withal!

[cimorene]

the introduction to an online english translation of the kalevala, from 1888, has some really hilarious statements about finland.

The inhabitants are strong and hardy, with bright, intelligent faces, high cheek-bones, yellow hair in early life, and with brown hair in mature age. With regard to their social habits, morals, and manners, all travellers are unanimous in speaking well of them. ...

The skull of the Finn belongs to the brachycephalic (short-headed) class of Retzius. Indeed the Finn-organization has generally been regarded as Mongol, though Mongol of a modified type. His color is swarthy, and his eyes are gray. He is not inhospitable, but not over-easy of access; nor is he a friend of new fashions. Steady, careful, laborious, he is valuable in the mine, valuable in the field, valuable oil shipboard, and, withal, a brave soldier on land.

Comments

[cimness.livejournal.com]

aahahha. i think it's just a thing that happens to some people's hair. it happens to almost everyone in my mom's family and they're polish and german.

all that race-describing stuff was way popular in the 1800s and the turn of the century and it's a very entertaining load of bullshit, sometimes.

[anglepoiselamp.livejournal.com]

Hee, yes. Classic Finnish nationalists - or fennomaniacs, as they were also called - were a crazy lot. But then, they had to be, what with the indigenous culture here being actively smothered from all directions. (Although since most of the fennomaniacs were Swedish noblemen anyway, it's debatable whether their idea of Finnish cultural heritage actually in anyway corresponded to what most of the people thought.)

[cimness.livejournal.com]

which i think is really hilarious.