Jacob Fredrik Lagervall

Born in Kontiolahti in 1787 and later known by the name Lagervall, he served in the Finnish War of 1808–1809 and eventually held the rank of major. Alongside his military life, he built a lasting place in literary history as a Finnish playwright.

He is often described as a pioneer of Finnish-language drama. His best-known work, Ruunulinna (1834), was adapted from Shakespeare's Macbeth and has often been regarded as the first play written in Finnish. His most active literary period fell in the 1830s and 1840s.

Lagervall wrote not only drama but also prose and poetry. Sources describe many of his plays as religious in tone and note that he wrote in both Swedish and Finnish, even though he became especially important for the growth of Finnish-language literature. He died in Helsinki in 1865.