Zacharias is his baptismal name, and this is used on the covers of his printed works. However, "he himself most often used the abbreviation Z. or the form Zachris, even in official contexts", as explained in the National Biography of Finland. Zachris is therefore the preferred form used in recent academic literature about him.[1]
Other spellings used include Sakari and Sakarias.
Life and career
Early life
The original name of the Topelius family was the Finnish name Toppila, which had been Latinized to Toppelius by the author's grandfather's grandfather and later changed to Topelius. Topelius was born at Kuddnäs, near
Nykarleby in
Ostrobothnia, the son of a physician of the same name (
Zacharias Topelius the Elder [
fi]), who was distinguished as the earliest collector of Finnish folk-songs.[2]
As a child, he heard his mother, Katarina Sofia Calamnius, sing the songs of the Finnish-Swedish poet
Franzén. At the age of eleven, he was sent to school in
Oulu and boarded with relatives in the possession of a lending library, where he nurtured his fantasy with the reading of novels. He was also given a Christian upbringing that came to characterize his entire life.[3]
Study in Helsinki
He came to
Helsinki in 1831 and became a member of the circle of young nationalist men surrounding
Johan Ludvig Runeberg, in whose home he stayed for some time. Topelius became a student at the
Imperial Alexander University of Finland in 1833, received his master's degree (cand. philol.) in 1840, the
Licentiate degree in history in 1844 and his PhD in 1847, having defended a dissertation titled De modo matrimonia jungendi apud fennos quondam vigente ("About the custom of marriage among the ancient Finns"). Besides history, his academic studies had for periods been devoted both to Theology and Medicine. He was secretary of
Societas pro Fauna et Flora Fennica [
fi] 1842–1846, was employed by the university library 1846–1861, and taught History, Statistics and Swedish at the school
Helsingfors lyceum [
fi] during the same period.
Becoming a professor
Through the intervention of a friend,
Fredrik Cygnaeus, Topelius was named professor extraordinary of the History of Finland at the university in 1854. He was made first ordinary professor of Finnish, Russian and Nordic history in 1863, and exchanged this chair for the one in general history in 1876. He was
rector of the university from 1875 until 1878, when he retired as Emeritus Professor and received the title of verkligt statsråd (Finnish: todellinen valtioneuvos, Russian: действительный статский советник; literally "state councillor", a Russian honorary title).
Focus on writing
Quite early in his career he began to distinguish himself as a lyric poet, with the three successive volumes of his Heather Blossoms (1845–54). The earliest of his historical romances was The Duchess of Finland, published in 1850. He was also editor-in-chief of the
Helsingfors Tidningar [
fi] from 1841 to 1860. In 1878, Topelius was allowed to withdraw from his professional duties, but this did not sever his connection with the university; it gave him, however, more leisure for his abundant and various literary enterprises. Of all the multifarious writings of Topelius, in prose and verse, that which has enjoyed the greatest popularity is his Tales of a Barber-Surgeon, episodes of historical fiction from the days of
Gustavus II Adolphus to those of
Gustavus III, treated in the manner of
Sir Walter Scott; the five volumes of this work appeared between 1853 and 1867. Topelius attempted to write drama, too, enjoying the most success with his tragedy Regina von Emmeritz (1854). Topelius aimed at the cultivation of a strong Finnish patriotism.[2] He wrote a poem which
Jean Sibelius used for a composition with a political statement, Islossningen i Uleå älv.
Together with the composer
Friedrich Pacius, he wrote the
libretto (in the style of
Romantic nationalism) to the first Finnish opera: Kaarle-kuninkaan metsästys (
Kung Karls jakt). Topelius initially thought of writing a trivial entertainment, but having heard extracts from the opera project at a concert in 1851, he realized that Pacius was writing a grand opera on the theme of salvation, following the early Romantic style of
Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz (1821) and Oberon (1826). Topelius wrote the libretto in Swedish (though it was translated later by others), but its subject is emphatically Finnish. He also wrote the libretto for Prinsessan av Cypern, set by
Fredrik Pacius and
Lars-Erik Larsson.
^Boije, Erika (2022).
"Inledning". In Magnus Nylund (ed.). Zacharias Topelius, Religiösa skrifter och psalmer (in Swedish). Helsinki: Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland. ZTS XIX, SSLS 867.