Matthias Castren

Matthias Alexander Castrén (2 December 1813– 7 May 1852) was a Finnish ethnologist and philologist who was a pioneer in the study of the Finnic languages. He was an educator, author and linguist at the University of Helsinki. Castrén is best known for his research in the linguistics and ethnography of the Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic peoples.

Castrén was born at Tervola, in Northern Finland. His father, Christian Castrén, parish priest and vicar at Rovaniemi, died in 1825. Castrén passed under the protection of his uncle, Matthias Castrén. At the age of twelve he was sent to school at Oulu. On entering the Alexander University at Helsinki (now University of Helsinki) in 1828 he first devoted himself to Greek and Hebrew with the intention of entering the church; but his interest was soon excited by the Finnish language and even before his course was completed he began to lay the foundations of a work on Finnish mythology. He received his bachelor's degree in 1836 and graduate degree in 1839.

The necessity of personal explorations among the still unwritten languages of cognate tribes soon made itself evident. In 1838 he joined a medical fellow student, Dr. Ehrström, in a journey through Lapland. This was the first of the voyages Castrén undertook in order to investigate the kinship between Finnish and several other languages. Following this he was appointed in 1840 to associate professor in Finnish and Norse languages at the University of Helsinki. In the following year, he traveled in Karelia at the expense of the Literary Society of Finland.

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