{"id":1574,"date":"2024-04-03T23:41:33","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T20:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/kristianjaak\/"},"modified":"2024-09-27T11:45:15","modified_gmt":"2024-09-27T08:45:15","slug":"kristianjaak","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/p\/kristianjaak\/","title":{"rendered":"Kristian Jaak Peterson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Poems<\/span><\/strong><\/a>\"Kristian<\/span><\/a><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Non-fiction<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
About Kristian Jaak Peterson<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/h5>\n\n\n\n


Kristian Jaak Peterson (Christian Jacob Petersohn, 14.\/2. III 1801 \u2013 4. VIII \/ 23. VII 1822) was a poet and literary figure, one of the icons of Estonian culture. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was born in Riga. His father, Jaak Peterson, was from Karula parish near Viljandi. His mother was Anna Elisabet (nee Mihhailovna). K. J. Peterson attended county school number 2 in Riga and from 1815 to 1818 the governorate gymnasium, and afterwards, from 1819 to 1820, Tartu University, initially in the faculty of theology, later in philosophy. He intended to continue his studies at the University of Leipzig. He died young of a lung disease (tuberculosis). The superintendent-general of Livonia, Karl Gottlob Sonntag, an influential figure in the church and education, wrote an obituary of his prot\u00e9g\u00e9.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The style of Peterson\u2019s score or so of poems in Estonian is powerful and very rich in images. The frequent use of gerunds increases the elation of abstract concepts and the dynamism of the verb. His free and blank verse is fluent and original \u2013 with Peterson, real Estonian poetry and verbal art were born.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a philologist he was very gifted, a polyglot, whose dream was to be a Christian missionary in America, Africa or Asia among indigenous people. In the spirit of Herder he was interested in both classical culture and the whole world\u2019s vernacular languages, especially his own, Estonian. Even in secondary school he started writing poems and a diary of a philosophical and philological bent. In the Estophile Johann Heinrich Rosenpl\u00e4nter\u2019s journal Beitr\u00e4ge zur genauern Kenntniss der ehstnischen Sprache<\/em> he published articles on Estonian syntax, on the morphology of noun declensions and verb conjugations, phonetics and other issues. On leaving the university, Peterson gave language lessons in Riga and indulged in philology. He translated Christian Ganander\u2019s Mythologia Fennica<\/em> from Swedish into German, re-edited its contents and injected it with his own views on ancient Estonian beliefs, also mentioning Vanemuine and Kalevipoeg. Finnische Mythologie<\/em> appeared as volume XIV of the Beitr\u00e4ge<\/em> (1821\/1822). His legacy in manuscript passed by way of Rosenpl\u00e4nter into the hands of the Estonian Learned Society; a century later it was made public and evaluated on the initiative of Gustav Suits of the Young Estonia movement.<\/span>
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Peterson, who called himself \u2018the bard of the land folk\u2019 (maarahva laulik<\/em>, that is, the Estonian poet) valued both classical greatness and vernacular originality in literature, as was the fashion in Europe then. He knew well Pindar\u2019s odes, Theocritus\u2019 bucolics and idylls, Virgil\u2019s pastorals, Horace\u2019s lyrics and the Bacchants\u2019 Anacreon. He received strong influences from the pre-Romantic poetry of F.G. Klopstock, J.W. Goethe and F.M. Franz\u00e9n; he read folk poetry through Herder, and heard it from the mouth of his father Kikka Jaak. In philosophy, Peterson\u2019 s model was Diogenes\u2019 stoicism and cynicism, and the dualistic deism of Christian Wolff, a proponent of Leibniz\u2019 system. The rationalism of Wolff was followed by Peterson\u2019s favourite professor in Tartu, the theologian and Orientalist Friedrich Hezel, who was also an expert on Pindar. The Supreme God is the beginning and end of all existence. This being arranges matter (in Peterson\u2019s expression, ema-asi<\/em> \u2013 \u2018the mother-thing\u2019 or \u2018maternal stuff\u2019) and emanates downward like a powerful waterfall or dew; spirit-filled people seek love in each other and strive in their turn to rise up back to God on the laulutuul<\/em> \u2018the wind of song\u2019.<\/span>
