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Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald | |
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| Born | 26 December [O.S. 14 December] 1803 Jömper Manor,Jömper,Kreis Wierland,Governorate of Estonia,Russian Empire (in present-day Jõepere,Lääne-Viru County,Estonia) |
| Died | 25 August [O.S. 13 August] 1882 (aged 78) |
| Resting place | Raadi cemetery |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Movement | Estonian national awakening |
Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald (26 December [O.S. 14 December] 1803 – 25 August [O.S. 13 August] 1882) was anEstonian writer who is considered to be the father of the national literature for the country. He is the author of Estoniannational epicKalevipoeg.
Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald's parents wereserfs[1] at theJömper estate,Governorate of Estonia,Russian Empire (in present-day Jõepere,Lääne-Viru County). His father Juhan worked as a shoemaker and granary keeper and his mother Anne was a chambermaid. After liberation from serfdom in 1815, the family was able to send their son to school at theWesenberg (present-day Rakvere) district school.
In 1820, he graduated from secondary school inDorpat (present-day Tartu,Tartu County,Estonia) and worked as an elementary school teacher. In 1833, Kreutzwald graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at theImperial University of Dorpat.
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Kreutzwald married Marie Elisabeth Saedler on 18 August the same year. From 1833 to 1877, he worked as themunicipal physician inWerro (present-day Võru).[2] He was the member of numerousscientific societies in Europe and received honorary doctorates from a number of universities.
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, andWise Men of Gotham 1857. In addition to these works, he composed thenational epicKalevipoeg (Kalev's Son),[3] using material initially gathered by his friendFriedrich Robert Faehlmann;[4] and wrote many other works based onEstonian folklore, such asOld Estonian Fairy-Tales (1866), collections of verses, and the poemLembitu (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 thenational awakening, as well as aparagon and encourager of youngEstonian-speaking intellectuals.
