From Finland

The short stories of Finnish literature related to peatlands compiled by Helena Lassila.
Download in English or in Finnish

Peatlands in Finnish literature including books translated in other languages compiled by Helena Lassila and Kirsi Laurén.
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Peatlands in Photographic/non-fiction books, compiled by Helena Lassila and Kirsi Laurén.
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Short stories about peat and peatlands. Suon syvä syli. (Editor Arto Seppälä). 1999.
Maahenki Oy, Helsinki. ISBN 952-5328-00-7.
 
"The Aesthetics of Peatlands" – a description of an event in Ilomantsi in Finland 1998. Cultural aspects on peat and peatlands. Suo on kaunis. (Ed. Kirsi Hakala) 1999. Maahenki Oy, Helsinki. ISBN 952-5328-01-5.

Aitoneva - työtä, turvetta ja elämää Kortesluoma, Sirpa &Sipilä, Aila. ISBN 952-91-7623-6. Keuruu 2004
The complet story of the oldest still operating peatland producion area in Finland from the early 1940' utill today.

Suon syvä syli. (Editor Arto Seppälä). 1999. Maahenki Oy, Helsinki. ISBN 952-5328-00-7. Short stories about peat and peatlands.

Suo on kaunis. (Ed. Kirsi Hakala) 1999. Maahenki Oy, Helsinki. ISBN 952-5328-01-5. "The Aesthetics of Peatlands" – a description of an event in Ilomantsi in Finland 1998. Cultural aspects on peat and peatlands.


From Sweden

Ute på Myra By the local historical society of the Västerbotten Museum for the Province of Västerbotten in Sweden. The booklet has two articles about the use of peatlands, as well as other scientific material. Swedish only.

CULTURAL ASPECTS OF PEAT AND PEATLANDS, A SWEDISH APPROACH
Compiled by Reidar Pettersson, former president of the International Peat Society
Introduction A message, “Call for information”, was distributed in Sweden in October 2003 to members of the Swedish National Committee of the IPS and other people interested in peat and peatlands:
Mires and peatlands, have often inspired people, and often scared them as well. Story-tellers in words and pictures, as well as in music, have described the mire-landscape with its enchanting wide views, or mires shrouded in mist, offering at times dark, threatening and mystic shades and moods. The fruitless struggle to cultivate barren mirelands for a maigre living has been depicted. The hard work with help of the sharp-edged spade, under a burning sun, plagued by mosquitos, gadflies, digging peat for small gains, has given bitter memories in literature. Also happier experiences have been documented, inter alia in modern short stories and novels. Comprehensive archaeological finds and their description are to be found, as well as industrial-historical documentation. The result of the call has been divided into chapters. In a rhapsodic way some of the contributed material has been translated from Swedish and is presented here in the form of:

Chapter 1 Sten-Ove Pettersson's Reflections and Memories: This first chapter consists of some memories and reflections made of Sten-Ove Pettersson. Sten-Ove has devoted most of his life to peat and peatlands in his work at Hasselfors Garden Ltd in Närke. Like no other he has acquired knowledge of and a love for peat, which covers the peat industry, the peatlands and their flora and fauna. His fascinating stories have literary merits.

Chapter 2 The Use of Peatlands: Somewhere around a quarter of Sweden´s land surface is covered with peat. The peatlands have contributed for centuries to people´s welfare. In this chapter I have collected description and documentation on the ways of which the lands were of use where they are, “in situ” as the technical term has it.

Chapter 3 Peat Archaeology: Because of its chemical and physical properties, peat in the peatlands has been able to preserve traces of human activities during the centuries. In our peatlands there are , discovered and still undiscovered, mumified, or perhaps rather humified, bodies and bones of animals and humans, remains of surprisingly well-preserved buildings and roads, boats, clothes, jewellery, utensils, weapons and cult figures. Other chapters are planned to follow, covering “The peat industry”; “Peat museums”; “Public campaigns”; “Nature conservation”; “Visual arts”; “Music “; “Films” and “Literature, prose and poetry.”
You can download the whole text in English here:
Cultural aspects of peat and peatlands a Swedish approach (doc)
Download a Swedish version here: Kulturella aspekter på torv och torvmarker (pdf 16,7 MB)

Peatlands in Northen Swedish Litterature
Emma Ingelsson Alkbring
This article points at the role of peatland in literature describing Northern Sweden. Examples are given from the works of four authors: Astrid Väring, Sara Lidman, Kerstin Ekman and Anita Salomonsson. The peatlands are present in the everyday life describerd in the books as well as in dreams and mysteries.The Northern Sweden regional litterature has traditionally been compared to the postcolonial literature of Africa.