyday life. Ever since childhood, Finnish people learn to
bathe in sauna, usually at least once a week. Yes, they do it
naked, and yes, they go in there together with other people,
while naked. This and other aspects of the Finnish sauna are
discussed in the following questions and answers.
Q1 Why is sauna something special in Finland?
A1: Mostly because of ancient traditions. Wherever there have
lived Finns, there have also been a sauna nearby their
residences. In the early days of Finnish history, it was a
small wooden hut near a lake, and people used it not only for
cleaning themselves, but for childbirths, some medical
operations and other duties that required a clean,
bacteria-free environment. Today, practically all houses in
Finland have a sauna. In urban areas, you usually have one per
building, but even in a relatively small apartment it is not a
rare piece of luxury these days. This being the case, Finns
discover at an early age what a refreshing way it is to clean
oneself both physically and mentally. The tradition is not a
dying one either.
Q2 What is a Finnish sauna like?
A2: The basic parts are the stove ("kiuas"), filled with
fist-sized stones, and the benches or platforms ("lauteet"),
made of wood (anecdotes of metal benches in the saunas of some
Finnish-built Russian warships are told :). There are usually
two benches, one of which is higher (the seat) and the other
one lower (place to rest your feet on, or another seat if you
feel it's too hot). These are what all saunas have. The modern
saunas have the usual shower and dressing rooms too, but the
traditional ones near a lake or sea (usually in the vicinity of
a summer cabin, or built in one) do not require anything but a
stove for heating and a bench to sit down on -- you can do the
cleaning in the lake. The stove is traditionally fuelled by
wood, but electrically heated saunas are common due to their
safe, easy and clean use. The average sauna has room for 3-6
people at a time.
Q3 How are you supposed to bathe?
A3: There are no rules, only guidelines. Finns like their
traditions, but do not enforce them on themselves or
foreigners. Usually you bathe together with your family. If you
are with friends or others that aren't family members, men and
women take turns to bathe separately. Most public saunas are
separate for men and women, but not all. You take your clothes
off (this is not a rule, mind you; if someone wants to use a
towel or bathing suite, it's not a breach of any important
etiquette), go and sit down on the benches and relax. The air
is not particularly humid at first (there is no visible steam),
and when you feel like it, you throw some water on the stones
to increase humidity. This causes the water to vaporize very
quickly, and it makes the bathers feel a momentary breath of
hot air in their backs. It may be uncomfortable, if the stove
is too hot or if you use too much water, and in those cases it
helps to step down on the lower bench, or to go out entirely.
This is also perfectly acceptable, and first-time sauna bathers
shouldn't feel obligated to stay in if they don't feel like it.
The basic goal is to enjoy and relax, and sweat. After you've
done enough of that, you go to the showers, and/or swim in the
lake, depending on the facilities. After swimming or showering,
you can go back to the sauna, and repeat this cycle as many
times as you want.
Q4 How hot is it in there?
A4: This varies according to the bathers' wishes. Usually the
temperature is between 60°C and 110°C, the widely-agreed-upon
ideal temperature being somewhere around 85°degrees. Sometimes
(after a few drinks) Finnish men engage in an unhealthy
competition over who can stay in a hot sauna the longest time.
This is not the way sauna is meant to be enjoyed, not to
mention that it can be dangerous. Also, you shouldn't be drunk
in sauna. A cold beer after sauna, however, tastes usually
great, even a mediocre brand.
Q5 What is a smoke sauna? How does it differ from the usual one?
A5: A smoke sauna (savusauna) is perhaps the most traditional
kind of sauna. There is no smoke pipe: all the smoke from the
stove goes inside the sauna while heating. Of course, it has to
be removed before bathing, and this is done by opening a small
hatch on the wall. The fire on the stove must not be burning
while bathing, but this doesn't matter, since the massive stove
radiates plenty of heat for many hours. A smoke sauna is often
considered the ultimate sauna experience, complete with the
wonderful smoke odour. Smoke saunas are somewhat rare compared
to the normal ones these days, but sauna enthusiasts praise
them so that there still exist plenty of them.
Q6 Do Finns really jump out naked into the snow in the middle of sauna
bathing and roll around in winter time? Or go swimming in a frozen lake?
A6: Some do, most don't. This is a habit that requires a
healthy heart and a bit of courage, but it is practised, and
there are some enthusiasts who think sauna in the winter is
nothing without a quick swim in the snow or freezing water. Of
course, others think this is sheer madness.
Q7 What about sauna and sex?
