February CultureCAT: Finno-Ugric peoples

The Finno-Ugric Peoples

The unofficial flag of the Finno-Ugric peoples

The Finno-Ugric peoples are people connected by their common ancestry and language roots. The Finno-Ugric language tree is separate from the Indo-European languages spoken by their nearest neighbours. While the Finns, Estonians and Hungarians have their own nation states, the other Finno-Ugric peoples do not. Most Finno-Ugric peoples inhabit Estonia, Hungary, Russia, Finland and other parts of Scandinavia.

Map of Finno-Ugric peoples and the areas they inhabit

There are many ways to approach this theme! You could read about the history of the Winter War, the Hanseatic League in medieval Estonia or some other book about the history of the Finno-Ugric people. You could look for a biography or perhaps a travel journal to give you insight into their everyday life. As for fiction, there are of course various national epics, such as the Finnish "Kalevala" or the Estonian "Kalevipoeg", and collections of Finno-Ugric myths or fairytales.

And for general fiction written by Finno-Ugric authors, a good starting point would be checking out books by any of these authors:
- Jaan Kross
- Andrus Kivirähk
- A. H. Tammsaare
- Eno Raud
- Indrek Hargla
- Tove Jansson
- Sofi Oksanen
- Inger-Mari Aikio
- Elina Hirvonen
- Mika Waltari
- Péter Esterházy
- Ferenc Molnár
- Miklós Vámos
- Magda Szabó

Here are a couple of books suggestions as well:
- Deep in the Forest: One Hundred Estonian Fairy Tales About the Forest and its People by Risto Järv
- Notes from an Island by Tove Jansson and Tuulikki Pietilä
- The Man Who Spoke Snakish by Andrus Kivirähk
- The Ropewalker by Jaan Kross
- Norma by Sofi Oksanen

I'm going to read Everything is Wonderful: Memories of a Collective Farm in Estonia by Sigrid Rausing for this one.

Thank you for this wonderful introduction! I don't know what I'll read yet, but I am definitely saving this post for future reference even beyond 2025.

I'm considering The End of Drum-Time or The Palace of the Snow Queen.

>4 susanna.fraser: The End of Drum-Time is the February selection for my book club. I didn't realize it would satisfy this challenge. Guess its a good thing I will be reading it so I will know more about the region. Yay!

Does anyone know if Jonas Jonasson is Finno-Ugric? I know he is from Sweden, but can't find any info on his ethnicity/native language. I'm not sure there's anything else in my library that would fit this category.

I’ve got several books by Sofi Oksanen in my shelves...and I can recommend Jaan Kross’ novel The Czar’s Madman, that was an amazing story.

Looks like The End of Drum-Time but I'm still researching.

I hope to finish The man who spoke Snakish. I got about 2/3 of the way through last year before I got distracted.

The Man Who Spoke Snakish sounds interesting, but I'm also tempted to check out mythology/fairy tales. I'm planning to make my CultureCAT my first read of the month, so I'll see how I feel in a week.

I read The Man Who Spoke Snakish and The Summer Book in 2023 and thought they were both really good. The Summer Book was a rare 5* read for me. I would like to try The True Deceiver also by Jansson if I can find a copy of it.

I will be going on a Baltic cruise year and books from these areas will be a plus for me. I have never heard of these groups so a great education for me. Thanks for the post.

I think I might try the Kalevala

I am going to read Stolen by Ann-Helen Laestadius, a Swedish Sami writer.

>14 JayneCM: I just saw this book on instagram and added it to my WL. I'm looking forward to your review!

Oooh, I've had Purge by Sofi Oksanen since 2011. Time to pull it off my shelves!

>14 JayneCM: I am also reading this one. I'm about 1/4 of the way in so far and am enjoying it.

I'm starting More than Mythology which discusses interactions between Nordic, Sami, and Finnish peoples.

I've finished Stolen and thought it was very good. About a Sami reindeer herding community in northern Sweden where someone is killing the reindeer, and the police don't seem to care.

The March thread is now up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/368494

More Than Mythology

This was actually a collection of articles adapted from an academic conference on the same topic, so each chapter was written by a different person about something different. Some of the articles talked about the Finnish and the Saami or the Finnish and the Karelian, but some were just about your everyday Norse mythology (Oðinn, Þor, & co.) Perspectives included Finnish linguistics/literature, Viking grave archeology, and early Christian proselytism, so there really was a little bit of everything.

It wasn't quite what I had expected from the description, but it was interesting and I did learn a lot. I skipped the last two chapters as, at a glance, they didn't seem to address Finno-Urgic culture/mythology. My favourite chapter was 'Gender, Sexuality, and the Supranormal', which discussed, in part, magic that women were believed to possess to protect their families and livestock and to curse others.

The Finns enjoy a reputation for having a peculiar sense of humour (at least in Germany, they do), and this was much in evidence in Der wunderbare Massenselbstmord. A group of depressed Finns meet and decide to kill themselves together. It’s actually a feel-good book, as they drive around Europe in their luxury bus and enjoy themselves immensely – enough to build a new life, for most of them.

Starting The Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot

I just finished Liberating Sápmi: Indigenous Resistance in Europe's Far North. It was an interesting introduction to some history and issues I didn't really know anything about.

I've finished The End of Drum-Time. This was fascinating history that was mostly new to me.

>24 lavaturtle: >25 beebeereads: I added these to my WL.

Happy Kalevala/Finnish Culture Day.

"Kalevala Day (Finnish: Kalevalan päivä), also known as Finnish Culture Day (Finnish: suomalaisen kulttuurin päivä), is celebrated on 28 February in honor of Finnish culture and the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalevala_Day

( >1 shimmermarie: Did you know about this when you asked for this topic or is it just a happy coincidence?)

I finished The Palace of the Snow Queen. The author is Scandinavian-American, but the book has much to say about the Saami people.

COMPLETED (a bit late) The Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot

>27 Robertgreaves: Yeah, I actually picked February because of Kalevala Day (28th of February), Estonian Independence Day (24th of February) and the first Finno-Ugric Days which were celebrated 28. February 1928! These days it is celebrated in October, but since I preferred to host months that were earlier in the year I picked February.

I have just finished Everything is Wonderful: Memories of a Collective Farm in Estonia. This turned out to be as much a memoir about the author's year-long period of PhD fieldwork as it was about the actual people in Estonia, and she also largely focused on the Estonian Swedish minority, so the link to this challenge is possibly more tenuous than I had initially realised. It was very interesting though, and I'll probably try and look out her academic book based on the same research. I hadn't realised till reading this that Estonian was, for the most part, an unwritten language until the 19th century.

>31 Jackie_K: I am going to Estonia on a cruise this year so I have requested the book from my library. Thanks for the post.