Heiti Talvik, from decadent dream to martyrdom

Estonia, my native country, and her literature are little known to the world at large; thus I think it would be helpful to recall a few facts from her historical and literary life.* Proto-Estonians and Estonians, as shown by archaeological discoveries, have inhabited the shores of the Baltic Sea for at least five to six millennia. Yet Estonia is seldom mentioned or described in the writings of classical antiquity. Although Tacitus wrote of a people called Aestii, it is not clear whether he meant the Estonians themselves or their neighbours.1 Much later, Alfred the Great and the medieval chroniclers gave the first descriptions of the country, some of them full of enthusiasm. And it was also in the medieval period that the Estonian folk epic Kalevipoeg (The Son of Kalev) was conceived. The late Norman Holmes Pearson of Yale University has praised this epic highly; and in view of the power and unity of the whole composition, as well as its metaphorical richness and musicality, Professor Pearson's praise is not undeserved.2 Kalevipoeg has been translated into German, Russian, Finnish, Swedish, Czech, Hebrew and other tongues; but unfortunately it has not yet been rendered into such major languages as English, French, Spanish, Arabic or Chinese. Estonia lost her independence as early as the thirteenth century, in the course of Christendom's expansion toward the East. At the beginning of that century Germany and Denmark two equally powerful countriesattacked Estonia simultaneously from the South and North. After a war of nearly three decades, the much smaller Estonian army was forced to surrender, and the country was divided between her conquerors. Yet the creative spirit of the Estonians remained unbroken, and, during the next seven centuries, under the rule of various larger powers, one million people in Estonia produced a treasury of 400,000 folk songs,3 giving her the richest

Ancient history · Art · Dream · Psychotherapist · Historical and Archaeological Studies · History · Psychology

• Acht estnische Dichter

  Victor Terras, Ants Oras et al.•The Slavic and East European…•1966

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