Antti Aarne’s path to becoming an internationally renowned folklorist was not quite the stuff of fairy tales. Aarne was born into a working class family, the son of a blacksmith. His father died young and his mother passed away during Aarne’s school days. The talented and hardworking orphan nevertheless succeeded well at school.

Aarne matriculated from Pori Lyceum in 1889, after which he progressed to Helsinki and the Imperial Alexander University. He graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in 1893. Between 1895 and 1998 he was awarded a scholarship to study in Moscow, where he also collected folklore material for his doctoral dissertation. The period between the end of the 1880s and the end of the 1920s was the golden age of Finnish folk poetry research, and thus the timing of Aarne’s doctoral dissertation, which was published in 1907, was perfect.

Aarne was already 39 when he defended his thesis, as financial difficulties had delayed the completion of his doctoral dissertation. In 1896 Aarne had married Eeva Andersson (1872–1948), and three daughters were born to the couple between 1899 and 1906. In order to support his family, Aarne worked as a Finnish language teacher in Kokkola and Sortavala, where he was also the head teacher and principal respectively.

In 1911, Aarne was named docent in Finnish and comparative folk poetry, but this failed, nevertheless, to completely solve his financial problems. He was, however, still able to work abroad; in 1913–14 he visited such countries as Germany, France and England. The award of a professorship at the University of Helsinki in 1922 secured his finances and enabled him to devote his full attention to university teaching and research. However, the difficulties of the preceding years had seemingly taken their toll, and Aarne died in 1925 aged just 57. Nevertheless, his career left an indelible mark on the academic world.

Sources:

• Apo, Satu. “Antti Aarne – globaali menestyjä. (Antti aarne – a global success)” Helsingin yliopiston kirjaston tiedotuslehti 1/2005
• Apo, Satu. Aarne, Antti. National Biography online publication. Accessed October 8, 2015.
• Helsingin yliopiston opettaja- ja virkamiesmatrikkeli 1640–1917
• Helsingin yliopiston Ylioppilasmatrikkeli 1853–1899