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August (Engelbrekt) Ahlqvist (1826-1889) - wrote also as A. Oksanen |
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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). August Ahlqvist's harsh writings greatly contributed to
Kivi's
mental collapse and his early death at the age of 38. At his best,
Ahlqvist himself was not an unskilful poet, although he admitted his
inability to express finer feelings. After Kivi's death, Oksanen
published a lampoon on him, calling the author "an incompetent
scribbler and a mad drunk". "Runoilijaks" ma ristittiin, August Ahlqvist was born in Kuopio, an illegitimate child of
Maria Augustina Ahlqvist (1806-1886; originally Maria Elisabeth Kinnunen), a country servant, and Johan
Mauritz Nordenstam (1802-82). Maria changed her last name to Swedish when she moved to Kuopio. Ahlqvist's father was 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. 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. Due to his backgroung, Ahlqvist experienced in his youthall kinds of embittering humiliations, which poisoned his existence. 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. Fredrik, his younger brother, became a successful book printer and translator of folk literature. Fredrik's father was Alexander Jakob Wendt, a young officer, who had a distinguished career in the Army. During the years in Kuopio, Ahlqvist began to contribute under
the pseudonym A. Oksanen (old ortography: qvist = oksa; twig in English) to the magazine Saimaa. It was edited
by J.V. Snellman, one of his early benefactors, 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 hard working peasants, who represented values that were healthy in Finnish tradition. It is the task of the poets to bring those values into being. In 'Suomalainen sonetti' (Finnish Sonnet) he wrote: "Ei tainnut vanha Väinämöinen luulla, / Ett' oisi kenkään laulajoista meillä / Soveltuva sonettien siteillä / Runon tekoon Kalevalaisten kuulla." (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.) (Säkeniä.: Kokous runoelmia by A. Oksanen, Helsinki: G. W. Edlund, fifth edition 1898, p. 13; with the introduction 'August Ahlqvist (Oksanen) by E. N. Setälä) 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. A scholarship enabled him to
travel in Estonia and in northern Russia and Siberia. 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). The St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences awarded him with the prestigious Demidov Prize. In 1863, after Elias Lönnrot, Ahlqvist was appointed
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." Ahlqvist edited in the early 1870s
the linguistic and literary paper Kieletär. From 1884 to
1887 he was chancellor of the university. 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. Consequently, he rejected with disgust Kivi's earthy novel Seitsemän veljestä. In addition to Kivi, Ahlqvist criticized A. W. Ingman, Yrjö Koskinen, C. A. Gottlund, G. E. Eurén, and Rietrikki Polén. His slashing, satirical attacks were more mean-spirited than funny. "Nuo hänen katkeruuden- ja vihanpurkauksensa kuvastavat elävästi erästä puolta hänen intohimoisessa ja särmikkäässä olemuksessaan. Ne osoittavat satiirin ja yleensä antipatian vallinneen voimakkaasti hänen tunne-elämäänsä." (Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden historia by V. Tarkiainen, Helsingissä: Otava, 1934, p. 185) In his handbook on Finnish prosody, Suomalainen runous-oppi kielelliseltä kannalta (1863), he
stated that where the word stress and length correspond are
metrically strongest, hence they must make their effect together. This work was influenced by Rudolp von Gottschall's Poetik: Die Dichtkunst und ihre Technik (1858). Among
his lyrical works published under the pseudonym A. Oksanen are the
"etnographic dream" Satu(1847),
in which his prediction that Finland
would one day be independent and united with her Finno-Ugric sisters
managed to by-pass the censorship. Ahlqvist's only work of poetry, Säkeniä, was published in revised and expanded editions after it first appeared (I 1860, II 1868; 1874, 1881). During the
interwar period of 1918-1939, Ahlqvist's poem 'Suomen valta' (The Finnish dominion) was
often cited by supporters of Greater Finland ideology, who also held a
strongly racialist views. Its line, "one mind, one language"
chrystallized the vision of a linguistically homogenized country, where
Finnish was the dominant language. Ahlqvist wrote the first Finnish-language sonnet, 'Suomalainen
sonetti' (1854) and the first Finnish-language poetic ballad,
'Koskenlaskijan morsiamet,' which was set to music by the composer Jean
Sibelius. 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. Oksanen claimed that the Swedes
had brought culture and civilisation to
Finland, and in addition, he denied the originality of Russian culture. Even
in his own time, Ahlqvist's aesthetics and elitist ideological
doctrines did not respond to the contemporary political currents,
especially to the challenge posed by Fennoman intellectuals, who argued
