Christfried Ganander

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Memorial plaque in his hometown

Christfried Ganander (also written Cristfried or Kristfrid ; born November 21, 1741 in Haapajärvi , † February 17, 1790 in Rantsila ) was a Finnish folklorist and philologist . His early work on Finnish mythology had a significant influence on later efforts to collect Finnish folk poetry.

education

Christfried Ganander (also Christfried Ganander ) was born as the son of chaplain Thomas Ganander († 1751) and his wife Helena Hiden. Christfried Ganander studied Protestant theology at the Turku Academy . In 1763 he was ordained a clergyman. In 1766 he completed his studies with a master's degree . After his studies he was active as a pastor in Saint Petersburg , Vaasa and Laihia . He then worked as a chaplain in Rantsila from 1775 until his death.

Folklorist

Ganander was a versatile researcher and publicist. He was very interested in documents on folk culture and is considered one of the most active folklorists of his time. In 1783 his puzzle collection Aenigmata Fennica was published. Suomalaiset Arwotuxet Wastausten kansa , in which he lists 337 Finnish folk puzzles. In 1789 he published his most famous work, Mythologia Fennica . It contains a synopsis of folk poetry, magic spells, ancient sources of knowledge and written traditions. It is one of the first attempts to systematically portray Finnish mythology . Elias Lönnrot later continued his work. Ganander's book had a major influence on the creation of the Finnish national epic , the Kalevala .

Linguist

Also noteworthy is Christfried Ganander's Finnish - Swedish - Latin dictionary Nytt Finskt Lexicon, which provides etymological explanations of words. It contains about 30,000 lemmas . The manuscript was completed in 1787. It was not published posthumously until 1827.

People's Enlightenment

In addition, Ganander was active as a public educator. His work on folk medicine, Maan-Miehen Huone-ja Koti-Aptheeki sekä Eläinten (1784), was widely used until the 19th century . In 1780 his work on the origin, language and customs of the Roma was published . For this work he was awarded the silver medal in a competition by the Royal Swedish Academy of Learning, History and Antiquities .

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