{"id":168,"date":"2024-04-03T23:39:27","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T20:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/ridala\/"},"modified":"2024-04-04T00:10:49","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T21:10:49","slug":"ridala","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/r\/ridala\/","title":{"rendered":"Villem Ridala"},"content":{"rendered":"

Poems<\/span><\/strong><\/a>\"Villem<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

About Villem Ridala<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Villem Ridala (born Villem Gr\u00fcnthal, 30. V 1885 \u2013 16. I 1942) was an Estonian poet and one of the most important authors of Estonian neo-romantic poetry in the beginning of the twentieth century. He was born on the island of Muhu in Kuivastu village and studied at Hellamaa Parish School and Kuressaare Gymnasium in Saaremaa from 1897\u20131905. He then went on to study Finnish philology, folklore, and the history of the Nordic countries from 1905\u20131909 at the University of Helsinki. He worked from 1910\u20131919 as an Estonian language teacher in Tartu at the historical Estonian Youth Education Association\u2019s Secondary School for Girls, which was the first Estonian language gymnasium (founded in 1906). Additionally, he worked as an editor from 1910\u20131914 for the journal Eesti Kirjandus<\/em>, and from 1914\u20131916 for \u00dcli\u00f5pilasleht<\/em>. In 1919, he went to Helsinki on a scholarship from the University of Tartu and remained at the University of Helsinki as a lecturer of Estonian language and literature from 1923\u20131942. In 1941, he defended his doctoral dissertation in the field of Baltic Finnic languages. He died, however, eight months later in Helsinki from serious illness. <\/span>
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Studies focused in a more classical direction at Kuressaare High School played a decisive role in Ridala\u2019s formation as a poet, piquing his interest in languages and classical literature. Having a gift for languages, he learned a number of them through school courses as well as self-study, and took a particular interest in Italian, from which he later translated to Estonian. His first verses and also short prose attempts were published in the high school journal Nooreestlane<\/em>, which was drafted by a nationally minded and culturally interested student group. Ridala\u2019s print debut arrived in 1905 with the poem Talvine \u00f5htu<\/em> (\u2018Winter Night\u2019) as part of the first album published by the literary group Noor-Eesti. With its quietly enchanting mood and poignant form, \u2018Winter Night\u2019 has remained his most famous poem. <\/span>
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Ridala\u2019s more original and creatively important work were his youth lyrics, especially his first collection Villem Gr\u00fcnthali laulud<\/em> (\u2018Villem Gr\u00fcnthal\u2019s songs\u2019, 1908). This collection contains predominantly impressionistic nature poetry characterized by an alert cognition and nuanced emotions as well as varied rhythms and innovative graphic layout. Natural depictions in his second collection Kauged rannad<\/em> (\u2018The Faraway Beaches\u2019, 1914) contain fewer personal emotions and more objective landscape details. The depictions are mostly constrained by classical forms and appear as static, but they still include some memorable views of the seaside that were characteristic to Ridala and inspired by the landscapes of Saaremaa and Muhumaa. In the collections that followed, the form of his poems become even more strict and the wording more complex. From the beginning, Ridala had used linguistically innovative words and forms, but over time, their abundance began to appear as artificial and even anachronistic. <\/span>
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In addition to lyrics, Ridala wrote also longer epic-leaning verses based primarily on folklore. The first of these published poems were Ungru krahv ehk N\u00e4ckmansgrund<\/em> (\u2018The Count of Ungru or N\u00e4ckmansgrund\u2019, 1915) and Merineitsit<\/em> (\u2018The Mermaid\u2019, 1918). The poem Toomas ja Mai<\/em> (\u2018Toomas and Mai\u2019, 1924) had the proportions of an epic and contained material mostly from Estonian epic folksongs, particularly from family ballads, and was written in the old Estonian runic verse. The ballad collection Sinine kari<\/em> (\u2018The Blue Herd\u2019, 1930) was also inspired by Estonian and Finnish folksongs. Because of their cumbersome structure and lack of dramatic development, Ridala\u2019s verse epics did not gain much popularity, but they nevertheless complemented the poetic scene of the time in interesting ways. <\/span>
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Ridala also published studies on culture and literature, such as the essay T\u00f5u k\u00fcsimus<\/em> (\u2018The Question of Breed\u2019, 1915), Esteetika<\/em> (\u2018Aesthetics\u2019, 1919, inspired by the Italian Benedetto Croce), and a series on Estonian literary history for schools.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

