The seven brothers
The Seven Brothers ( Finnish : Seitsemän veljestä ) is the only novel by the Finnish writer Aleksis Kivi (1834–1872).
The work was published in 1870 and fell in Finland at the end of the era of predominance of Swedish-language literature, led by writers such as Johan Ludvig Runeberg . Kivi never lived to see the success of his novel. The work was heavily criticized by contemporaries, also because it gave a wrong picture of the Finns. The writer August Ahlqvist described the work as "a ridiculous work and an eyesore of Finnish literature". The young men are all illiterate and initially, with two exceptions (Lauri and Eero), appear as a boastful, contentious and violent bunch who never miss an opportunity to destroy their own and other people's property. The brutal handling of the animals in the forest also testifies to a not very harmonious relationship with nature. In addition, the fairytale-like internal narratives built into the novel are of a brutality that often tends into the absurd , whereby the depictions of violence are always ironically weakened.
The text has an unknown first-person narrator who does not participate in the plot ( heterodiegetic ), who, however, rarely appears and, mainly in the second half, interprets the events morally. In this second half, the development of the characters takes a turn for the better, which arises more from the moral narrative intention than from the necessity of the novel's plot, which is also present. The course of action consists mainly of dense dialogues with speakers introduced by a colon without narration and shows several time lapses and time leaps. Numerous references to Finnish mythology are made. The seven brothers has been translated into over 30 languages. The first German translation by Gustav Schmidt appeared in 1901.
action
In the novel, Kivi tells the story of the seven brothers who live on the Jukola farm at the foot of the fictional Impivaara mountain, who escape a rule-compliant life after the death of their parents and live out their youth in the wild until they return to their home village after ten years , live a decent life and raise families.
The seven brothers
- Juhani - at 25 years the oldest of the brothers, a loudmouth and also the most stubborn
- Aapo - thoughtful and peace-loving
- Tuomas - twin brother of Aapo, initially the strongest of the brothers
- Simeoni - addicted to drinking, but also religious
- Timo - simple-minded, but open-hearted
- Lauri - Timo's twin brother, nature lover and loner
- Eero - at 18 the youngest brother, intelligent and at odds with Juhani
Others
Jukola is the name of an annual orienteering relay race in Finland . A season consists of seven men.
Web links
- Seitsemän veljestä (Finnish text)
Individual evidence
- ↑ kirjasto.sci.fi: Aleksis Kivi ( Memento from December 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- ↑ aleksiskivi-kansalliskirjailija.fi: Käännökset: Seitsemän veljestä Translations of Seitsemän veljestä (accessed December 26, 2011)