Folklore and folk customs were very dear to D.E.D. Europaeus, and he made their study his life’s work. His interest was probably aroused at home, since his father, a member of the clergy, had collected oral poetry before him; Europaeus tells of how he read about Finno-Ugric peoples and languages in his father’s library.

In 1845 he set off on a field trip lasting half a year to collect examples of the oral tradition. He first travelled to Finnish Karelia and Aunus and pressed on to Kainuu and Karelian Viena. His activities earned him a considerable degree of recognition, when statesmen such as Johan Vilhelm Snellman, writing in the Saimaa newspaper, sang the young man’s praises – an exemplary figure, full of zest and zeal. Indeed, the folklorist’s endeavours were held up among young Fennomans as a Finnish ideal, and he took on legendary status in his own lifetime.

In the years between 1845 and 1854, Europaeus made a total of seven trips to Karelia, Aunus, Kainuu, Viena, Ingria and Tver. He usually travelled alone, but on occasion he was joined by Henrik August Reinholm; the two men encouraged David’s sister, Charlotta Europaeus, to take part in the effort, the first woman to do so.

Europaeus’ contribution to the preservation of the oral poetic tradition was enormous. He discovered a completely new area, Ingria, where he documented many poems, including the celebrated Kullervo cycle of poems. He collected over 2,800 Kalevala poems, countless Karelian laments and a great many other examples of folklore. The original manuscripts are held to this day in the folklore archive of the Finnish Literature Society. Out of the entire archive, it is those poems collected by Europaeus that are the most heavily studied sources, and it’s fair to say that the material’s worth was only really understand after the collector’s death.

Europaeus was not only involved in collecting the folk poems; he was also prodigious in his efforts to get them published. He edited two anthologies, the 1847 collection Pieni Runon-seppä (‘The little wordsmith’), and in 1854 the collection entitled Karjalan Kevätkätköinen (‘The Karelian spring treasury’). The former included Finland’s first guide to poetic meter.

Besides his own publishing activity, Europaeus had a significant hand in the second edition of the Kalevala, published in 1849, much of whose supplementary material came from his journeys. Europaeus introduced Elias Lönnrot to a large body of material that subsequently made its way into the new Kalevala, as well as making various proposals concerning form. He had hoped, for example, that the text would be as faithful as possible to the songs’ original meter. Europaeus proposed that the folk poetry would be published as such, without refinement, but his idealism fell on deaf ears. It is only recently that the project has seen the light of day.

References

• Senni Timonen, ’Europaeus, David Emanuel Daniel (1820 - 1884). Runonkerääjä, kielentutkija, muinaistieteilijä, toimittaja’ ('Europaeus, David Emanuel Daniel (1820 – 1884). Collector of poems, linguist, archaeologist, journalist'), National Biography of Finland Online, 2001 (Free access through the Nelli portal). Accessed February 23, 2015. In Finnish.
• Laila Lehikoinen, ’D. E. D. Europaeus kirjasuomen kehittäjänä ja kielentutkijana’ ('D. E. D. Europaeus, developer of standard Finnish and linguist') (), Virittäjä 2/1986, pp. 178 – 202. In Finnish
• D. E. D. Europaeus on Wikipedia. Accessed February 23, 2015. In Finnish.