Release date is 2026-02-10

Tapio Riikonen

Meidän Jeremias by Alpo Noponen is a historical verse drama written in the early 20th century. Set in Turku during the Great Northern War, it follows the condemned religious firebrand Pietari Schäfer as he confronts church power and forms a fervent yet scrupulously chaste bond with Anna Vargentin while war and plague loom. The play probes prophecy, persecution, and the fraught boundary between spiritual zeal and human love.

The opening of the play situates us in Turku Castle, where guards disclose that a royal court has condemned Pietari for assailing the clergy. A stream of visitors reveals his world: Anna comes to console him; Lischen, a jealous patron, quarrels; he bribes a guard to hide forbidden devotional books and writes letters; he debates the archdean and refuses to recant. In Anna’s garden, as townsfolk prepare to flee the oncoming Russians, their tender but guarded affection surfaces; he dreams of marriage outside the church and a new congregation, sends a letter to a Swedish princess, and tries—unsuccessfully—to have his nephew carry a message to the “Nebuchadnezzar” of Moscow, then flares in anger before repenting and blessing his friends. Orders soon cut off Anna’s visits, and the next scene returns to the cell, where soldiers’ nostalgic song of Narva underscores the city’s present dread. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: Helsinki: Otava, 1916