Carl Axel Gottlund

Carl Axel Gottlund (24 February 1796 – 20 April 1875) was a Finnish explorer, collector of folklore, historian, cultural politician, linguist, philologist, translator, writer, publisher and lecturer of Finnish language at the University of Helsinki. He was a colorful cultural personality and one of the central Finnish national awakeners and — later — one of the leading dissidents at the same time. Gottlund pursued the creation of an autonomous Finnish territory from the Finn Forests on both sides of the Swedish-Norwegian border, with great economic and political independence.

Gottlund is commonly credited with saving the folklore of the Forest Finns. Among the ideas he promoted was the view that all languages are interconnected by the same roots.