2002 FINLAND

200th ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF ELIAS LONNROT

Elias Lönnrot  (9 April 1802 – 19 March 1884) was a Finnish philologist and collector of traditional Finnish oral poetry. He is best known for compiling the Kaleva, the Finnish national epic compiled from national folklore.

Physician and health instructor

One of the Elias Lönnrot stamps depicts the plantain, which is know as a medical herb. The theme refers to Elias Lönnrot as a physician and health instructor, who was also well acquinted with utilisation and folk medicine. Elias Lönnrot was also a keen botanist, who wrote the basic work of Finnish botany, the Flora Fennica.

Miniature stamp sheet

The subject of the stamps in the middle of the miniature sheet refer tot Elias Lönnrot as a collector of folk poetry, a linguist and the compiler of Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. The stamps include the opening and closing lines of the Kalevala. The fourth stamp of the sheet depicts Elias Lönnrot himself, the great Finn of the period of the national awakening. Designer Pekka Loiri says that he used among others, the 1872 portrait of Elias Lönnrot by Bernhard Reinhold (1824-1892) as a model for the picture of the stamp.

Stamps symbol of Elias Lönnrot's life achievement

On top of the miniature sheet there are two birds flying upwards, a symbol of Elias Lönnrot's life achievement, the poor son of a tailor graduating as Master of Arts and Doctor of Medicine and becoming professor of Finnish language and literature. According to the designer, the feathers in the miniature sheet refer to the writing of poems, while the 5-string kantele refers to rune-singing