*tuule makett - Infopoint Estonian Culture

2 2 / These Songs and Stories
and others. The northern mentality grew accustomed to the
fact that the world beyond was huge, but this did not necessarily
mean a loss of individuality.
The first literary movement to occur in Estonia, Young
Estonia (Noor Eesti, 1905–1917) and this movement introduced
a more aestheticising culture and wider horizons. Their
cri de couer was “Let us be Estonian, so better to become Europeans!”
and their youthful innovation brought about a genuine
cultural shift. They created a number of original works,
revived the language, set up an aesthetic standard for book
design, translated and wrote criticism.
The most influential poet among the Young Estonians was
Gustav Suits (1883–1956), whose initial revolutionary zeal
later turned into a subtly, but intelligently worded, resignation.
Suits also derived inspiration from runic verse. Villem
Grünthal-Ridala (1885–1942) wrote nature poetry and folkloristic
ballads, even adding glossaries at the end of his books.
The philologist Johannes Aavik (1880–1973) introduced an
aesthetic language to Estonia by way of his dictionaries, which
included neologisms, and his theory and translations. Thanks
to his efforts, the language gradually became both more precise
and more fluent. This process of language renewal first
appeared in news items in the press, later seeping through to
the spoken language. Although many neoligistic forms of
words he proposed at the time were contrived, borrowed from
other languages or were simply absurd, the vocabulary of
Estonian was increased, new grammatical elements appeared
and the language accommodated a diversity of styles.
The first flowering of the newly acquired poetic freedom in
Estonia occurred during the four enthusiastic years of 1917 to
1920 by the Siuru movement . The name “Siuru” was a mythical
bird featuring in the folk epic, the “Kalevipoeg”. Even
amidst the rapid political change and currency devaluation of
the period, the Siuru poets enjoyed such popularity and sales
that reprints of their works were necessary. The texts with
their focus on individual enjoyment and ending with dynamic
crescendoes worked well for their audience. The unprecedented
erotic courage of the texts found their admirers and critics -
but also parodists. The Princess of Siuru, as she was termed,
was Marie Under (1883–1980) and she can perhaps be called
the most important woman poet of the early 20th century. Her
poetry move from love lyrics on to historical scenes, nature
songs and folk ballads. In her final phase as a poet Under rep-