Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald

Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald (OldStyleDate|26 December|1803|14 December at the Jõepere Manor in Kadrina, Virumaa — OldStyleDate|25 August|1882|13 August in Tartu) was an Estonian writer and physician who is considered to be the father of Estonia's national literature.

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. 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.

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.