A7: Even though people are naked in sauna, Finns do not see
anything sex-related in their sauna tradition. Of course you
can have sex in there if you feel like it, but that is neither
a part of any tradition nor very comfortable. Women used to
give birth in saunas a long time ago, but the conceiving was
done mostly elsewhere. Massage parlours and other (sometimes
sexual) services that often come with a public sauna in the
red-light districts of big cities are unknown phenomena in
Finland. Going to sauna naked with all your family is not at
all perverted, as the reader might think. Instead, the sauna
tradition makes it natural and comfortable for children to
learn about human body, and for parents to tell them about it.
[ the sections above are available at the www-page
http://www.lysator.liu.se/nordic/scn/faq46.html ]
------------------------------
Subject: 4.7 Finnish literature
Most of the text below is reproduced on the Project Runeberg
pages on Nordic Authors
.
Runeberg's main works were the realist/idealist poem
Älgskyttarna (Elk Hunters, 1832), which can be called the first
major literary portrayal of ordinary people in Scandinavia, the
Ossianic epic Kung Fjalar (King Fjalar, 1844) and the emotional
and humane heroic poem Fänrik Ståls Sägner (The Tales of Ensign
Stål, I 1848, II 1860) on the war of 1808-09, which enjoyed
huge popularity in both Finland and Sweden and became something
of a national romantic symbol.
Topelius was a full-blooded romantic, more superficial as a
literary artist than Runeberg, and less of an innovator. His
Fältskärns Berättelser (1851-67, The Barber-Surgeons Stories)
is a historical novel set in the Thirty Years' War, in the
tradition of Sir Walter Scott; he is also well known in Finland
for his fairy tales.
Snellman's chief achievement was in his role as a national
awakener, the editor of two newspapers, strongly encouraging
literature as part of the process leading to independence.
Early writers in Finnish
The first great prose writer in Finnish - considered by some to
be the most genial - was Aleksis Kivi (1834-72), a novelist and
playwright who during his lifetime was largely ignored. Major
works include Seitsemän Veljestä (The Seven Brothers, 1870),
his most celebrated play, and the comedy Nummisuutarit (The
Heath Shoemakers, 1864). He was more modern and many-sided in
his expression than Runeberg, but his image of the Finnish
people was too "raw" and realistic for most people of his era,
and he died in extreme poverty, suffering from a mental
illness.
Minna Canth (1844-97), an energetic fighter for women's rights
and social justice, was a contemporary of Juhani Aho
(1861-1921), a novelist and short-story writer known for his
humorous sketches and lyrical, dreamy descriptions of nature.
Eino Leino (1878-1926) was a poet of exceptional talent,
drawing heavily on the Kalevala tradition. His main themes are
love and nature, and poem collections such as Helkavirsiä
(Helka-hymns, 1903), Halla (Frost, 1908) which includes the
wonderful love/nature poem Nocturne, and Hymyilevä Apollo (The
Smiling Apollo) are still much-loved. V. A. Koskenniemi often
turned to classical themes. Uuno Kailas wrote harsh,
self-analytic verse, whereas Kaarlo Sarkia sought solace in
aestheticism and fantasy. The personal, abrupt, and humorous
poetry of Aaro Hellaakoski and the equally humorous, learned,
yet folklike verse of P. Mustapää were only appreciated after
1945. The generation of the 1950s, including Paavo Haavikko and
Eeva-Liisa Manner, introduced new poetic forms to which their
successors often added absurd humor, formalist experimentation,
and social criticism.
Modern writers in Swedish
Finland-Swedish modernism was introduced by Edith Södergran
(1892-1923). She didn't receive much recognition in her
lifetime, but is now regarded one of Finland's foremost poets.
She was first influenced by French symbolism, then German
expressionism and Russian futurism, and creatively applied
these to her own poetry. Her free rhythm, strong, challenging
images fired by a Nietzschean self-conscience and conviction of
the importance of her message were new and baffling to the
Finnish audience, and she was almost without exception
misunderstood and even ridiculed. Her first collection of poems
was Dikter (Poems, 1916), which was followed by Rosenaltaret
(The Rose Altar, 1919) and Landet som icke är (The land that is
not, 1925) among others. Always physically weak and somewhat
sickly, she died young just as she was starting to get
followers. Among these the most important were Elmer Diktonius
(1896-1961), Gunnar Björling (1887-1960) and Rabbe Enckell
(1903-74).
In recent years writers such as Märta & Henrik Tikkanen, Kjell
Westö (b. 1961) and others have proved that the size of a
linguistic minority has very little to do with the quality of
its literature.
