Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald

Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald reads the manuscript of Kalevipoeg. Painting by Johann Köler

Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald (26 December [O.S. 14 December] 1803 — 25 August [O.S. 13 August] 1882) was an Estonian writer, who is considered to be the father of the national literature for the country.

Life

Friedrich's parents were serfs at the Jõepere estate, Virumaa. His father worked as a granary keeper and his mother was a chambermaid. After liberation from serfdom in 1815, the family was able to send their son to school at the Rakvere district school. In 1820, he graduated from secondary school in Tallinn and worked as an elementary school teacher. In 1833, Kreutzwald graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the Imperial University of Tartu. He married Marie Elisabeth Saedler on August 18 the same year. From 1833 to 1877, he worked as the town physician in Võru, Livonia. He was the member of numerous scientific societies in Europe and received honorary doctorates from a number of universities.

Writings

Kreutzwald is the author of several moralistic folk books, most of them translated into German: "Plague of Wine" 1840, "The World and Some Things One can Find in It" 1848–49, "Reynard the Fox" 1850, "Wise Men of Gotham" 1857. In addition to these works, he wrote the national epic "Kalevipoeg" ('Kalev's Son') and many other works based on Estonian folklore, such as "The Old Estonian Fairy-Tales" (1866), collections of verses and the poem "Lembitu" (1885), published after his death.

Kreutzwald is considered to be the author of the first original Estonian book. He was one of the leaders of the national awakening, as well as a paragon and encourager of young Estonian-speaking intellectuals.