Hmmmh... Lost a long answer yesterday in the mini-wipe. I'll try to answer you again
I was familiar with the Hakkapeliitat, although not their name, through the novel 1632 and my subsequent research on Gustavus Adolphus. Any unit whose battle cry is "Hack them down!" is made of refined epic badassery.
No argument there
Incidentally, that battle cry is still heavily in use today, albeit in ice hockey games rather than on battlefields. So it's the same amount of blood but with blunt tools
As Finland is a (relatively) young nation, at least as an independent one, is there more of a cultural identity? Less? I mean, Americans (on the whole) are generally regarded as having a strong national identity (America! Fuck yeah! *rolls eyes*) at the expense of their international one. How do you feel Finland rates on that scale?
Hmmm... That's a doozy of a question to answer, Charon. First of all because such a thing as cultural identity is quite subjective, and not much quantifiable. Also, we are talking about two very different countries here, both in terms of size and political tradition.
On the whole, however, I would think Finland has maintained a healthy cultural identity. Such outsider phenomena as Halloween have landed here, of course, but on the whole I would say that traditions, the school system (state-run, EL GASPO!) and certain base cultural concepts - such as
sisu and the 'miracle of the Winter War' - maintain a distinctive culture. There's some criticism to it, of course: Finns tend to look back at the wars, even mythologize them, and likely because of the country having been ruled by outsiders (Swedes and Russians) from the 12th century to 1917, there remains a certain level of intolerance towards foreigners. This kind of parochialism has lessened, of course, what with travel and such.
I don't know if Finns go "Finland fuck yeah!" in general. We take pride in certain things and may get pissed off if, for instance, mistaken for Vikings GRRR!! But on the whole, Finns tend to be a little self-deprecating about their country, or play the stereotypes people have for laughs. Living next-door to you-know-who, especially during the Cold War, does not really lend itself to international asshattery, pardon my French
Also: Should I add Suomi to my (slowly growing) list of languages? This would be one of those "because it's there," things, rather than as a need for anything immediately useful to my daily life (like Spanish... *rolls eyes again*)
Is there a reason why you shouldn't?
But if you want reasons, I'll give you some:
- Tolkien used Finnish as one of his influences when inventing the Elvish languages.
- I've been told Finnish is beautiful when spoken.
- Plus, Finnish is just about the most creative language when it comes to cursing. Observe, if you please:
Jumalauta, senkin vitun kullinlutkuttaja paskamaha! Paina kuule joulukuusi sivuttain perseeseesi ja vingu, senkin saatanan tikkukyrpä ruskean kielen ritari! I advise you not to translate, though
The only difference from childhood is that I have to drive there first.
