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Sunday 27 January 2013
Tumblr blog
My other blog on Tumblr where I collect images from fellow bloggers/travellers/photographers
Simply amazing. Karelian Folk Music. Not Finnish, not Russian. Karelian
Karelian Folk Music Ensemble - Tui Tui Tuomenkukka
Amazing folk song, played with Kantele, from the ancient land of forests and lakes. Not Russia or Finland. Even if they´re singing in Finnish and living in Russia, they are Karelian.
Amazing folk song, played with Kantele, from the ancient land of forests and lakes. Not Russia or Finland. Even if they´re singing in Finnish and living in Russia, they are Karelian.
Karelia - Russian Scandinavia
Interesting to trace the origins of current Finnish design in Eastern Karelia, which now is part of Russia. This is the place we are visiting this summer (2013) in search of handcrafts, so please let me know if you would like join into this mini expedition!
After Finland got its independence from Russia, the country was looking for motifs to become their national identify and they looked no further then the Eastern part of Karelia, now Russia. This explains a lot of intervention between the Northern Russia and Finnish arts and crafts.
Here is an extract from the book 'Finnish Design' and on the origins of Finnish design and how Finnish national idenity was developed through crafts and arts, primarily found in Karelia.
Finnish Design by Pekka Korvenmaa, 2009
p.31 [...] Fanny Churberg (1845-1892) was one of the charter members of the society (Friends of Finnish Handicraft Society, founded in 1879) and its leading figure until her death. She rejected her former career as a renowned painter and concentrated for the rest of her life on creating a national style, with woven textiles in particular as her medium. Appreciation of national motifs and their adaptation to contemporary needs were associated with the so-called national awakening that had emerged earlier. The cultural and literary symbol and flagship of the nationalist ideology that it engendered was the Kalevala folk poetry epic, originally published in 1835. Now, the impulses of the heritage of vernacular material culture became involved. Its most prominent re-interpretations were to be created in the 1890s and around the turn of the century.
The Friends of Finnish Handicraft first began to copy 'ancient Finnish' and mainly Finnish, Karelian, motifs. In this respect, it opened the way for the Karelianism that made a deep imprint on cultural life in Finland towards the end of the century. Copies gradually made way for new interpretations, combining folk heritage with the latest trends in applied art. [...]
p.33 [...] The quest for the 'Finnish' national, style that was regarded as important remained the task of visual artists and architects in the 1890s. [...]
Wild wild Oslo
Oslo is the smallest European capital with a population of only 600,000. It means that it takes one just 20 minutes on the train to be on the outskirts of the city and be in the wild. Be on the top of the hills surrounding Oslo and observe its beauty from the top.
Winters are amazing in Oslo, simply because it is so different to summers. Out in the woods, there is hardly anyone without their skies on. I tried to walk my usual path up the hill the other day, and it just didn't work/wasn't as pleasant, as all the Norwegians were giving me a strange looks of 'why is she walking, not skiing.. foreigner..'. And I was the one to give way every other second. I am getting skies next time. I still love my Oslo, so peaceful, so quite, idyllic. Will crave more of civilization soonish me thinks. Too good can't last for too long :)
Saturday 26 January 2013
Following Varangian routes. More on the quest to find links between Russia and Scandinavia.
So, according to wikipedia (I just copied the information, thought of this post more as of a compilation of found material and inspiration for future adventure possibly) Staraya Ladoga (Russian: Ста́рая Ла́дога), Finnish: Vanha Laatokka or the Aldeigjuborg of Norse sagas, is a village (selo) in the Volkhovsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the Volkhov River near Lake Ladoga, 8 km north of the town of Volkhov. The village used to be a prosperous trading outpost in the 8th and 9th centuries. A multi-ethnic settlement, it was dominated by Scandinavians who were called by the name of Rus and for that reason is sometimes called the first capital of Russia.
Dendrochronology suggests that Ladoga was founded in 753. Until 950, it was one of the most important trading ports of Eastern Europe. Merchant vessels sailed from the Baltic Sea through Ladoga to Novgorod and then to Constantinople or the Caspian Sea. This route is known as the Trade Route from the Varangians to the Greeks. An alternative way led down the Volga River along the Volga trade route to the Khazar capital of Atil, and then to the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, all the way to Baghdad. Tellingly, the oldest Arabian Middle Age coin in Europe was unearthed in Ladoga. Old (staraya means "old") Ladoga's inhabitants were Norsemen, Finns, and Slavs, hence different names for the city. The original Finnish name, Alode-joki (i.e., "lowland river"), was rendered as "Aldeigja" in Norse language and as "Ladoga" (Ладога) in Old East Slavic.
Staraya Ladoga, currently a selo located in the district, was mentioned in 862, as one of five original Russian towns (the other being Belozersk, Novgorod, Polotsk, and Rostov). According to the Primary Chronicle, Rurik established his residence in Ladoga before moving to Novgorod, and thus Staraya Ladoga is sometimes considered as the first historical capital of Russia. The Volkhov River served as a part of the trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks.
Ladoga under Rurik and Rurikids
According to the Hypatian Codex, the legendary Varangian leader Rurik arrived at Ladoga in 862 and made it his capital. Rurik's successors later moved to Novgorod and then to Kiev, thus laying foundations for the powerful state of Kievan Rus. There are several huge kurgans, or royal funerary barrows, at the outskirts of Ladoga. One of them is said to be Rurik's grave, and another one—that of his successor Oleg. The Heimskringla and other Norse sources mention that in the late 990s Eiríkr Hákonarson of Norway raided the coast and set the town ablaze. Ladoga was the most important trading center in Eastern Europe from about 800 to 900 CE, and it is estimated that between 90 to 95% of all Arab dirhams found in Sweden passed through Ladoga.
Ladoga's next mention in chronicles is dated to 1019, when Ingigerd of Sweden married Yaroslav of Novgorod. Under the terms of their marriage settlement, Yaroslav ceded Ladoga to his wife, who appointed her father's cousin, the Swedish earl Ragnvald Ulfsson, to rule the town. This information is confirmed by sagas and archaeological evidence, which suggests that Ladoga gradually evolved into a primarily Varangian settlement. At least two Swedish kings spent their youths in Ladoga, king Stenkil and Inge I, and possibly also king Anund Gårdske.
In the 12th and 13th centuries, Ladoga functioned as a trade outpost of the powerful Novgorod Republic. Later its trade significance declined and most of the population engaged in fishing in 15th century. After new fortresses such as Oreshek and Korela were constructed in the 14th century further to the west of Ladoga the town's military significance also decreased. Ladoga belonged to theVodskaya pyatina of the republic and contained 84 homesteads in the 15th century; most of the land belonged to the church. The Novgorodians built there a citadel with five towers and several churches. The fortress was rebuilt at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, while the mid-12th-century churches of St. George and of Mary's Assumption stand in all their original glory. Inside St. George's. some magnificent 12th-century frescoes are still visible.
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