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J(osef) J(ulius) Wecksell (1838 - 1907) |
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The most talented postromantic Swedish speaking writer in Finland, whose best-known work is the tragedy Daniel Hjort, staged in 1862. J.J. Wecksell broke down at the age of 24 and lived the rest of his life at the Lapinlahti mental hospital. Before his illness, Wecksell also published poems. "Att våga eller icke är det första, Josef Julius Wecksell was born in Turku, the son of Johan
Wecksell,
a hat maker, and Sofia Ulrika Björkelund. Wecksell's father had no
formal education, but both of his
parents were culturally
active – they spoke French, had a piano, and were interested in
theatre. Sofia Ulrika had a lifetime interest in Swedenborg's
teachings. There was no permanent theatre in Turku, but touring groups
vivited the city. The family lived first at 10 Brunnsgatan, and then
moved to 5 Nylandsgatan. At the age of 12 Wecksell had made his own theatre of paper dolls. A litte later, he began to try his hand at writing poems, some of which were religious or had anecdotal or erotic character, and collected them in booklets. "Vita häften" (White booklet), dated from 1853, was titled Julles Pojkar verser af J.J. Vecksell. He also had black, green and other booklets. When he was sixteen, his play Tre friare (Three suitors), was performed in Turku and then in Helsinki, and later in Stockholm. A hundred years later it was adapted into a radio play. In his youth, Wecksell contributed to Åbo Underrättelser
and Åbo Tidningar.
He had his own period of Wertherism before concentrating on the history
and fate of his own country. His artist friends included August Fredrik
Ahlstedt, Berndt Lindholm, and Walter Runeberg. Wecksell knew many
German poems by heart and recited them for Runeberg, who sculpted
a portrait of him. Wecksell's early patriotic poems followed the models set by J.L. Runeberg. During his 'Sturm-und-Drang' period he read Heine and Schiller, and also wrote a poem to his memory. Wecksell's first love was his 12-year old cousin, Ida Fock, who died in 1855. Wecksell devoted to her the poem 'Barnet bland grafvarna.' Inspired by Byron, he wrote 'Don Juans avsked från lived', in which the hero bids his farewell to the world. His love poems composed for "Helmi" (The pearl) were inspired by the beautiful Constance Wilhelmina Lundström, who married in 1863 Robert Montgomery. After graduating from Åbo gynmnasium, Wecksell entered the
University of Helsinki in 1858. Aleksis Kivi
studied there, too, but Wecksell joined the circle around Walfrid
Alftan, and associated more with artists than writers. His first major
play was Två studenter på runosamling (1859). Before writing Daniel Hjort, he had finished a
tragedy entitled Skuggornas hämnd
in 1861, but he was not satisfied with it. At the suggestion of his
teacher Fredrik Cygnaeus, he translated a part of Goethe's play Torquato Tasso. Although the Russian officials had forbidden student organizations – they were considered potentially subversive – Wecksell participated in underground meetings. He admired the Italian freedom fighter Garibaldi, whom he saw as a symbol of constitutional ideals. Wecksell's poem 'Italienaren' was dedicated to Garibaldi, whose portrait decorated students' assembly room. Another hero was the explorer G.A. Wallin, for whom Wecksell wrote a poem starting with the words: "På öknens slätter i natten / en beduin framfar, / kamelen vaggar sakta / och himmeln tindrar klar." Shakespeare's works influenced deeply Wecksell's writing – he read them in Swedish translation, published in 1847-1851. Wecksell's first collection of verse was Valda ungdomsdikter
(1860, Selected youthful poems). He sent a copy of the book to J.L.
Runeberg, who he had met briefly met at a wedding in Lovisa and then in
Borgå. Unfortunately, the work was published in the
same year as the long awaited second part of Runeberg's highly
popular Fänrik
Ståls sägner
(1848-1860); all attention focused on the sequel. Wecksell was one of Jean Sibelius' favorite poets. Sibelius used his lyrics in several of his songs, among them 'Demanten på marssnön' (The diamond on the snow in March), composed in 1900, and 'Var det en dröm?' (Was it a dream?) from 1902. When Wecksell had earlier preferred to write his verses freely, enjoying rhyming, his attitude toward writing became more serious and professional. From this period came Wecksell's poem 'Svenskan och Finskan' (Swedish and Finnish), one of the first texts dealing with language question: the educated elite was Swedish speaking, whereas the majority of the population spoke Finnish as their native tongue. After
being treated for a veneral disease, Wecksell was declared to be cured,
but his mental strength was fading fast. He worked feverishly with his
most famous drama Daniel Hjort,
about good intentions and
dreams crushed by reality. It was staged in front of an enthusiastic
audience at the New Theatre in Helsink in November 1862. The next year,
the play was published with an
introduction by Uno Cygnaeus. Since its first performance, Daniel Hjort has maintained its status as a living classic and the
most significant Finnish drama written in Swedish before Aleksis Kivi's
works paved way for the Finnish-language theatre. "Mikään terveysnäytelmä tämä ei ole. Henkilöiden housuissa on kamala olla. Voidakseen toimia he tarvitsevat velvoituksen, tiedostetun taustan, aikaisemmin kärsityn häpeän tai yleensä edesmenneen nöyrytyksen, nykyisten mittapuiden mukaan melko abstraktin velvotteen, joka antaa heille sysäyksen toimia. Ja toimintana voi olla yleensä vain kosto tai pako." (Daniel Hjort, translated into Finnish by Matti Rossi, afterword by Jouko Turkka, 1981) The
story is set in the Turku Castle in 1599, after the period
when
the peasant rebellion in Ostrobothnia, known as the War of the Maces,
was mercilessly stopped by Klaus Fleming. The main characters are
Sigismund, King of Poland, his opponent and nephew Charles, who became
King Charles IX, Admiral Klaus Fleming, supporter of Sigismund, and the
young Daniel Hjort, who must choose his side in the battle of power.
