Paavo Korhonen

Born in Rautalampi in 1775, Paavo Korhonen was a Finnish folk poet known by the nickname Vihta-Paavo, taken from the Vihtajärvi area where he lived. He came from a farming family and spent his life in the same rural district, but sources note that he was more drawn to hunting, fishing, and composing poems than to managing the farm.

Korhonen became widely known after writing a satirical poem aimed at a local official who had exploited peasants. After that, people reportedly began asking him for verses for weddings, work gatherings, and other occasions. He is often described as one of the most productive and best-known eastern Finnish peasant poets writing in the old Kalevala meter.

His reputation lasted well beyond his lifetime. Elias Lönnrot visited him during collecting journeys in 1828 and 1831, and Korhonen’s poems were later published in a collection in 1848, with a new edition appearing in 1908. No clear portrait image of him was confirmed from the sources I checked, so I have left the profile image blank.