Fibula, Fabula, Fact - The Viking Age in Finland

"The chapters of Fibula, Fabula, Fact – The Viking Age in Finland are intended to provide essential foundations for approaching the important topic of the Viking Age in Finland. These chapters are oriented to provide introductions to the sources, methods and perspectives of diverse disciplines so that these resources and the history of discourse from which they emerge are accessible to specialists from other fields, specialists from outside Finland, and also to non-specialist readers and students who may be more generally interested in the topic. Rather than detailed case studies of specific aspects of the Viking Age in Finland, the contributors have sought to negotiate definitions of the Viking Age as a historical period in the cultural areas associated with modern-day Finland, and in areas associated with Finns, Karelians and other North Finnic linguistic-cultural groups more generally. Within the incredible diversity of data and disciplines represented here, attention tends to center on the identification of the Viking Age through differentiating it from earlier and later periods, and on contextualizing it geographically in an era long before the construction of modern nations with their fenced and guarded borders. Most significantly, the contributions lay emphasis on contextualizing the Viking Age within the complexities of defining cultural identities in the past through traces of cultural, linguistic or genetic features."

The full preface for this peer reviewed publication from the Finnish Literatue Society of Helsinki, edited by Joonas Ahola and Frog with Clive Tolley, may be read and also downloaded at Academia.edu.

Amorphis Guitarist Discusses Upcoming Album

"Released on May 27, 2011 via Nuclear Blast Records, "The Beginning Of Times" was described as "the most challenging AMORPHIS album so far in terms of both music and lyrics." Its central character is the iconic hero of Finnish mythology, Väinämöinen, whose tale has been masterfully retold by lyricist Pekka Kainulainen." Read the full article at Blabbermouth.

Rediscovering the spirit of Sibelius

Lemminkäisen äiti (Lemminkäinen's mother) by Akseli Gallen-Kallela 1897 – Lemminkäinen's mother on the banks of the river of Tuonela reviving her son. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

"Sibelius's seven symphonies loom like dark, brooding enigmas over the entire orchestral repertoire. Nearly 90 years after the last was completed – the radical and still influential Seventh in 1924 – they still pose a challenge to orchestras and conductors keen to realise their brave new worlds of sound. There are things in Sibelius's symphonies that music had never done before, new kinds of sounds at the outer limits of orchestral possibility. At one pole of his imagination are the evocations of epic landscapes, as in the unforgettable big tunes at the end of the Second or Fifth. At the other, there's the microscopic detail of his orchestration, the subtlety and shimmer of his string-writing – as if Sibelius had taken the lens of his musical imagination and zoomed in on individual pine needles in the vast forests of his Finnish homeland."

The full text of this article by Tom Service about the composer who gave musical life to the Kalevala, in much the same way Wagner did for the Nibelungenlied, may be read at the Guardian.

Northern Lights make impressive show

Wikimedia Commons

From spaceweather.com:


"The CME that hit Earth gave us some nice, colourful and easy-moving auroras," says photographer Antti Pietikäinen of Muonio, Lapland, Finland, who enjoyed the show with his two dogs.

Also in the Finnish Lapland, Chad Blakely says "the auroras exploded all over the sky. If this is a sign of things to come the rest of the season should be fantastic!!"

Several amazing photos from various contributors have been posted to the Space Weather site. More can be viewed at Lights Over Lapland.

Finnish folk metal band Turisas begins tour of Spain

Century Media

"The Finns landed in Spain to present their new album 'Stand Up and Fight', a very ambitious work which hearkens back to high drama and epic themes. Turisas are a band that has achieved great popularityTurisas are a band that has achieved great popularity in a very short time thanks to its blend of folk and heavy metal." Full article, in Spanish, may be found at Suite 101.