Helsinki in the snow, culture high to low

We left Århus early (like 5:30) this morning to catch a plane to Copenhagen, then Helsinki. It was beginning to snow in Århus. Helsinki already had some snow on the ground. It is a bit of a shock to people from Texas, although Denmark has been getting us gradually ready for it. You can see some snow on the ground in this photo.

You can also see a great example of 1950s architecture, when modern meant rounded shapes, lots of glass, lots of neon. It is fun to see buildings from this era now - the tackiness takes on a patina of historical significance and a pleasant nostalgia. Now for a videotape, er, DVD (we're modern now) of The Jetsons.

We were headed for the National Museum, which we had not seen when we were here last summer. You can see it here in the snow. It looks like a cathedral and in a way, it is, a cathedral to celebrate Finnish culture. It even has a stained glass window celebrating ethnography, archeology and history. Finland is very serious about its national history and culture -- it has had to fight hard to gain and keep independence.

We particularly wanted to see the Iron Age, Viking Age and medieval exhibits which we had heard were very good, and they were. It is really interesting to look at the slow emergence of people and culture here and how much they interacted with everyone all around them. We somehow think globalization is new but this place was formed by people, goods, weapons and ideas moving in and through from all around them. Simple things like where a certain kind of ax head came from reflect big changes in who had moved in, who is in charge now, what gods are worshipped, etc. Even one of my favorite sci-fi time travel stories by Poul Anderson (Danish-American) is about the battle ax culture, which brought in these stone axes at left. Whoops, the latent anthropologist/culture geek/sci-fi fan in me is taking over -- down boy!

Here is Sandy next to an exhibit about one of the people she teaches about the most when she looks at medieval women writers, Saint Birgitta of Sweden. There was an important Birgittine nunnery in Finland, which was very connected to Sweden for much of its history, so she is important here, too.

Best of all, for me anyway, is that the museum has ceiling frescoes by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, with images from the Kalevela, the Finnish epic. One of my favorite national romantic type painters.