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Severi Nuormaa (1865-1924) - surname until 1906 Nyman |
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Finnish journalist, educator and poet, who assisted the poet Arvid Genetz (1848-1915) during his journeys in Carelia and East-Russia. Severi Nuormaa was influenced among others by the Swedish poet Viktor Rydberg (1828-1895), whose lyrics he translated into Finnish. During the period from the late 19th-century to the early 20th-century, when Russian government started to integrate Finland more firmly with the rest of the Empire, Nuormaa's patriotic works had a deep influence on public opinion and strengthened opposition against Russian rule. Nyt valitkaa! Nyt valitkaa! Severi
Nuormaa was born in Pälkäne, the son of Reinhold Nyman,
a blacksmith and farmer, and Helena Salomontytär from Ruokola, the daughter of a blacksmith. Reinhold Nyman gained
fame as a blacksmit but he never became wealthy. In a poem, 'My
Father' (Niin olkoon,
1915) Nuormaa
depicts him, toiling in the hot smithy, all over in a sweat, he carries
his son back home with his strong arms. To his mother, who was
a deeply religious woman, and read him the Bible, Nuormaa wrote:
"Kiitos sulle, kantajani, / Vaalijani, neuvojain! / Ohjett' olen monta
saanut, / Kallihimmat sulta sain." ('Äidilleni,' in Kotoisilla rannoilla: runoja by Severi Nyman, Helsingissä: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava, 1895) At primary school, Nuormaa's sharp mind and
eagerness to learn caught the attention of his teachers,
who encouraged him to continue his studies. Although the family was
poor, his parents decided to send him to Helsinki and Hämeenlinna for
higher education. Nuormaa graduted from the Hämeenlinna lyceum in
1888. The next
year, he
travelled with the linguist Arvid Genetz in Eastern Russia, collecting
folklore and linguistic material. Their journey to the Urals took half
a year, and Nuormaa wrote during this period some of his earlies poems,
such as 'Näköala Kremliltä' (1889) – "Käyn pyhään Kremliin. Portin
aukiossa / Pois hatun nostan minäkin. / Mä astun Iivan Veliikii
torniin, jossa / Saa nähdä yli kaupungin." – and 'Näköala Uralin
vuorilta' (1889), both published in Kotoisilta rannoilta (1895). Between the years
1891 and 1893, Nuormaa edited the newspaper Hämeen Sanomat. In 1893, Nuormaa received his M.A. from the University of Helsinki. He then worked as a director of Etelä-Häme folk high school (1894-1898), resigning when the newspaper Hämetär criticized his teaching. Upon founding the Worker's Institute of Tampere, he became its first director. In 1894, Nuorvala married Hilja Dagmar Ernestine Wendell, the daughter of a district police superintendent, who was politically active in the passive resistance movement against Russia. She also participated in many ways in municipal politics in Turku. To collect material for his doctoral thesis, Nuormaa visited the universities of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan, Copenhagen, and Uppsala. A highly popular and outspoken orator, his speeches arose suspicion among Russian authorities, who had started campaign to restrict freedoms. He also angered clerical circles in 1902, when he accused the Church of forgetting the oppressed. "Kuinka kova ja kylmä onkaan se uskon käsitys, joka tahtoo lyödä jo lyötyä, sortaa jo ennestään sorrettua! Kuvittelen mielessäni maassa makaavan sidotun raukan, jota piestään ja tallataan, ja jonkun uskonnon kannalta vaientavan kärsivän liikahduksia: olet paha, nöyristy, nöyristy! Epäilemättä Jumala sanoisi moiselle lohduttajalle, niinkuin hän sanoin Jobin ystäville: te ette ole oikein minuista puhuneet." ('Heikkojen waiko wäkewien Jumala?' by Severi Nyman, Aamulehti, No. 103, May 6, 1902) After General-Governor Bobrikov received several
letters from informers, Nuormaa
was dismissed from his office at the Worker's
Institute of Tampere. To avoid arrest, he left the country. Between
the years 1903 and 1905, Nuormaa lived with his wife and three children
in the United States. With Eero Erkko, also exiled, he edited the Amerikan
Kaiku
(American Echo) in
New York. The newspaper was founded in 1904, its circulation was 4,000
copies. For a short time, the Amerikan Kaiku was a leader among
immigrant papers,
partly thanks to
Nuormaa's humorous sketches, which he wrote under the pseudonym
'Rannanjärven Jukka'. Following his return back to Finland, Nuormaa edited the
newspapers Tampereen Sanomat (1905) and Helsingin Sanomat
(1906-09). He also wrote for the magazine Kodin
Kuvasto, (1911-1914), and then for the newspaper Turun Sanomat
(1919-24). While
in Tampere, he frequented the City Hotel restaurant near Tampere
Cathedral, where Hugo Simberg was finishing his frescoes. In the
aftermath of the Sveaborg rebellion, when the government tightened its
control over the press, Nuormaa took a vacation from Helsingin Sanomat,
and went to Berlin; the staff raised questions about his leadership.
