100 stories from the hiking route

1927 – Marie Under completed her ballad ‘Porkuni preili’ (‘The Damsel of Porkuni’)

Information

Topic

Literature and culture

Coordinates

Long-Lat WGS 84

Latitude: 59.1873269

Longitude: 26.1957635

L-EST 97

x: 6563036.6
y: 625490.3

Location

Kauksi-Aegviidu Hiking route

The story of estate lady Barbara von Tiesenhausen whose brothers drowned her in an ice hole for a class-inappropriate relationship is a truly well-lived legend, that it has been preserved in collective memory as well as in folk heritage. The tragic story of Barbara von Tiesenhausen and Franz Bonnius is mentioned in the chronicles of Balthasar Russow and Johann Renner. Documental sources on the story of Barbara and Franz are slim and originate from after Barbara’s death.
Several literary and artistic renditions have resulted from these primary sources. Historically, the story took place in Rannu Manor, but in folk tales Barbara von Tiesenhausen is transformed into the damsel of Porkuni. The story of the tragically perhised damsel came to Porkuni probably with the Tiesenhausens, who’s manor was feudalized in 1628.
O.W. Masing writes about this story in the newspaper Marahwa Nädalla-leht in connection with Porkuni. He places the story in Porkuni, but does not mention the names of the participants, only saying that a knight had come together with his sister to Estonia from Germany. The story was perpetuated to Estonian folk heritage by F. R. Kreutzwald, who wrote it down in The Ancient Estonian Folk Tales. Marie Under and Aino Kallas started treating the story of Barbara around the same time in the 1920’s. ‘The Damsel of Porkuni’, Marie Under’s ballad from 1927, was based on the works of Kreutzwald.