E. S. (Translated by M. M.)<\/em>

<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Books in Estonian<\/p>\n

Poems<\/em><\/strong>
Villem Gr\u00fcnthali Laulud<\/strong>. Tartu: Noor-Eesti, 1908, 70 lk.
Kauged rannad<\/strong>. Tartu: Noor-Eesti, 1914, 90 lk.
Ungru krahv ehk N\u00e4ckmansgrund<\/strong>. Hiiu jutt suurest rahust VII loos, epiloogiga 67 stanzis. Tartu: Noor-Eesti, 1915, 30 lk.
Merineitsit<\/strong>. Muinaslooline poeem XX laulus. Tartu: Noor-Eesti, 1918, 82 lk.
Saarnak<\/strong>. Tartu: Noor-Eesti, 1918, 53 lk. [Poeem.] <\/span>
Toomas ja Mai<\/strong>. Lugulaul orjaajast neljas loos. Tallinn: Tallinna Eesti Kirjastus\u00fchisus, 1924, 433 lk.
Tuules ja tormis<\/strong>. Kogu laulusid ja ballaada. Tartu: Noor-Eesti, 1927, 172 lk.
Sinine kari<\/strong>. Kogu ballaada ja legenda. Tartu: Noor-Eesti, 1930, 58 lk.
Meret\u00e4ht<\/strong>. Tartu: Noor-Eesti, 1935, 116 lk.
Laulud ja Kauged rannad<\/strong>. Tartu: Noor-Eesti, 1938, 130 lk.
Villem Ridala<\/strong>. Koostanud Ain Kaalep. Tallinn: Valgus, 1969, 87 lk. [Sari \u2018V\u00e4ike luuleraamat\u2019.] <\/span>
Valitud v\u00e4rsid<\/strong>. Koostanud Oskar Kruus. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat, 1986, 166 lk. \u00a0
P\u00fcha Rist<\/strong>. Toimetanud ja ees- ning j\u00e4rels\u00f5na Ruth Mirov. Tallinn: Eesti Kirikute N\u00f5ukogu, 2005, 444 lk. [Poeem.] <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Stories<\/em><\/strong>
Kalevipoeg<\/strong>. Tallinn: Kool, 1921, 109 lk. <\/span>[Proosa\u00fcmberjutustus.]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Non-fiction<\/em><\/strong>
Anna Haava. 50-aastase s\u00fcnnip\u00e4eva puhul<\/strong>. Tartu: Eesti Kirjandus, 1914, 83 lk.
T\u00f5u k\u00fcsimus<\/strong>. Tartu: Postimees, 1915, 159 lk.
Esteetika<\/strong>. Tartu: Noor-Eesti, 1919, 78 lk.
Ringi m\u00f6\u00f6da kodumaad<\/strong>. Tallinn: Maa, 1921, 107 lk.
Eesti kirjanduse ajalugu<\/strong>. Koolidele. Tartu: Noor-Eesti, 1922, 166 lk.
Eesti kirjanduse ajaloo lugemik<\/strong>. I\u2013II jagu. Tartu: Noor-Eesti, 1923, 175 + 158 lk.
Eesti kirjanduse ajalugu. Koolidele. I jagu<\/strong>. Tartu: Noor-Eesti, 1924, 295 lk.
Eesti kirjanduse ajalugu. Koolidele. II. jagu<\/strong>. Tartu: Noor-Eesti, 1925, 304 lk.
Ernst Enno<\/strong>. Essee. Tartu: Postimees, 1925, 23 lk.
Eesti kirjanduse ajalugu. III. jagu<\/strong>. Tartu: Noor-Eesti, 1939, 335 lk. [Koolidele.]<\/span>
T\u00f5u k\u00fcsimus<\/strong>. Koostanud Riho Gr\u00fcnthal ja Hando Runnel. Tartu: Ilmamaa, 2014, 467 lk.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poems About Villem Ridala Villem Ridala (born Villem Gr\u00fcnthal, 30. V 1885 \u2013 16. I 1942) was an Estonian poet and one of the most important authors of Estonian neo-romantic poetry in the beginning of the twentieth century. He was …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"parent":686,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-168","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/168","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=168"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4904,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/168\/revisions\/4904"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}