Elias Lönnrot and the Vienan reitti marker tree
The tree near Kivi-Kevätti lake, which bears the dates 1833 and 1837, is a marker of the Vienan reitti. In the summer of 2021, the tree will be protected by a canopy and information boards about the journeys of poetry collectors and cultural researchers. Lönnrot is the most famous poet who travelled the Vienan reitti, which is why the tree is known as Lönnrot's marker tree. Indeed, the Vienan reitti played a key role in the creation of the Kalevala folk epic: Lönnrot travelled the Vienan reitti four times on his poetry collection trips to Viena Karelia. For this reason, local people have called the Vienan reitti the Lönnrot Trail.
Elias Lönnrot on the Vienan reitti for the first time
Elias Lönnrot visited Vuokki village (including Matero and Vuokinniemi) already in the summer of 1831, but had to return to Helsinki in the middle of his journey. Lönnrot was on the Vienan reitti for the first time in September 1833. At that time, he recorded Vuokki songs and sayings. The boat trip continued to Hyry and from there on foot via Viianki, across the Wuokinlatva border to Kivijärvi and Tsena and on to Vuonninen, where he met two important poets, Ontrei Malinen and Vaassila Kieleväinen. On his way back, Lönnrot rode a horse from Kivijärvi to Salmijärvi.
Lönnrot meets Arhippa Perttunen
The next time Lönnrot travelled the Vienan reitti was in April 1834, when he met his greatest poet, Arhippa Perttunen, at Latvajärvi village. The meeting was crucial to the content of the Kalevala epic. The Kalevala epic was published in February 1835. In April-May 1835, Lönnrot returned from his extensive trip to Kianta and Kajaani along the Vienan reitti. Lönnrot was again on the Vienan reitti in June 1837, when he got lost on the path. The travelogue contains a colourful description of a charismatic preacher called Mikkonen, who was travelling in the Vuokki. The 1839 journey to Viena Karelia to collect poetry passed through Vuokki, but not exactly via the Vienan reitti.
Other ethnographers on the Vienan reitti
Jacob Fellman (1795-1875), a priest and scientist, passed through Vuokki to Viena Karelia in 1829. ”The closer I came to the Maanselkä, the more frequent was the singing of poetry. In this highland, especially in Vuokki and Vuokkiniemi, countless tales and poems about the heroic deeds, outlook on life and religion of past generations live on the lips of the people.”
Axel August Borenius (1846-1931), a folklorist, travelled through Vuokki to Viena Karelia with Arvid Genetz and Aksel Berner in 1872. Borenius wrote in his description of his journey. This harbour on the west side of the ridge, where boats are left and where the waterway ends, has been playfully called ”the town of Tornion".
August Vilhelm Ervasti (1845-1900), a journalist, returned to Finland from his journey from Russian Karelia via Vuokki in 1879. Ervasti describes his return journey. "From the lake it was then a quarter to a quarter to Hyry's house, where we stayed the night.”
Johan Wilhelm Juvelius (1863-1927), a scholar of folklore and literature, travelled along the Vuokki Vienan reitti in August 1886 on his return from an expedition to Viena Karelia. ”After staying there (in Vuokkiniemi) for another 24 hours, I finally arrived on the 10th of the same month via the villages of Kivijärvi and Latvajärvi across the border to the village of Hyry on the Finnish side, from where I descended the waters of Hyrynsalmi to Kajaani, etc.”
Into Kondrad Inha (1865-1930), a photographer, writer, translator and journalist, returned home from his trip to Viena Karelia via Vuokki together with the linguist F. K. Karjalainen in September 1894. ”First we crossed Kivjöörvi lake by boat, then across a short stretch of land to Viianki lake, which is already on the Finnish side, and from the other end of the lake three quarters of the way to the shore of Hyry, where one of the perched waters stretches all the way to the sea.” Inha also describes how they visited the ”Vuokki rich”, or ”Vuokki tycoons”, who lent flour to the Vienankarelians in times of need, and how ”nowhere across the border were there such lush meadows as in the mudflats of the Vuokki waters”. Before their return journey, Inha and Karjalainen visited Vuokki twice from Viena Karelia on the Finnish side.
Iivo Marttinen (1870-1934), a merchant, a lay collector of folklore, came from the village of Kivijärvi in Viena Karelia. The people of Kivijärvi travelled along the waterways and paths of Vienan reitti to Finland and back home to Viena Karelia. Iivo Marttinen went to Finland as a merchant's assistant at the age of 15, and his separation from his mother and home village is described as follows. Hyry shore was the place from which the Viena Karelians set off by boat toward the wider world.
Ilmari Kianto (1874-1970), a writer, travelled several times to Vuokki and the Kuivajärvi and Hietajärvi villages and via Vuokki to Viena Karelia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
For more information:
https://kalevalaseura.fi/kalevalasta/elias-lonnrot
https://kaku.kalevalaseura.fi/piirilaakarina-kajaanissa/