Moreover, he
entered into conflict with Eero Erkko. After resigning from his post,
Nuormaa left Helsinki for
Turku. In the last decade of his life, Nuormaa worked as the
director of
the Finnish Workers's Institute of Turku (1908-1918). At one point, the
institute was put under the surveillance of the tsarist police. His
students at the Turku Finnish Classical Lyceum included Martti Haavio,
the future poet P. Mustapää and professor
of folklore at the University of Helsinki. The period, during which Nuormaa published his major works, was marked by resistance to Russification policies (Finland was an autonomous Grand Duchy in the Russian Empire). National themes dominated literature, and deep tensions and social unrest burst into the surface with the Great Strike of 1905. In the wake of the great name change of 1906, he Finnicized his surname from Nyman to Nuormaa. His son Arvi, a journalist and translator, recalled once in an article, that his father was totally unmusical and had great troubles with the rhythm. Thus, while writing a poem, he often drummed a metronomic rhythm on the table with his finger. Among Nuormaa's close friends in Helsinki was Eino Leino, a master Finnish poetic forms, who greatly influenced his writing. Nuormaa published seven collections of poems. The first, Kotoisilla rannoilla, came out under the name Severi Nyman. It ws followed by Runoja: uusi sarja (1900), Seitsemän runoa (1902), and Elämän ulapoilla (1904), which was printed in the United States. These collections are characterized by enthusiastic patriotism, forcible rhythms, and belief in the power of the word. From 1906 to 1908, Nuormaa served as chairman of the Writers' Association. Juhani Aho was not impressed by Nuormaa's Runoja: uusi sarja, but some lines in two of the poems ('Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuran talossa' and 'Zilon') prompted him to suggest
that they should be set to music by Jean Sibelius. ('Severi Nyman: Runoja. Uusi sarja' by J. A., Päivälehti, No. 148, 27 November, 1901) A reviewer in the magazine Valvoja
stated that the patriotic poems will surely resonate with the readers. "Tuntee
että tekijä puhuu vakaumuksella ja sydämen kyllyydestä. Niissä henkii
luja luottamus oikeuden lopulliseen voittoon, syvä isänmaallisuus ja
vankka vapaudenrakkaus." ('Severi Nyman, Runoja, Uusi sarja' by F. H – g., Valvoja, 1901, p. 661) Nuormaa
published also studies, and translated into Finnish works from such
authors as Alexander Petöfi (1892) and Viktor Rydberg (1896). Niin olkoon (1915), a collection of poems, was heavily criticized by V. A. Koskenniemi: "Severi Nuormaan uuden kokoelman nimi, joka tuo mieleen jotakin aivan toista kuin runoutta, on yhtä vähän onnistunut kuin kansilehti, joka tuo mieleen vanhanaikaisen hautauskonfektin. Itse runoilla on yhtä vähän tekemistä edellisen kuin jälkimäisen kanssa." ('Uutta runoutta' by V. A. K., Uusi Suometar, No. 316, 19 November, 1915) The Finnish Civil War (1917-18) left Nuormaa politically disillusioned. Some of his friends were killed, and as a poet he felt he had lived past his own time. Following the defeat of the Reds, Nuormaa resingned
from his office at the workers'
institute. For a short time, he
edited in Helsinki the military propaganda magazine Sotilas-Viikkolehti
(Soldier Weekly Magazine).
As
a humanist, who read Homer, Horace, and Heinrich Heine, and associated
with writers and artists, Nuormaa was not happy with this kind of
assignment.
Much of his free time he spent in the company of Leino and Larin-Kyösti, discussing poetry and the life. On the invitation of Arvo Ketonen, the managing director of Turun Sanomat, an influential
regional newspaer, Nuormaa returned to Turku to work as its editor in
chief.
During the last years of his life, he became interested in Theosophy. Severi Nuormaa died of pneumonia on June 11, 1924, in Turku. A postcard greetings, which his friend Eino Leino had sent him, arrived a few days later, with the question is he still writing: "Vieläkö helskytät, hei, / tätä suomesi soipoa kieltä: / Veljesi Eino Leino." 'Severi Nuormaa' by Matti Kuusi, in Aleksis Kivestä Martti Merenmaahan: suomalaisten kirjailijain elämäkertoja, Porvoo: WSOY, 1954, p. 313) Risti ja runo (1922),
Nuormaa's final book, was more personal than the previous collections,
which were coloured by
political and social upheavals. His daughter Sirkka Ruotsalainen
became the first editor of the Finnish Donald Duck magazine (Aku Ankka). Today, Nuormaa is
mostly forgotten. The literary scholar Jaakko Ahokas says briefly in A History of Finnish Literature
(1973), that he "published a few collections of poetry between 1985 and
1922." (Ibid., p. 169) His name is not
mentioned in A History of Finland's
Literature (1998), edited by George C. Schoolfield. For further reading: 'Severi Nuormaa,' in Uudempi suomalainen kirjallisuus. II: murrosten aika (realismi ja uusromantiikka) by O. A. Kallio (1929); 'Severi Nuormaa' by Matti Kuusi, in Aleksis Kivestä Martti Merenmaahan: suomalaisten kirjailijain elämäkertoja (1954); Severi Nuormaa: Kansansivistäjä, sanomalehtimies, runoilija by Urho Verho (1956); Suomen kirjallisuus. 4: Minna Canthista Eino Leinoon, ed. by Matti Kuusi, Simo Konsala (1965); 'Routavuosien Severi Nuormaa' by Marja Niiniluoto, in Helsingin Sanomat (15.10.1965); Aikuiskasvattaja Severi Nuormaa by Matti Peltonen (1981); Augustan tanssikenkä: eräitä Pirkanmaalla eläneitä kynäniekkoja 1811-1942: sana-assemblaaseja by Kari Aronpuro (2003); Matkan määränä kansan menestys by Raimo Vahtera (2004); Kansan, sivistyksen tähden: Severi Nuormaan vaiheita kansallisen murroksen vuosina by Mauri Nest (2005); Valistajia, sivistäjiä, poliitikkoja ja asiantuntijoita: näkökulmia aikuiskasvatuksen kentän vaikuttajiin, edited by Kari Kantasalmi ja Mauri Nest (2014); Loistavat Erkot: patruunat ja heidän päätoimittajansa by Antti Blåfield (2014) - Note: Oskar Merikanto's song 'Kuin hiipuva hiillos' was based on Nuormaa's poem, Selim Palmgren set several of his poems to music. Selected works:
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