National Awakening Through Poetry, Prose and Music: the Finnish, Estonian and Armenian Historical Experiences

It has been more than a century since the Finns discovered enough of an identity to separate themselves from the Russians. Indeed it was in 1917 that today’s Finland was born. And I was thinking about the discovery of identity lately, not of a tribe or a nation but of an individual. I posted an essay about monosyllabs that got me a lot of email feedback from readers especially from Northern Europe. In my essay (https://vahezen.blogspot.com/2019/07/monosyllabic.html) I said that at some point we do what helps us become who we inherently are instead of trying to minimize antagonism. I was speaking about individuals, but I think it also relates to communities and nations.

… Looking back at human history, it seems like there are a few descriptors of human groups that eventually result in an identity. These are – customs, cuisine, costumes and geographic contingency. Eventually these influence dialects that become variations of a common language. When the four “C”s and the language converge and come together at a point in history, I think one gets an identity.

And, as all epiphanies of identity, the result is independence.

… I approached my education about Finland and Estonia by watching Finnish movies and TV series on Netflix. Why? I do not know. I had never seen Finnish, Swedish or Estonian TV series and decided it would give me a glimpse into cultures that I know very little about. So, for a week after sunset I watched dramatic movies and crime series in their original language with subscripts/subtitles. It took me about 10 minutes to realize that there was no foul language, no blood, no guns and no car chases. In addition all special effects were left out and what we were offered were human interactions and introspection. It was refreshing and I was in a delightful comfort zone.

So, I looked for a translation of the Kalewala. It seemed the logical thing to do to understand how poetry would have helped a nation find its identity. A national awakening through a montage of folk poetry is not unique – many nations have distilled their identity through music, poetry and storytelling. Yet the Finnish Kalewala seems unique in the sense that the collection of poetry and the montage of the various parts were the vision of an individual, Elias Lönnrot, and which was then organized into an epic poem culminating in the 1917 separation of the Finnish from the Soviets and declaring independence and sovereignty.

This line of learning led me to Kalevipoeg, which is the compilation of prose from Estonia that lead to the Estonian awakening and identity. Both documents, poetry or prose, mention Kalevi as the giant who fought evil and created two nations.

… As an Armenian, I know that the creation of an alphabet or the systematic compilation of folk stories and music creates the tangible difference between communities and geo-political regions. Mesrop Mashdots, an Armenian linguist, created the Armenian alphabet in 405 AD presumably using the Greek alphabet as a guide. And in the late 18^th century a cleric, Komidas Vartabet collected folk music and songs before he suffered mental and psychological meltdown witnessing the Hamidian (Ottoman) massacres of Armenians. He spent the last 20 years of his life in a paranoid state in an asylum. But what he compiled and saved determined an identity that more than a century later is taught in schools in the Diaspora and in the motherland.

I grew up with that identity so I understand very well how in Sufism Majnooon and Layla is the most influential Islamic literary work based on love and rejection, and how Kalewala and Kalevipoeg would awaken national identities. I cannot fathom that Shakespeare had not read Majnooon and Layla, and that the Finns and Estonians did not know about the 12 giants in mythology all descendants of Titan. Or, that the Irish giant Fionn Mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) fought the Scottish giant Bennandoner to allow passage from Ireland to Scotland.

.. But all that is myth and legend -- now I need to just figure out why I so much like the Finnish drama series on and especially Pihla Viitala on Netflix!

August 10, 2019

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2019

 Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn MacCool)