a blog by Peter Leonard
Today's entry on the MA reading list comes from Zacharias Topelius, a Swedish Finn. He wrote mostly in Swedish, although he has the dubious of honor of unleashing the first Finnish-language libretto on the world stage.
Björken och stjärnan is a children's fairy tale from an 1850 collection called Sagor, visor och lekar. In the story, Finland is laid waste by war and plague. Most of the citizens flee the country as families and friends are separated.
When peace finally arrives the returning refugees find empty cottages and villages and wait in vain for their lost relatives and friends to arrive back home. Two children, raised by foster parents abroad during the war, long to return home, but are discouraged from doing so by their wards. Apparently unheedfull of their foster parent's warnings that there's only "tree bark" to eat in Finland, the brother and sister plot their Fennic road trip. The sister is practical:
«Vem skall då visa eder vägen dit?»
"Who will then show us the way there?"
While her brother suggests faith-based navigation:
«Gud,» sade gossen. "God," said the boy.
Luckily an arborial strategy exists as a backup plan:
«Dessutom minns jag, att på mina föräldrars gård står en stor björk, där många vackra fåglar sjunga i morgonsolen.»
"I also remember, that at my parents' farm there stands a great birch, where many beautiful birds sing in the morning sun."
Failing that, there's always celestrial navigation:
«Och jag minns,» sade flickan, «att om kvällarna lyser en stjärna där genom björkens löf.»
"And I remember," said the girl, "that a star shines during the nights through the birch's leaves."
So the siblings run away, walking northwest to reach their home village. I think the following scene was lifted pretty much wholesale from the Muppet Movie:
«Guds änglar ha klädt sig i fåglahamn och ledsaga oss hem.»
"Gods angesls have disguised themselves as birds and are leading us home."
When they finally start to hear Finnish spoken in the villages they pass through, they know they're almost home. But those who offer shelter ask,
«Stackars barn, på jorden växa många tusen björkar, och på himmelen lysa många tusen sjtärnor. Hur är det möjligt för eder, att bland så många finna den enda rätta?»
"Poor children, there are many thousands of birches on earth, and in heaven many thousands of stars. How is it possible for you to find the one right one among so many?
For the sake of narrative completion, they somehow manange it. They arrive home on the Pentecost. Their parents are in the kitchen, grieving over their lost children: two buried beneath the birch tree, and two sent away in a foreign land. The children reveal themselves and are reunited. The mother mentions two strange birds who have been singing in the Birch tree out side recently:
«Änglarne i fåglahamn, som följt oss hela vägen och som i dag bådat i björkan vår återkomst, de voro våra små syskon, som sofva i graven. Det var de, som sade så ständigt i våra hjärtan: Gån hem, gån hem till att trösta far och mor!»
"The angels disguised as birds, who followed us the whole way and who today bode our return in the birch, they were our small siblings, who sleep in the grave. It was them, who said told us constantly in our hearts: Go home, go home to console father and mother!"
The great thing about 19th-century Finnish nationalist children's stories is that there's no beating around the bush when it comes to the symbolism. Why bother sussing out the complexities of the representational allegory yourself when the Father himself is only to eager to hit you over the head with the metaphoric anvil:
«I gingen efter björken; hon betydde edert fädernesland. Välan, må det vara eder kärleks och edert arbetes mål, så länge I lefven! I gingen efter stjärnan; -- hon betecknar det eviga lifvet. Välan, må hon lysa eder hela er lefnad igenom!» "You walk towards the birch, she signifies our fatherland. May it be our love's and our work's goal, so long as you live! You walk towards the star; she denotes the eternal life. May she shine throughout our whole lives!"