Seitsemän veljestä is the first and only novel by Aleksis Kivi, the national author of Finland. It is widely regarded as the first significant novel written in Finnish and by a Finnish-speaking author, and it is considered to be a real pioneer of Finnish realistic folklore. Today, some people still regard it as the greatest Finnish novel ever written, and in time it has even gained the status of a "national novel of Finland". The deep significance of the work for Finnish culture has even been quoted internationally, and in a BBC article by Lizzie Enfield, for example, describes Kivi's Seitsemän veljestä as "the book that shaped a Nordic identity."
The young and unruly seven brothers depicted in a 1970 postage stamp
Knight and the Snake King, Illustration for Seitsemän veljestä by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1907
The Seven Brothers on top of a Boulder by Antti Favén [fi] in 1910
Aleksis Kivi was a Finnish writer who wrote the first significant novel in the Finnish language, Seitsemän veljestä, published in 1870. He is also known for his 1864 play, Nummisuutarit. Although Kivi was among the very earliest writers of prose and lyrics in Finnish, he is still considered one of the greatest.
Earliest known image of Kivi, almost certainly by Albert Edelfelt (1873)
The unruly seven brothers
Home where Aleksis Kivi was born
House where Aleksis Kivi died