that maybe Sweden owed a debt of gratitude to Finland and Finland one
to Russia ('Commemoration of Swedish History of
Finland' by Max Engman, in Transnationale
Erinnerungsorte: Nord- und südeuropäische Perspektiven, Berlin: Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, ed. by
Bernd Henningsen et al., 2009, p. 58) "Nouse, lennä, Suomen kieli, / Korkeallen kaikumaan!" Oksanen said in 'Suomen valta.' (Rise, fly, Finnish languge, / Echo high above!) (Säkeniä, 1881, p. 5) Eino Leino concluded that at the core of Ahlqvist's patriotic poetry was the Finnish language, and nothing else. "Runeberg oli toisin sanoen hänelle täydellisyys, jossa hän ei nähnyt mitään muuta puutettakuin yhden: sen, että tämä oli kirjoittanut ruotsinkielellä. Ja siinäpä hän näkeekin oman ynnä muun suomenkielisenrunouden ainoan oikeutuksen ja johtotähden. . . . Oksasen isänmaallisen runouden ytimeksi jäi siis vain kieli." (Suomalaisia kirjailijoita: pikakuvia by Eino Leino, Helsingissä: Otava, 1909, pp. 39-40) As a literary critic Ahlqvist was uncompromising and querulous – he avoided sentimentality and did not much care what other people thought of his opinions. Often at odds with his contemporaries and well aware of his double nature, hard and sensitive, he wrote: "Yks' perkele, / Yks' enkeli / Asuvat sydämessäni; / Ne taistelee / Ja kamppailee, / Yks' toistaan voittaa koettelee." (One devil, / one angel, / dwell in my heart) ('Sydämeni asukkaat,' in Säkeniä.: Kokous runoelmia, p. 193) There was always a thread of mercilessness and hatred in his aphorisms, too. He admired the epigrams of the Roman poet Martial (Marcus Valerius Martialis), which he also modified, as in 'Eräälle maecenatille': "Maecenas olisit sinäkin, vaan kahta sä puutut: / Taidetta tunne et, etk' ole myös rahamies." (Säkeniä.: Kokous runoelmia, p. 179) The target of the poem was possibly Professor Fredrik Cygnaeus, a patron of Finnish artists ("you don't know art"). Ahlqvist published his first attacks on the novel Seitsemän veljestä in Swedish to gain more audience for his views. The first review appeared in the magazine Finlands Allmänna Tidning in 1870 and the second in 1873, after Kivi's death. He did not accept the author's realism and dismissed the novel as ugly, raw, and boring; Kivi ridiculed religious beliefs and his unpolished language was an insult to the good taste. These
malicious writings did not spark a passion in Kivi's close friends to
stand up and defend the author – moreover, Runeberg did not read the
novel but took Ahlqvist's side. The
third article, in Finnish, was printed in 1874 in Kieletär.
Ahlqvist had not reversed his opinion: the novel was ridiculous and
shameful, and its description of life couldn't be considered artistic
by any sane person. "Teos on sekä naurettava että hävettävä, sitä ei
voi salata. Erittäin on se vielä Suomen talonpoikaista kansaa häpäisevä
siten, että se on olevinaan ja sen on sanottu olevan kuvaus
kansanelämästä, joka on tehty luonnon mukaan. Ei mikään ole niin vähän
totta kuin tämmöinen luuletus. Kiven tässä "kertomuksessa" antamat
töhtäykset eivät ole kuvauksia enemmän suomalaisesta kuin mistään
muustakaan kansanelämästä, eikä ylipäätään mistään tämän maan päällä liikkuvasta elämästä;
ne ovat vaan harhateille joutuneen kuvastinaistin säännöttömiä
kangastuksia, joita täysjärkinen ihminen ei millään lailla voi kutsua
taiteentuottamiksi." ('Seitsemän Veljestä, tehnyt A. Kivi,' in Kieletär: Tutkimuksia, arvosteluja ja muistutuksia by Aug. Ahlqvist, Helsingissä: C. J. Frenckell, 1874, p. 50) August 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. Ahlqvist was not a bad poet but his acting as the "literary hangman" of Kivi cast a long shadow over his posthumous reputation. For further reading: 'August Oksanen', Suomalaisia kirjailijoita: pikakuvia by Eino Leino (1909, 2nd. ed. 1893); August Ahlqvist runoilijana, arvostelijana ja tyyliniekkana. 1. Runoilijana by Aukusti Simelius (1914); Aleksis Kivi aikalaistensa arvostelemana by J. V. Lehtonen (1931); Ankara puutarhuri: August Ahlqvist suomen kielen ja kirjallisuuden arvostelijana by Ilmari Kohtamäki (1956); A History of Finnish Literature by Jaakko Ahokas (1973); Suomen kieli, suomen mieli: August Ahlqvist vaikuttajana, ed. Jaakko Anhava (1993); 'Academic Poets' by Kai Laitinen, in A History of Finland's Literature, ed. George C. Schoolfield (1998); Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura: 1831-1892 by Irma Sulkunen (2004); Satiiri Suomessa by Sari Kivistö & H. K. Riikonen (2012); Suomen sillan kulkijoita: yhteyksiä yli Suomenlahden 1800-luvulla by Seppo Zetterberg (2015); 'Mitä eroavuudet voivat kertoa: Aleksis Kivi ja A. Oksanen runoilijoina' by Hannu Riikonen, in Joutsen: kotimaisen kirjallisuudentutkimuksen vuosikirja 3, Erikoisjulkaisuja 3 (2020); Perkeleitä ja enkeleitä: Ahlqvistien maailmat by Antti Pirinen (2022); ''August Ahlqvist (A. Oksanen),' in Runouden ylistys: suomenkielisen runouden tie Mikael Agricolasta 2000-luvulle by Hannu Mäkelä (2024). Selected works:
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