Finnish literature of the nineteenth century. The opening poem "Our Land" (from "The Tales of Ensign Stål") was dedicated as the national anthem as early as seventy years before Finnish independence. During the early 20th century, the Swedish-language modernism emerged in Finland as one of the most acclaimed literal movements in the history of the country. The best-known representative of the movement was Edith Södergran. The most famous Swedish-language works from Finland are probably the Moomin books by writer Tove Jansson. They are also known in comic strip or cartoon forms. Jansson was, however, only one of several Swedish-language writers for children
Languages of Finland The Swedish dialects spoken in Finland mainland are known as Finland-Swedish. There is a rich Finland-Swedish literature, including authors such as Tove Jansson, Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Edith Södergran and Zacharias Topelius. Runeberg is considered Finland's national poet and wrote the national anthem, "Vårt land", which was only later translated to Finnish. The Sami languages are a group of related languages spoken across Lapland. They are distantly related to Finnish. The three Sami languages spoken in Finland, Northern Sami, Inari Sami and Skolt Sami, have a combined native speaker population of roughly 1,800. Up to World War II, Karelian was spoken