Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald
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Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald (December 26, 1803 at the Jömper Manor in Kadrina, Virumaa - August 25, 1882 in Tartu) was an Estonian writer and physician who is considered to be the father of Estonia's national literature.
[edit] Life
Friedrich's parents were serfs. His father worked as a shoemaker. After the liberation of 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. He was the governor of St. Petersburg in 1824–25. In 1833, Kreutzwald graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Tartu and he married Marie Elisabeth Saedler on August 18 of the same year. From 1833 to 1877, he worked as the town physician in Võru, Estonia. He was the member of numerous scientific societies in Europe and received honorary doctorates from many universities.
[edit] 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 many national epics based on traditional Estonian folklore, "The Kalevipoeg" ('Kalev's Son') published "The Old Estonian Fairy-Tales" (1866), collections of verses and 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 in Estonia, as well as a paragon and encourager of younger generations of Estonian-speaking intellectuals.
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