50 years old | The Finns were wasted when the historian mentioned that Bishop Henrik and Lalli might not even exist – “In one way or another we each have a small Lalli”

In April 2005 Docent of General History at the University of Helsinki Tuomas Heikkilä found himself in the eye of the storm.

The previous day, Heikkilä had given a radio interview in which he had mentioned in passing that the bishop did not Henrikin and Lallin there is no conclusive historical evidence for its existence. Therefore, the famous ax death on the ice of Lake Köyliönjärvi did not necessarily take place as imagined.

The statement rose suddenly. Newspapers reported that the young researcher denied the existence of our national hero, and the “killer of Lall” was wanted to be interviewed all the way through the evening news.

People were particularly upset in Köyliö. In an interview with Helsingin Sanomat, the chairman of Köyliö’s municipal council was ready to make his own DNA sample available to researchers as a “descendant of Lalli”.

The mayor, for his part, announced that the results of Heikkilä’s research required the statement of the Catholic Church, and the residents of Köylä did not plan to wear a sack yet.

“On the contrary, we’re starting to hone our axes,” he exclaimed.

“All this, of course, underlined in an exciting way how important things we talk about when we talk about the past. Our identity and our present are built on building blocks taken from the past, ”says Heikkilä seventeen years later.

His word should probably be trusted.

Heikkilä is one of Finland’s most significant medieval researchers, a pioneer of the earliest literary culture research in Finland and a scientist who has had an internationally influential career.

Heikkilä has held numerous positions at the University of Helsinki since the late 1990s. In addition to his research work, he has led Finland’s oldest foreign scientific institute in Villa Lante, Rome, and has written award-winning historical works.

He was appointed professor of church history in 2019.

Heikkilä says he lives his dream.

“Of course this is the sweetest profession I can imagine. The research is simply so super-exciting and exciting that sometimes the knees sag when you find some amazing new material. ”

Personal pleasure is still not the only reason for a research career. Heikkilä says that historical research also has an important social role. By looking at the past, we can understand the present.

“The humanities, like history research, are the branch of research in the great tree of science that focuses on understanding exactly what it is to be human and how we get along best with each other,” Heikkilä describes.

In Heikkilä’s opinion, there is a false impression in Finland that we are just a great power of the hard sciences. He says domestic humanities research is of a high standard and in international comparisons close to the top in the world. Not just for some reason to shout.

Maybe it would be worth it.

Heikkilä says that he has followed with confusion how much the appreciation of information has collapsed in recent decades. The humanities have been criticized in the public debate and their funding has been cut throughout the 21st century. Unlike in Sweden, for example.

“It’s a really short-sighted activity,” says Heikkilä.

“Many people think that research data is just an opinion. That’s really not the case. Science represents humanity’s most refined understanding of who we are, where we are, and how we should be in the world. It would be tragic if in our time there were a recession in continuous development. ”

Heikkilän in his own research career, a key factor has been interdisciplinarity.

Published in 2005 The legend of St. Henry Heikkilä co-developed a computer scientist for the work Teemu Roosin with the RHM algorithm, which was able to reconstruct the copying relationships of centuries-old texts.

In recent years, he has been doing DNA research on medieval parchment fragments and has developed with the university’s “electron microscopy gurus” a method to see which pages of a book people preferred to publish centuries ago.

Even Lallia he has not forgotten. Heikkilä says that he has just completed a work that follows the poignant transformation of the Lalli character from a violent loser to a celebrated national hero.

In the waves of 19th century nationalism, the character representing ignorance and peripherality emerged as a symbol of ancient Finnishness and unyieldingness.

When Yleisradio held a poll for the largest Finn in 2004, Lalli was ranked 14th. Väinö Castle, Paavo Nurmi, J. K. Paasikivi and J. V. Snellman.

Heikkilä laughs.

“So Lalli is still going hard. One way or another, each of us lives in a small Lalli. ”