The author Tove Jansson (b. 1914) has won much international
fame for her creation of the Moomins, philosophical-minded,
friendly trolls who live in Moominvalley. There are many books
on their adventures, e. g. Muminpappan och Havet (Moominpappa
and the Sea). Her fantasy world charms with its richness,
inventiveness and wisdom of life spiced with witty humor. The
events and imagery flow freely and uninhibited, yet reflecting
the phenomena of the real world.
Modern writers in Finnish
Joel Lehtonen, Volter Kilpi, and especially Frans Eemil
Sillanpää (1888-1964) dominated naturalistic prose in the first
half of the 20th century. Sillanpää was awarded the 1939 Nobel
Prize for literature for the book Silja, nuorena nukkunut
(Silja, Fallen Asleep While Young, 1931). Also important are
Toivo Pekkanen, who wrote about the plight of industrial
workers, and Pentti Haanpää, who portrayed with a bitter but
defiant humor the struggle of humans against harsh nature in
northern Finland.
After World War II, Väinö Linna had great success with the
novel Tuntematon Sotilas (The Unknown Soldier, 1954) which
played a part in the healing of the wounds of the war and is
read by almost every Finnish schoolkid. The extensive use of
dialects make the book quite impossible to translate;
translations into English and many other languages do exist,
but cannot be recommended very highly (although I hear the
Swedish one is pretty good). His other major work is the
trilogy Täällä pohjantähden alla (Here Under the North Star,
1959-62), a story of the struggles of poor farmers that
culminated in the Civil War of 1918. More recently, Veijo Meri
has described the violence and absurdity of human life,
especially during times of war.
Mika Waltari (1908-79) is among the Finnish prose writers best
known to an international audience. He wrote his most
successful novels in the 1940s and 50's, many of them on
historical subjects; among these is Sinuhe egyptiläinen (The
Egyptian, 1945), a novel set in ancient Egypt, about the
collapse of traditional ways of life and the inflation of
inherited values. It's also been filmed into a dreary Hollywood
spectacle.
From the 1960s, social issues became central to the young
novelists and poets. Hannu Salama went through a famous trial
for blasphemy (after which the blasphemy laws were repealed)
for his novel Juhannustanssit (Juhannus Dances, 1964). Pentti
Saarikoski was the leading poet of the 60's. Often better
remembered for his for his unhealthy lifestyle, Saarikoski was
nevertheless one of the most genial poets in Finnish and a
brilliant translator of e. g. Homer and Joyce. Such younger
writers as as Alpo Ruuth and Antti Tuuri have also dealt with
social issues.
Another author who has long been very popular in Finland and
has started to win international fame recently is the humorist
Arto Paasilinna; Jäniksen Vuosi (The Year of the Hare, 1974),
is the story of an advertising man who gets sick of urban life
and escapes to the wilderness with his pet hare.
For electronic versions of some of the works of Nordic
literature, see the collection of Project Runeberg:
+ Icelandic Literature
+ Literature from the Viking Age
+ Medieval Nordic Literature
+ Danish Literature
+ Norwegian Literature
+ Literature of Finland
+ Literature from the Age of Liberty [ in Sweden and Finland
(1719-1772) ]
[ the sections above are available at the www-page
http://www.lysator.liu.se/nordic/scn/faq47.html ]
------------------------------
Subject: 4.8 Dictionaries and other study-material
BOOKS USEFUL FOR LEARNING FINNISH (Version 2.3)
Many thanks to all those who have contributed and commented on
this list. As usual any additions, corrections, and other
comments should be mailed to .
This list contains works which may be found useful for learning
Finnish - either whether by self-study or other means. Some
works are directed towards teachers rather than students. Older
works are retained as these are often the ones that will be
stumbled across in libraries.
INDEX
Grammars, Primers, Phrase Books.
Dictionaries
Readers
Materials for Teaching Finnish
Miscellaneous
Course Details
Acknowledgements
4.8.1 Grammars, primers, phrase books
Maija-Hellikki Aaltio: Finnish for Foreigners (1963)
A good book to work through, it teaches grammar and
vocabulary in small chunks with plenty of grammatical exercises
and reading exercises. The emphasis on obtaining a practical
command of the language (even if mainly a reading knowledge)
makes it very useful. I think there may well be an updated
version available these days. A new edition is now available. [NOM]
Maija-Hellikki Aaltio: Finnish for Foreigners (1987):
Finnish for Foreigners 1 Textbook
Finnish for Foreigners 1 Exercises
Finnish for Foreigners 2 Textbook
Finnish for Foreigners 2 Exercises
Finnish for Foreigners 3 Textbook
[ There are also 2 cassettes per book giving aural
versions of the chapter readers and listening
exercises for the exercise books. ]
I find these books OK for learning progressively, and the
reference tables in the back are more useful as a quick grammar
reference than Fred Karlsson's book, however there are two
distinct drawbacks:
1. It is very difficult to find anything in the books, e.g. if
you decide you want to check up a particular grammatical
feature or item of vocabulary.
