Larin Paraske

Larin Paraske (December 27, 1833 – January 3, 1904) was an Izhorian runic singer. 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.

Biography

Paraske was born as Paraskeva Nikitina, her official Russian name, in Lempaala, Northern Ingria. Her father Mikitta Mikitanpoika (1802–1851) was a landless peasant, a lampuoti, who rented a farm. Both of her parents were ethnic Izhorians. Paraske took on poetry at early age by memorizing all the poems known in the area, and creating many more herself. Her relatives, Timon Tarja and Kondrolan Maura, were also prolific poets. Paraske's father died in 1851 and her mother, Tatjana Vasilovna, had died three years earlier in 1848.

In 1853, Paraske married a peasant named Kaurila Teppananpoika, or Gavril Stepanov, from Vaskela village in Sakkola (later Metsäpirtti municipality) of Viipuri Province. Her husband was sickly and 20 years older than she was, but the marriage produced nine children during the years from 1855 to 1878; only three of them survived until adulthood. Besides her own children, Paraske cared for 50 orphans from St. Petersburg. Her life was hard as the livelihood of the family depended on her income. Her husband died in 1888.