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Tsena

Tsena
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Tšena, a small village some 5 km from Vuokkiniemi, is important to the poetic tradition, but not solely for the lines of poetry collected there. It was a resident of Tšena, Jyrki Kettunen, who led the poetry collectors to Viena by singing long epic poems on his trading trips to Finland. These songs were recorded and published by Zacharias Topelius the Elder, who urged collectors to direct their efforts towards the parish of Vuokkiniemi.

In the early 1800s, Tšena was inhabited by the Kettunen family. When Lönnrot went there for the first time, in 1833, the village had only four houses. The village patriarch, Tšena-Pekka, Pietari Kettunen, had died three or four years earlier, and Lönnrot failed to meet the other famous villager, Jyrki Kettunen, a cousin of the former. Poems had already been collected from both of these bards, however.

Pietari Kettunen, who had a reputation for "making a song about whatever he saw," sang his poems for A.J. Sjögren in Vuokkiniemi on 15 August 1825. Pietari had lived in Finland for many years, where he worked sewing fur-lined coverlets, sheepskin coats and other articles of clothing for farmers. He was not only an accomplished performer of folk poems, but a poet in his own right. The songs which he composed had spread into Finland and many variants of them had been recorded. As recently as the 1990s, bards have been found in Uhtua who have inherited the oral tradition of "Kettunen's song".

In the account of his fourth field trip, Lönnrot wrote the following about Pietari Kettunen's talents:

Five or six years ago, several peasants from Archangel told me that he could sing for at least two weeks without stopping except to eat and sleep, and they were right. It is said that even on his deathbed he spoke to his wife in verse and that he bemoaned her fate with the following words:

Mari now widowed
"Swedish" woman full of sorrow
Now that I have gone my way
No longer of these lands

Pietari had brought Mari back as his wife from Kiiminki on one of his trips to Finland. She was Lönnrot's hostess when he visited Tšena, and Lönnrot followed the family's history with interest in the accounts of his travels. Lönnrot was moved by the fate of this woman, who had come to Karelia from very different circumstances in Finland, and sympathized with her a great deal.

"Old Mari", as Lönnrot calls Perttunen's widow, had two daughters who were married to men in Vuonninen. One of the daughters, Miina, was mistress of the Teppola household; the other was the daughter-in-law of Ontrei Malinen. It was through these relations that Lönnrot ended up going to Vuonninen to meet bards who would figure significantly in the composition of the Kalevala.

On his fifth field trip, Lönnrot met Jyrki Kettunen in Tšena and recorded a number of poems sung by him over the next two days.

The poems provided by Jyrki Kettunen were included in the first edition of the Kalevala; those recorded from Pietari Kettunen were used in compiling the second edition, after Lönnrot had Sjögren's collections.

Of the later poetry collectors, at least Genetz and Berner are known to have visited Tšena, and Inha photographed the village from the Köynäskoski Rapids.

The village of Tšena, or Tšenaniemi, lies northwest of Vuokkiniemi on the shores of Lake Köynäsjärvi. By the end of the 19th century, the village had 23 houses and a population of over 100 persons. After the Second World War, the village was completely vacated. There was no need to liquidate it, since the authorities had not allowed anyone to return there after the war.

In the southeast corner of the lake, about half a kilometer from the village, is a significant natural sight, Köynäskoski Rapids. The rapids roar in a step-wise cascade down into Lake Köynäsjärvi, which joins Lake Tšenajärvi to Lake Lammasjärvi, a link in turn to Viena's main artery, Lake Kuittijärvi. At its other end, Lake Tšenajärvi is connected to Lakes Venehjärvi and Latvajärvi.

Tsena
What to see
Audio sample