Kristian Jaak Peterson (,

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the B ...

– , Riga) also known as Christian Jacob Petersohn, was an Estonian poet, commonly regarded as a herald of Estonian national literature and the founder of modern Estonian poetry. He died of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in w ...

aged 21. His birthday is celebrated in Estonia as Mother Tongue Day.

Biography and work

He was born on 14 March 1801 in Riga. Best known as an Estonian poet, he is commonly regarded as a herald of Estonian national literature and the founder of modern Estonian poetry. His literary career was cut short by the

that killed him at the age of 21. : ''Cannot the tongue of this land,'' : ''In the wind of incantation,'' : ''Rising up to the heavens,'' : ''Seek eternity?'' ::::''Kristian Jaak Peterson'' Those lines have been interpreted as a claim to reestablish the birthright of the

Estonian language Estonian ( ) is a Finnic language, written in the Latin script. It is the official language of Estonia and one of the official languages of the European Union, spoken natively by about 1.1 million people; 922,000 people in Estonia and 160 ...

. After the

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

was reopened in 1802, but with lectures given in German only, Kristian Jaak Peterson became the first university student to acknowledge his Estonian origin, contributing to the

Estonian National Awakening The Estonian Age of Awakening ( et, Ärkamisaeg) is a period in history where Estonians came to acknowledge themselves as a nation deserving the right to govern themselves. This period is considered to begin in the 1850s with greater rights bein ...

. Kristian Jaak Peterson gathered his Estonian poems into two small books but never saw them published, as this only occurred a hundred years after his death. Three German poems were published posthumously in 1823. One of Peterson's projects was fulfilled in his lifetime, the German version of Kristfrid Ganander's '' Mythologia Fennica'', a dictionary of Finnish mythological words and names (the

Swedish language Swedish ( ) is a North Germanic language spoken predominantly in Sweden and in parts of Finland. It has at least 10 million native speakers, the fourth most spoken Germanic language and the first among any other of its type in the Nordic cou ...

original was published in 1789). Peterson's translation of Ganander's dictionary found many readers in Estonia and abroad, becoming an important source of national ideology and inspiration for early Estonian literature. Its dominating influence extended through the first decades of the 20th century. By nature, Peterson imitated the lifestyle of the Greek cynics and dressed extravagantly, including elements of Estonian traditional clothing (a characteristic long black coat) in his dress. Being exceptionally talented in linguistic subjects, he quickly obtained knowledge of several languages, both ancient and modern, wrote philological treatises and made an attempt to compose a Swedish grammar. In modern days, Peterson's linguistic manuscripts, together with the original versions of his poems and diary, were published in 2001 in an Estonian-German bilingual edition, which included some new translations.Kristian Jaak Peterson
t Estonian Literature information Center

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peterson, Kristian Jaak 1801 births 1822 deaths Writers from Riga Riga State Gymnasium No.1 alumni 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis 19th-century Estonian poets Estonian male poets 19th-century male writers Tuberculosis deaths in Latvia