Finnish Fairy Tales

by Parker Fillmore

The spirit of nationalism that swept over the small peoples of Europe in the early nineteenth century touched faraway Finland and started the Finns on the quest of the Finnish. There as elsewhere scholars who were also patriots found that the native tongue, lost to the educated and the well-to-do, had been preserved in the songs and stories which were current among the peasants. Elias Lönnrot spent a long and busy life collecting those ancient runos from which he succeeded in building up a national epic, the Kalevala. This is Lönnrot’s great contribution to his own country and to the world. Beside the material for the Kalevala Lönnrot made important collections of lyrics, proverbs, and stories.
During his time and since other patriot scholars have made faithful records of the songs and tales which the old Finnish minstrels, the runolaulajat, chanted to the strains of the kantele. The mass of such material now gathered together in the archives of the Society of Finnish Literature at Helsingfors is imposing in bulk and of great importance to the student of comparative folklore.

Genres: Folklore, Fairy Tales, Short Stories, Fantasy

103 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1922

About the author

Parker Hoysted Fillmore

Reviews

[Izabela Raittila · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Finnish mythology and folklore so I was keen to check out this book. The tales are well written and entertaining. The narrative style is fairly straight forward, making it ideal for those new to Finnish myths or for reading as a bedtime stories to your children. My personal favorites were 'Mighty Mikko', 'The Devil's Hide' and 'Little Sister'. I was familiar with the animal stories having read some of them to my children when they were little. The one about the porridge was hilarious.

My only criticism is the author's decision to alter/ anglicize the character names to make them more pronounceable to non Finnish readers. Not only was this unnecessary, it also took away some of authenticity of the tales. For example, the name Suyettar looks exotic to a non-Finnish speaker but has no meaning. Whereas the original name of the monster, Syöjätär roughly translates as "devouress" or "man-eater" giving the reader a good indication of how dangerous this creature is to humans. A better way of doing it would have been to keep the original and add the term "man-eater" in brackets or as part of a glossary.

Despite this, I would still recommend the book to fans of mythology and folkore.

[Luca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great wait to look at the Finnish folk tradition since the stories show some of their culture and traditions. The book has two sections. In the first, we have a series of folktales that shares some similarities with the Russian folklore but also have lots of unique features. In the second, we meet a series of stories about Mighty Mikko and all the forest animal. I did not find these stories as engaging and beautiful as the first ones.

In conclusion, this book deserves a place in the library of anybody who has interesting in folktales and wants to know more about Finland and his tradition.

[Camilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I personally loved this little book - as a fan of mythology and legend generally, this is as pleasantly entertaining as the rest. The forward does not hide that several of these myths and folklore echo other well-known stories from other cultures, and it was fun to discover them in the narrative.

A fun and worthy little read.

[ByTheFire · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my Go-To book to read / reread while traveling-- first to Finland during the cold winter waits on train platforms - and then through the long summer tarmac delays from "the airline that will not be named."
Solid, escapist storytelling!

[Jazzy Lemon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brutal! but isn't that what we love about these fairy tales?

[Jen Richmond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kiitos!

I'm in the process of educating myself about my Finnish roots. This book of folk and fairy tales was thoroughly enjoyable.

[Jessica Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh my, it's not bowdlerized, it's Anglicized

Not only did the author anglicize, he edited them to make them 'accessible'. All this by his own admission! Still, there are some new ones here, and the writing isn't bad either. If you just like to read tales, give it a try.

[Rauan · Rating 4 out of 5]

the fox in the first story is one of my favorite characters i've encountered in a long time... in fact i've mentioned him in my new year's resolutions which i've just posted up on to my blog....