Aleksis Kivi wrote the first important Finnish-language novel as well as plays and lyrical poetry at a time when Finnish was not used as a language of literature. The rare examples of literature published in Finland before Kivi had been in Swedish.
Kivi’s first play Kullervo received a prize in a competition for plays held by the Finnish Literature Society in 1860. The play The Heath Cobblers (Nummisuutarit), published by Kivi in 1864 at his own expense, received the first State Prize for Finnish literature awarded by the Tsar of Russia. The novel Seven Brothers (Seitsemän veljestä) was published in 1870.
Kivi created a literary Finnish that was remarkably original: it was based on dialects, proverbs, religious texts, the Swedish language and world literature. Kivi depicted Finns humorously and warmly in his works.
Translations of The Seven Brothers (Seitsemän veljestä)
Translations of The Heat Cobblers (Nummisuutarit)
Translations of other plays and tales
Translations of the poems
More translations
| | |  The Seven Brothers, Swedish translation. | |
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