{"id":1822,"date":"2024-04-03T23:42:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T20:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/truupold\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T15:56:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T12:56:50","slug":"truupold","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/t\/truupold\/","title":{"rendered":"Irma Truup\u00f5ld"},"content":{"rendered":"

Children\u2019s stories<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\"Irma<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irma Truup\u00f5ld (real name Johanna Wilhelmine Irmgard Treufeldt, in marriage later Pihlak, 29.\/16. VII 1903 \u2013 26. XI 1980) was an Estonian writer who mostly wrote children\u2019s prose but has also published poetry for children and adults.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was born in Tallinn to Juhan Treufeldt, a small business owner. After her father\u2019s sudden death, the family moved to Valga. In 1912, she started school in Valga private primary school. From 1913\u20131916, she studied at Tarvastu-Mustla parish school. In 1916, she continued her studies in Tallinn, first at Ms. Leisti school, then from 1918\u20131924 at E. Lender Private Gymnasium for Girls, which was followed by the State Industrial Art School (the modern-day Estonian Academy of Arts). In school, her interest in literature and writing talent became evident and in high school, the idea for her most famous work Rohelise P\u00e4ikese Maa<\/em> (\u2018The Land of the Green Sun\u2019) came to her. In 1924, she became an invoice clerk of the P\u00e4evaleht<\/em> newspaper editorial board. She began publishing poems and short stories in various newspapers and magazines. She married doctor Oskar Pihlak in 1932 and had three children. During her married years, she lived as a freelance writer in L\u00e4\u00e4ne-Viru County and T\u00fcri, and during the war in Tallinn.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1945, her husband was arrested and deported to Russia; next year, her daughter passed away. Truup\u00f5ld\u2019s writings were declared unsuitable due to their excessively fantastic elements that did not conform to the <\/span>canon of\u00a0<\/span>socialist realism\u00a0of the time. Truup\u00f5ld gave up being a writer and from 1952, worked as an invoice and statistical clerk in several public sector institutions. She died in Tallinn and is buried at Metsakalmistu Cemetery.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

She made her debut in the magazine Laste R\u00f5\u00f5m<\/em> with a short story Tuuleema ja tuuleonu<\/em> (\u2018Wind Mother and Wind Uncle\u2019, 1923). In the 1920s and 1930s, several periodicals published her children\u2019s prose \u2013 realistic stories of preschool and young school children and emotional short fairytales. Her small children poetry and personal love and nature poetry addressed to adults also belong to the same period. She became well-known for her fairtytales that depict nature and the world of toys and unite the realist with the fantastical. Her animal story with popular science motifs \u00d6\u00f6mori okaslinn<\/em> (\u2018The Needle City of \u00d6\u00f6mori\u2019, 1936) that describes the highly regulated life of an ant colony was awarded first place in a children\u2019s literature competition by Loodus publishing house. The fairytale Rohelise P\u00e4ikese Maa<\/em> (\u2018The Land of the Green Sun\u2019) became one of the most popular children\u2019s books in Estonia. It tells an adventurous story of two forgotten dolls in search of a new home. The story touches the topics of love and friendship and introduces children to the microcosm of nature and the life and struggles of small forest creatures.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The holiday fairytale Kuidas j\u00f5uluvana leidis endale ameti<\/em> (\u2018How Santa Found His Calling\u2019, 1937) was published as a separate book and it tells the story of a kind old man in the form of a Christian legend. The young adult novel Aadi esimene armastus<\/em> (\u2018Aadi\u2019s First Love\u2019, 1937) is patriotic in tone and describes the physical and mental coming of age of a city boy in the country for the summer. She wrote the libretto for the operetta Kalurineiu<\/em> (\u2018Fisher Girl\u2019, 1940, composer Priit Ardna, staged in the Estonian National Opera the same year) the main theme of which is the love for one\u2019s home island Saaremaa. Her last writings date from 1947\u20131949, when she published some short stories and poems in periodicals. In the 1970s, she began her memoir Valga onu<\/em> (\u2018The Uncle from Valga\u2019) but never finished. She was also very interested in local lore and her family roots.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the 1970s, critics have returned to being increasingly approving of Truup\u00f5ld\u2019s children\u2019s stories. However, even though her writings can be found in several collections, they have never again achieved the recognition of the pre-war years.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A. O. (Translated by A. S.)<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Children\u2019s books in Estonian<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00d6\u00f6mori okaslinn<\/strong>. Tartu: Loodus, 1936, 80 lk. [2. tr\u00fckk: Tallinn: Perioodika, 1992, 55 lk.]
Rohelise P\u00e4ikese Maa<\/strong>. Tartu: Loodus, 1936, 128 lk. [J\u00e4rgnevad tr\u00fckid: Tallinn: Ilukirjandus ja Kunst, 1946, 96 lk; Tallinn: Eesti Raamat, 1980, 104 lk, 2022.]
Kuidas j\u00f5uluvana leidis endale ameti<\/strong>. Tartu: Loodus, 19 lk. [J\u00e4rgnev tr\u00fckk: Tallinn: Eesti Raamatu\u00fching, 1990, 19 lk.]
Aadi esimene armastus<\/strong>. Tartu: Loodus, 1937, 208 lk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Children\u2019s stories\u00a0 Irma Truup\u00f5ld (real name Johanna Wilhelmine Irmgard Treufeldt, in marriage later Pihlak, 29.\/16. VII 1903 \u2013 26. XI 1980) was an Estonian writer who mostly wrote children\u2019s prose but has also published poetry for children and adults. She …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"parent":709,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1822","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1822","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=1822"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8355,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1822\/revisions\/8355"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}