Daniel is a tormented character like Hamlet: his father was beheaded on
Fleming's order but he was brought up in Fleming's family, together
with his two sons. And like
Hamlet he has spent much of his life in study. Daniel's mother sets him
on the path of revenge. Moreover, the phantom of the murdered father
makes an apperance. Wecksell depicted Hjort as a representantive of the Finnish
people –
against historical knowledge. For love and idealistic reasons, Daniel
becomes the traitor of the sieged castle of Turku. He concludes that
the real moral challenge is to resist oppression, not in slavish
following of power. Most of the central
characters are dead by the end of the play. Daniel is killed by his
foster brother. In April 1877, Wecksell's historical drama was
performed for the first time in a Finnish translation. The production company Suomi Filmi planned to make a film adaptation of Daniel Hjort in 1941. Joel Rinne was cast in the title role; he had acted in the role of Johan, Fleming's son, at the National Theatre. The project was never realized. (Poikki! toteutumattomat kotimaiset elokuvat by Niko Jutila, 2020, p. 23) "Have you courage to take up a shattering strife After having finished Daniel Hjort,
Wecksell was
completely
exhausted; he saw hallucinations and he realized how fragile his mental
balance was. However, he was present at the first performance of his
play. Wecksell supposedly said: "It sounds so familiar, but I don't
recall where I read it." (A History of Finland's Literature, edited by George C. Schoolfield, 1998, p. 347) For a period Wecksell spent in the private psychiatric hospital in Endenich, where Robert Schumann had died in 1856. At that time it was one of the most progressive institutions of its type. Wecksell's treatments were unsuccessful. On September 28, 1865, he entered the state-owned Lapinlahti mental hospital, on the seashore of Helsinki, without never returning. One of his fellow patients in 1872 was Aleksis Kivi. Mental instability ran in Wecksell's family: his two brothers went insane, one descended into alcoholism, and one was considered as "extremely peculiar." Therapeutic methods of the time included straitjacketing,
forced baths, and solitary confinement in dark rooms. In addition, there
were experimental methods. According to the journalist Frans Ossia
Husberg, who was treated at the hospital for six months in 1888-1889,
the patients were getting especially during the winter too little
exercise, fresh air, and light. He also compained about the meals:
bread, potatoes, porridge, and herring. "The medicine that was used
universally is a chloral [sedative] that the warden hands out in doses
of half a tea cup at bedtime, which the doormen then forces on patients
whether or not they can or cannot sleep." ('Hospitalized: Patients' Voices in the 19th-Century Finnish Newspapers' by Kirsi Tuohela, in Encountering Crises of the Mind: Madness, Culture and Society, 1200s-1900s, edited by Tuomas Laine-Frigren, Jari Eilola, Markku Hokkanen, 2019, pp. 131-132) Wecksell's other noteworthy writings include verses, which were composed during the early stage of his illness. Some of the fragmentary texts reflect his agony and fears, when he is facing the approaching mental collapse. In 'Jag midnattens barn' (1862), included in the 1868 collection, the poet calls himself as the child of the midnight and cries desperately for help: "O Gud, min Gud, gif mig nåd, / o Gud, min Gud, gif mig råd, / för Jesu Kristi skull, / för Jesu Kristi skull!" In a poem, probably written in Bonn, he confessed: "On a cloud you are standing!" But the euphoria of thoughts reaching the height of God soon disappears and the poet realizes that the cloud has vanished. Wecksell's struggle with schizophrenia took over 40 years. He never recovered. Wecksell died on August 9, 1907, in Helsinki. His work inspired Arvid Mörne, who published Wecksell's biography in 1909 and his poetry and other material in Nya Wecksellstudier (1920). For further reading: Josef Julius Wecksell by Arvid Mörne (1909); Nya Wecksellstudier by Arvid Mörne (1920); 'Josef Julius Wecksell och hans diktning' by Karin Allardt Ekelund, in Samlade dikter / J.J. Wecksell (1962); 'J.J. Wecksell and Finland's Swedish Lyric' by George C. Schoolfield, in Scandinavian Studies, Vol. 36, No. 1 (February, 1964); Över stumhetens gräns by Mikael Enckell (1972); A History of Finnish Literature by Jaakko Ahokas (1973); Suomen kirjallisuus runonlaulajista 1800-luvun loppuun. II osa by Eino Karhu (1979); A History of Finland's Literature, edited by George C. Schoolfield (1998); Finlands svenska litteraturhistoria I, edited by Johan Wrede (1999); Turkulainen näytelmä by Emma Puikkonen (2001); 'Suomalaisen draaman ensiaskeleet, Aleksis Kivi, Daniel Hjort' by Katri Tanskanen, in Suomen teatteri ja draama, edited by Katri Tanskanen & Mikko-Olavi Seppälä (2010); 'Grand opera and Finnish nationalism in Helsinki, 1876–1877' by Ulla-Britta Broman-Kananen, in Tracing Operatic Performances in the Long Nineteenth Century: Practices, Performers, Peripheries, edited by Anne Kauppala, Ulla-Britta Broman-Kananen and Jens Hesselager (2017) - Note 1: Daniel Hjort was basis for Selim Palmgren's opera Daniel Hjort. It was performed first time on April 21, 1910. Selected works:
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