Release date is 2025-10-08

Tuula Temonen

"Matkahawannoita Wiron ja Liiwin maalta" by C. G. Swan is a travelogue written in the late 19th century. The work follows a Finnish traveler’s journey through Estonia and Livonia, from Helsinki to Tallinn and Tartu, mixing on-the-spot observations with history and social commentary. It highlights medieval towns, churches, transport and prices, and everyday customs, while documenting the Estonian national awakening around choral festivities and the memory of emancipation from serfdom. The beginning of the travelogue frames Finns and Estonians as brother peoples, contrasts material hardship with Estonians’ “spiritual hunger,” and invites readers along to jubilee festivities in Tartu. The narrator sails to Tallinn and vividly describes the harbor approach, the city’s walls, churches, Toompea, and historical anecdotes, noting sharp social divisions and practicalities of travel. With no railway, he proceeds by post road toward Tartu, sketching the flat-to-undulating landscape, peasant houses, beggars and geese, and the drivers’ stops at roadside inns. On the way he repeatedly meets choirs bound for the festival and is moved when they greet the Finns by singing national songs. Arriving in Tartu, he sketches the town, its university setting, and the Vanemuine society’s organization of a large song festival led by J. W. Jannsen, with rehearsals, a church service, and concerts. The section culminates in Jakob Hurt’s speech urging public spirit, the loyalty of educated Estonians to their people, and the creation of higher Estonian-language schools, with reactions briefly noted before the account turns to the banquet. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: Helsinki: J. Simeliuksen perillisten kirjapaino, 1870