Daniel Juslenius was arguably the first great fennophile. Encouraged by his mentor, Johannes Gezelius the younger, he both discoursed and wrote about Finnishness and the Finnish language already whilst studying in the early years of the eighteenth century.

Juslenius’ debut as an advocate of Finnishness came with a preliminary thesis entitled Aboa vetus et nova (‘Old and new Turku’) written in 1700. It was more or less this work that formed the basis for Juslenius’ reputation as the first great fennophile. Models for the study were Michael Wexonios’ 1650 historico-geographic portrait of Finland and most notably Olof Rudbeck the Elder’s work Atlantica, published in 1679.

In his work, Juslenius praised Finland and Finns in the tradition of Atlantica and more broadly gothic historiography. He traced Finns’ roots to the biblical Magog. In this way he wanted to construct for Finns as grandiose a past as Rudbeck had done for the Swedes. In the thesis Juslenius offered proof of the Finns’ hagiographic connection to Old Testament peoples with other Biblical exegesis. He sought, and found, an ancient precedent for Finnish civilisation. Juslenius propounded the thesis that had in fact invented writing:

Many have widely demonstrated that the literacy of learned Swedes preceded that of the Romans. Fashioners of letters, the Kimmeri, were in many places living in Lapland and the North[…] The Kimmeri lived under the Northern Star […] and they were the same that in these days we called Kemiläiset [dwellers in Kemi, northern Finland]. Every child knows that Kemiläset are Finns.

In his Master’s dissertation, Vindiciae Fennorum (1703, ‘In defence of Finland’), Juslenius continued his championing of Finnishness. With reference to Aristotle and Herodotus, he claimed inter alia that Finland’s barren land and cold climate was in fact a boon to Finns, contrary to the claims often made by others. Owing to their circumstances, the Finns, in Juslenius’ scheme of things, had developed into brave and hardy individuals, so much so that they were untroubled by the diseases which afflicted many peoples dwelling further south.

In his inaugural professorial address of 1712, Juslenius returned to Biblical themes. He strove to demonstrate the points of connection between Finnish on the one hand, and Hebrew and Greek on the other, and had found indeed found 500 Finnish words which he suggested were Hebrew in origin.

Fleeing the Great Wrath to Sweden, in 1713 Juslenius delivered his inaugural speech in the Västerås school. In his speech De miseriis Fennorum (‘The Finnish misery’), he claimed that the Swedes’ approach to their neighbouring peoples had been at best questionable and that the difficulties experienced by Finland were largely the fault of the Swedes.

Later Juslenius worked diligently on behalf of Finnishness and Finns in his capacity as bishop of the diocese of Porvoo, east of Helsinki. He also published the first lexicon of the Finnish language, Suomalaisen Sana-Lugun Coetus (1745). It contained about 16,000 Finnish words, partly drawn from earlier works written in Finnish, and partly gathered from his dealings in his locality.

References:

• Reijo Pitkäranta, ’Juslenius, Daniel (1676–1752)’, National Biography of Finland online. Accessed April 16, 2015. (In Finnish)
• Olof Mustelin, ’Daniel Juslenius’ Dictionary of Swedish National Biography online. Accessed April 16, 2015.(In Swedish)
• Päivi Kannisto, Suolatut säkeet. Suomen ja suomalaisten diskursiivinen muotoutuminen 1600-luvulta Topeliukseen, (’Salted verses. The formation of Finland and Finnish discourse from the seventeenth century to Topelius’) Jyväskylä 1997. Online 2nd edition. Accessed April 16, 2015. (In Finnish)