author
Gustaf Anton Brakel
1782–1853
A Finnish-born writer and dramatist who spent most of his life in Sweden, he is remembered for an early literary retelling of the Väinämöinen legend. His work connects Finnish mythic material with the world of early 19th-century Swedish letters.
1 Audiobook
Wäinämöinen: Lyriskt försök i tre akter
by Gustaf Anton Brakel
About the author
Gustaf Anton Brakel was born on December 17, 1782, in Pirkkala and died on January 10, 1853, in Stockholm. Finnish and Swedish reference sources describe him as Finnish-born, but note that he lived most of his life in Sweden, where he worked as a bank commissioner as well as a playwright and writer.
He is especially associated with Wäinämöinen: Lyriskt försök i tre akter, published in Stockholm in 1829. The play draws on the figure of Väinämöinen from Finnish myth and stands out as an early literary treatment of material that would later become central to Finnish national literature.
Available source material on his life is fairly brief, but it suggests an interesting cross-border career: a man from Finland writing in Sweden, moving between finance and literature, and helping carry Finnish legendary themes into print for a Swedish-reading audience.