Seitsemän veljestä

Seven Brothers Seitsemän Veljestä, the most prominent book of Finnish author Aleksis Kivi.

Seven Brothers is a tragicomic tale about seven brothers of Jukola family who end up handling their farm after their parents have died. Brothers include strong Juho, two sets of twins, Tuomas & Aapo and Timo & hunter Lauri, would-be-preacher Simeoni and the youngest Eero.

At first, the brothers are not particularly peaceful lot and end up quarreling with the local constable, jury, vicar, precentor and teachers – not the mention their neighbors in Toukola village. No wonder they are not regarded as good suitors. When they should learn to read before they can accept church confirmation and therefore official adulthood, they escape.

Eventually they end up moving to distant Impivaara in a middle of relative wilderness but their first efforts are shoddy – in a Christmas eve they burn their new house. Next spring they try again and end up killing a hostile herd of bulls. Ten years of clearing forest for fields, hard work and hard drinking – and Simeoni’s delirium tremens - eventually make their change their ways. They learn to read on their own and eventually return to Toukola.

In the end most of them become pillars of the community and family men. Still, the tone of the tale is not particularly moralistic.