Henrik Gabriel Porthan

Who was Henrik Gabriel Porthan?

Henrik Gabriel Porthan was a scholar sometimes known as The Father of Finnish History. He was a student of Daniel Juslenius and a Fennophile. He brought Finnish history-writing, study of mythology and folk poetry, and other humanistic sciences to an international level. His De Poësi Fennica, a study on Finnish folk poetry, had great importance in awakening public interest in the Kalevala-poetry and Finnish mythology, and the study was also the basis of all later study of the poetry. He was among the founders of the Aurora Society that advocated Finnish literary pursuits and was the editor of the first Finnish newspaper, Tidningar ugifne af et sällskap i Åbo, founded in 1771.

Porthan was the teacher of Frans Mikael Franzén and also inspired the following generation of Finnish authors, poets and researchers, many of whom were among the founders of the Finnish Literature Society in 1831.