Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald

Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald (26 December [O.S. 14 December] 1803 – 25 August [O.S. 13 August] 1882) was an Estonian writer and the author of the national epic Kalevipoeg.

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Quick Facts Born, Died ...

Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald
Born	26 December [O.S. 14 December] 1803 Jömper Manor, Jömper, Kreis Wierland, Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire (in present-day Jõepere, Lääne-Viru County, Estonia)
Died	25 August [O.S. 13 August] 1882 (aged 78) Dorpat, Kreis Dorpat, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire (present-day Tartu, Tartu County, Estonia)
Resting place	Raadi cemetery
Occupation	Writer
Movement	Estonian national awakening

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Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald's parents was born at the Jömper estate, Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire (in present-day Jõepere, Lääne-Viru County, Estonia) where his father Juhan worked as a shoemaker and granary keeper and mother Anne was a chambermaid.^[1] The family sent their son to continue his studies at the Wesenberg (Rakvere) district school.

In 1820, he graduated from secondary school in Dorpat (Tartu) and began working as an elementary school teacher. In 1833, Kreutzwald graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the Imperial University of Dorpat.

Kreutzwald married Marie Elisabeth Saedler on 18 August the same year. From 1833 to 1877, he worked as the municipal physician in Werro (Võru).^[2] He was the member of numerous scientific societies in Europe and received honorary doctorates from a number of universities.

Kreutzwald is the author of several moralistic folk books, most of them translated into German: Plague of Wine 1840, The World and Some Things One Can Find in It 1848–49, Reynard the Fox 1850, and Wise Men of Gotham 1857. In addition to these works, he composed the national epic Kalevipoeg (Kalev's Son),^[3] using material initially gathered by his friend Friedrich Robert Faehlmann;^[4] and wrote many other works based on Estonian folklore, such as Old Estonian Fairy-Tales (1866), collections of verses, and the poem Lembitu (1885), published after his death.

Kreutzwald is considered one of the intellectual leaders of the Estonian national awakening. He also was a role model for young Estonian-speaking intellectuals.

• Andrew Lang's Fairy Books
• J. R. R. Tolkien
• Kalevala