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Corresponding to these spheres, Peterson creates odes in a high style, originating from heavenly measures and classical aesthetics, and spiritual love between friends: the hymns Jummalale<\/em> (\u2018To God\u2019), P\u00e4va loja-minnemine<\/em> (\u2018The Setting of the Sun\u2019), S\u00fcggise<\/em> (\u2018Autumn\u2019), Innimenne<\/em> (\u2018Human\u2019), Kuu<\/em> (\u2018The Moon\u2019), S\u00f5bradus<\/em> (\u2018Friendship\u2019), Lotus<\/em> (\u2018Hope\u2019), Olen j\u00e4lle \u00f5nnis<\/em> (\u2018I am blessed again\u2019), R\u00f5molaul<\/em> (\u2018Song of Joy\u2019), Laulja<\/em> (\u2018The Singer\u2019). His pastorals, however, exhibit a low and occasionally more comic style, concerned with earthly things and examples from folk-songs, as well as warm earthly love for girls: Karjaste-laul. Elts ja Tio, karjatsed<\/em> (\u2018Song of the herd-girls. Elts and Tio, the shepherdesses\u2019), Jaak, J\u00fcrri \u2013 karjapoisid<\/em> (\u2018Jaak, J\u00fcri \u2013 the herd-boys\u2019), Karjaste laul. Ot ning Pedo<\/em> (\u2018Song of the Herdsmen. Ott and Pedo\u2019); Ma pean joma. Lauloke<\/em> (\u2018I have to drink: a little song\u2019), Naesed<\/em> (\u2018Women\u2019), Allo ning Jaak. Karjaste laul<\/em> (\u2018Allo and Jaak. Herdsmen\u2019s song\u2019), En ning Ello, karjaste laul<\/em> (\u2018Enn and Elo, a herdspeople\u2019s song\u2019), Minno issa \u00fctleb et \u00f6pik laulab nenda<\/em> (\u2018My father says the nightingale sings like this\u2019). Some texts in a median style exist as a circular movement between the eternal heavenly one and the level of time and space, in which the sublime intertwines with the personal: Laul, kui ma Tartust l\u00e4ksin Ria pole, omma vannemad vaatama\u2026<\/em> (\u2018Song of when I went from Tartu to Riga to see my parents\u2019), Jago-laul. Ta istub \u00fcksi m\u00e4e pe\u00e4l<\/em> (\u2018Song of Jaak. He sits alone on a hill\u2019), Mardi Lutteruse p\u00e4val<\/em> (\u2018On Martin Luther\u2019s Day\u2019). In 1823 three of Peterson\u2019s poems in German appeared posthumously (including one sonnet) in the journal Zeitung f\u00fcr die elegante Welt<\/em> (translated into Estonian by Betti Alver in 1961).<\/span>
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Peterson is remembered in a memorial stone at his father Kikka\u2019s farm in Viljandimaa county, on a memorial tablet in a high school building in Riga, and a mighty monument on Toomem\u00e4e Hill in Tartu (sculptor Jaak Soans, architect Allan Murdmaa, 1983). There is a Kristjan Jaak Peterson Secondary School in Tartu. Since 1996 the poet\u2019s birthday, 14th March, has been celebrated in Estonia as the national Mother Tongue Day.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A. M. <\/span>(Translated by C. M.)<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Books in Estonian<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laulud, p\u00e4evaraamat ja kirjad<\/strong>. Korraldanud ja redigeerinud Aino Paltser. Tartu: Eesti Kirjanduse Seltsi koolikirjanduse toimkond, 1922, 189 lk.
Laulud; P\u00e4evaraamat<\/strong>. Redigeerinud ja eess\u00f5na: Karl Taev. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat, 1976, 128 lk.
IAAK: Kristian Jaak Peterson 200 = IAAK: Kristian Jaak Peterson: aus Anlass seines 200. Geburtstages<\/strong>. Toimetanud Urmas Sutrop, Kristiina Ross, Jaan Undusk jt (Eesti Keele Instituut ning Underi ja Tuglase Kirjanduskeskus). <\/span><\/span>Eess\u00f5na: Urmas Sutrop. Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus, 2001, 425 lk. [Includes the original texts of Peterson\u2019s two poetry collections and the diary, the glossary of those works, his all known linguistical articles in German and their Estonian translations, and overview of his life, work and reception. The book also contains German translations of 10 Peterson\u2019s odes and three poems written in German.]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poems Non-fiction About Kristian Jaak Peterson Kristian Jaak Peterson (Christian Jacob Petersohn, 14.\/2. III 1801 \u2013 4. VIII \/ 23. VII 1822) was a poet and literary figure, one of the icons of Estonian culture. He was born in Riga. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"parent":675,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1574","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1574"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5576,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1574\/revisions\/5576"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}