Tynni, Aale

Aale Tynni-Haavio was a Finnish poet and translator. Born in Kolppana, Ingermanland, in 1913, she died in Helsinki in 1997.
An Ingrian Finn, Tynni left Ingermanland near Petersburg for Finland as a refugee after the First World War, in 1919. She took a master degree in philology in Helsinki in 1936 and worked as a teacher, before turning to be a full-time writer. In 1982 she became a member of the Finnish Academy, as the first woman ever. Between 1960 and 1973, until his death, she was married to the famous poet P. Mustapää (pseudonym for Martti Haavio). Aale Tynni is best known for editing and translating a comprehensive anthology of European poetry from the medieval European folksong through Shakespeare and the Edda to the French Modernists, entitled Tuhat Laulujen Vuotta in (1957, enlarged edition 1974).
She participated in the Art Competitions of the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, and won the Gold Medal in the Lyric Works, Literature category for "Laurel of Hellas". She published a total of 14 collections of poetry, often with mythological motifs.
In 1990 she edited an anthology about "Inkeri" (Ingermanland), the introductory text of which is being presented among "essays".