2. The texts are getting a bit out of date (they're quite
sixties/seventies in their topics and attitudes in places).
[Matthew Faupel]
A complete revision of the original 1963 book which
bore the same title, this has long been the standard work
for teaching Finnish to English-speaking foreigners. The
book is slightly dated with respect to language teaching
methodology, but it takes the student from the basics to
a solid command of the language. The 1987 edition devotes
considerable attention to the peculiarities of spoken Finnish.
[Eugene Holman]
J. Atkinson: Finnish Grammar (Helsinki, 1956)
A course in Finnish grammar for the learner. It concentrates
on explaining the grammar and thus contains only a
few short reading passages and a very limited vocabulary.
Michael Branch et al: A Student's Glossary of Finnish: The Literary
Language Arranged by Frequency and Alphabet (Werner Soderstrom
Osakeyhtio, Porvoo, 1980)
1200 items, graded and accompanied by morphological
information. Glossed in several languages, including English.
[Lance Eccles]
Berlitz Finnish for Travellers
Various editions in various languages.
A typical inexpensive Berlitz pocket language guide.
Like all the these guides, it of great help unless you actually
know a little bit already, but then it is very helpful for
vocabulary in various situations - especially menus. [NOM]
Björn Collinder: A Handbook of the Uralic Languages. Part 2. Survey of
the Uralic Languages (Stockholm, 1957) [This may have been
issued separately entitled "A Finnish Primer".]
Although a book aimed at compartative linguists, the Finnish
section contains a graded grammatical introduction together
with reading passages and a vocabulary. I have seen this Finnish
section as a separate pamphlet but without any publication
details. [NOM]
Artem Davdijants Inge Davidjants, Eugene Holman, Riitta Koivisto-Arhinmäki:
Terve, Suomi! Conversational Finnish in video ( Helsinki/Tallinn
1992)
This is the first attempt to produce an audiovisual
course in Finnish. The course consists of a 45-minute video
(VHS-PAL) dramatization of a trip to Finland, a 60-minutte
audio cassette, and a 140-page textbook. The English version
is a translation and expansion of the Estonian original. The
course was produced under difficult circumstances during the
last days of Soviet Estonia, and it has some unfortunate
shortcomings. Nevertheless, it represents a totally new
approach to presenting and teaching Finnish as a foreign langauge.
Contact for further information.
[Eugene Holman]
Eugene Holman: Handbook of Finnish Verbs. 231 Finnish verbs
conjugated in all tenses (Finnish Literature Society, 1984)
Modelled on the famous Barrons 201 Verbs series, this
book contains a detailed discussion of all the regularities
and peculiarities of Finnish verb morphology, in
addition to which it has information on the cases used in
conjunction with more than 1200 Finnish verbs.
Eugene Holman: Finnmorf (1986)
An MS-DOS computer program which generates
all the forms of a Finnish verb, noun, adjective, numeral
or pronoun if given the dictionary form. It is thus a computer
emulation of a handbook of Finnish inflectional morphology.
Particularly useful for teachers of Finnish because it
quickly produces neatly formatted full paradigms
which can be saved as text files for further editing. Available
as freeware upon request from .
[Eugene Holman].
Leena Horton: First Finnish (Helsinki, 1982)
Teaches a very basic knowledge of Finnish with a limited
vocabulary through pictures. There are no grammatical
explanations beyond the translations in the vocabularies for
each chapter. This book was designed for use with children in a
classroom situation. [NOM]
Mirja Joro et al.: Askelia Suomeen (Ammattikasvatushallitus,
Helsinki, 1985-86)
Four slim vols, all in Finnish, and intended for
newcomers to Finland. [Lance Eccles]
Fred Karlsson: Finnish Grammar (tr Andrew Chesterman, WSOY,
Porvoo-Helsinki-Juva, 1983).
Finnish edition: Suomen peruskielioppi (1982)
Swedish edition: Finsk grammatik (1978).
Karrlsson systematically covers the grammar of Finnish. This
is an excellent book - the grammar rules are easy to read and
understand and numerous examples are given. The book uses a very
clear and understandable style of layout. However, it is a
grammar and will need to be used in conjunction with other
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