Zacharias Topelius (nr Nykarleby 1818 – Sibbo 1898) was a central force in the voicing of a Finnish national discourse in the 19th century. Taking both the Swedish historical heritage and the Finnish national-cultural specificity into account, Topelius formulated a coherent programme for a Finnish national self-identification and identity. As an extremely productive writer, polyvalent opinion maker, and active public figure, Topelius occupied a central position in 19th-century Finnish nation-building: he was a journalist, historian, creative writer in many genres, advocate of animal welfare and women’s rights, and cultural policy-maker in the broadest sense of the word. The posthumous reputation foregrounds his writing for children; but since the centenary of his death in 1998, interest has broadened to the totality of his literary production and other contributions to the nation-building process in 19th-century Finland.

At the age of 14, Topelius came to Helsinki from his hometown Nykarleby, in the Swedish-speaking part of coastal Ostrobotnia. He stayed at the home of his tutor J.L. Runeberg, soon to make a name as the country’s national poet, who ran a preparatory school for university entrance. Runeberg and his wife Fredrika (née Tengström) provided the young Topelius with access to upper-bourgeoisie cultural life in the newly established capital of the Grand Duchy. Enrolling at the Imperial Alexander University in 1833, Topelius mostly studied history, discarding his early ambition to study medicine in his father’s footsteps. The Ostrobotnian student corporation provided him with a social platform for engaging in public life. There he developed his skills as a poet and journalist, and was encouraged to become a public speaker by the corporation’s inspector J.V. Snellman.

In 1841, Topelius started contributing to the daily Helsingfors tidningar, writing lighter material for a growing audience. He would serve this newspaper for 20 years, developing into a Finnish pioneer of critical journalism.  A follower of international currents, he started publishing fiction in instalments in the manner of Alexandre Dumas père and Charles Dickens. His historical novels, written in Swedish, were written for a wide audience and gained great popularity, not least among female readers. His epic cycle depicting early modern Swedish history, mostly from the era of King Gustavus II Adolphus, “Tales of a barber-surgeon” (Fältskärns berättelser), was published in book form in 1853-67, and made him one of the most popular novelists in both Finland and Sweden. In his work, Topelius formulated a Finnish dimension to Swedish history that was not conflictive (as it was in many Fennoman interpretations), yet gave the Finnish element special consideration. One important source for Topelius in systematically producing a national essentialist discourse in Tales of a Barber-Surgeon was the Lutheran Christian tradition uniting both Swedish and Finnish language traditions in a generic Scandinavian anti-Catholicism.

Another important audience for Topelius’s fiction were children. His extensive production of fairy tales, educational material, and other input for children’s magazines earned him a popular status of sagofarbror (“fairy-tale uncle”), a Finnish version of a mild and kindly avuncular storyteller à la H.C. Andersen. His children’s tales display typical 19th-century neohumanist educational values, with model children showing Christian morality, respect for the elderly, thrift, and good manners. Topelius was also a pioneer internationally in formulating ideas on animal rights, and his tales often include moral elements of animal protection. Topelius would leave his most enduring legacy with his geographical-historical presentation of Finland, Boken om vårt land (“The book about our country”), first published in 1875 and translated into Finnish the next year. The book was used in Finnish schools as a geography textbook until the early 1950s, and in total 60 editions have appeared up to the present, with considerable updates over time. The book is an institution and the single most important transmitter of a national self-image, which in this case was also an explicit National-Romantic conception of Finland as a national unity.

During the 1840s Topelius worked alongside his journalistic and literary activities as a secondary school teacher and library amanuensis at the university; in 1847 he defended a doctoral thesis (written in Latin) on the history of ancient Finnish marriage customs. Topelius’s significance in public life increased when he was appointed extraordinary professor in history at the University of Helsinki in 1854; the move was masterminded by the politically influential Professor Fredrik Cygnæus, who alerted the authorities to the importance of Topelius as a leading opinion-maker. Later in 1863, the year of parliamentary revival in Finland, his chair was made permanent. He also served one period as rector for the university in 1875-78.

The extensive list of Topelius’s literary production also includes plays (among them the libretto to the first opera ever produced in Finland, Kung Karls jagt, 1852), hymns, travelogues, and a vast archive of handwritten material. He was active in various associations, ranging from natural sciences and visual arts to women’s rights and animal welfare. Topelius remained Helsinki-based; although he did travel in Europe, he followed international currents through the press and other literary channels. He wrote in his native Swedish, soon modifying his given name to a shorter version, Zachris, and sometimes just signing articles with Z. As an early patriot, he remained a Swedish-language promoter of the Finnish national cause, never associating himself with the Svecoman movement. Although never an outspoken Fennoman, many of Topelius’s claims for national unity chimed with the national programme of the Finnish language movement. His loyal support for the imperial Russian authorities went along with this realistic national strategy.

Intellectually, Topelius was a Hegelian, and took an active interest in the big questions of his time, writing on socialism and social problems connected to industrialization. His anti-Enlightenment position was fundamental, and he had little understanding for the 18th-century reliance on rationality and linear progress. In his novels, the cosmopolitan nobility is generally depicted in a negative light, unlike the monarch and the loyal peasants. His Lutheran identity accommodated a considerable Pietist influence, and he rejected luxury and idleness. His Scandinavian liberalism was combined with a deeply-felt Christian notion of divine providence, cementing Topelius as a true National Romantic, critical of positivistic or naturalist tendencies in art and literature during the latter half of the 19th century. In his later years, he developed his providential thinking towards an idea of the Finnish nation as the second chosen nation alongside the Jews (who would eventually, he hoped in his millenarianism, be converted to the true, Christian religion).

Topelius’s status as a celebrated national icon developed during his last years; his funeral in 1898 confirmed his position among the early Finnish nation-builders. During most of his lifetime, however, he was not accorded the same importance as Runeberg, Snellman, and Elias Lönnrot. One reason was his penchant for the lighter literary genres; the admiration he enjoyed among primary school teachers was not necessarily shared among his professorial colleagues. Topelius remains the most productive intellectual figure of Finnish 19th-century intellectual history. As part of a new trend of reviving his total life’s work, a new critical edition of his complete works was initiated in 2005 by the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland.