born Feb. 5, 1804, Jakobstad, Swedish Finland
died May 6, 1877, Borgå, Russian Finland
Finnish poet who wrote in Swedish.
During an interruption in his academic career, he became a tutor at a country estate, where he encountered Finland's landscape and tales of the heroic past. His works, combining classicism with Romantic feeling and an understanding of peasant life and character, include the epic poems The Moose Hunters (1832) and Hanna (1836), which won him a place in Swedish letters; and Kung Fjalar , a cycle of romances derived from old legends. His patriotic poem "Our Country," from Tales of Ensign Stål (1848, 1860), became the Finnish national anthem. Runeberg is considered Finland's national poet.