Larin Paraske
Finnish writer
Died when: 70 years 7 days (840 months)Star Sign: Capricorn
Larin Paraske (December 27, 1833 – January 3, 1904) was an Izhorian oral poet.She is considered a key figure in Finnish folk poetry and has been called the "Finnish Mnemosyne".
Her frequent listeners included several romantic nationalist artists, such as Jean Sibelius, seeking inspiration from her interpretations of Kalevala, an epic poem compiled from Finnish folklore by Elias Lönnrot.
Paraske could recite over 32,000 verses of poetry, which made her an important source for Karelian culture.Her poems were written down by Adolf Neovius in the 1880s, and after several years of work, approximately 1200 poems, 1750 proverbs and 336 riddles were documented, along with several Finnic lamentations known as itkuvirsi, performed by crying and sobbing.
