THE GIRL FROM TURKU
A bourgeois girl, the only child and inheritor of Lauri Uskinen, Annikka, was crying. The man she loved and was her lover, Thetmar, who was of honourable German family and a tradesman, had left her. Annikka had thought that the man would have stayed and married her according to the religion and good manners.
The tradesman had a ship in the harbour of the market peer with a hold filled with hides and dried fish. It stank like ships do in the spring weather. The tradesman threw his things on the deck and vanished without even looking at Annikka. He got what he wanted and then he left.
Annikka, the girl from Turku stood on the peer in her skirt of cloth with a golden belt and a heavy money purse on her waist. The wind whistled in her ears ripping the hair out of the ribbons. The tradesman’s ship drew farther away, floated down the river passing the castle and reaching the sea.
Annikka went back home to the Uskinen house, on top of a stone basement, inside timbered walls, under a beam roof. She called a blood-letter known as Lastikka and so the bad blood was let out of Annikka.
The proud daughter married the old Lon of Göpel who was a magistrate and soon afterwards inherited both her father and her husband as well. Annikka, the wealthy widow owned shares of ships and traded in Stockholm and even farther.
Sometimes after spending an hour at the guild house for no specific reason, Annikka Lauri’s daughter Uskinen walked to the market place, glanced at the Aura River were Europe meets the wilderness and catching a glimpse of the new bridge sang:
All summer long I kept my trader
At winter gave drinks for the idle
Fed my guest and gave him housing
Summers winters all so drowsy
For months on end my home of stone
Meat and bread, I bought and brought
Gave him butter, beer and draughts
Fish I gave all kinds of sorts
Eight types of fish, five likes of potion
Guest got meals, guest got lotion
I stood his whims, served him well
But married man he was not to be
And longed to sail for foreign ports
Hope no other girl shall do what I did: followed the whims of a man, the tongue of a man.
------------------------------
The hymn Annikka sang is a typical Finnish tale of a medieval bourgeois girl. The girl from Turku in the ballad is anything but a discouraged maiden. Without asking permission she has formed a public relationship with a German tradesman. She was also determined to keep the man but when it turns out to be impossible she kills the man in the storm at sea. There is no mention in the poem of Annikka’s parents or guardians to advise the unmarried girl. However, Annikka definitely is an obvious exception among Finnish girls in the Middle Ages, if not of her mind than at least of her status. It can be concluded from the poem that she was at least quite wealthy.
The Rriver Aura in Turku, Finland
LINKS
Mrs Lucia Olav's Daughter
