100 stories from the hiking route

1938 – writer Hando Runnel is born at Vainu farm in Liutsalu village

Information

Topic

Literature and culture

Coordinates

Long-Lat WGS 84

Latitude: 59.108651

Longitude: 25.900265

L-EST 97

x: 6553760.4
y: 608855.3

Location

Ähijärve-Aegviidu Hiking route

We meander towards the sunset,
we measure an infinite route in a day,
we meander towards the sunset,
our hearts are at peace, we are rejoiced
that the sunset is followed by a revitalising morning,
that the morning gives the sun a new path,
our faces are turned towards the sunset,
our hearts are at peace, we are rejoiced
that the dawn is on the sunset’s nape and heel,
even before it can fade,
that the dawn will flame on sunset’s heel
even before it can fade.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful is the land,
beautiful is the land that
I love.

Hando Runnel was born on 24 November 1938 at Vainu farm in Liutsalu village in Võhmuta rural municipality in Järva County to parents from Võru County. Runnel has reminisced about his childhood,

“I remember the songs we used to sing at home and the spirit that ruled when we sang. Grandfather sang in one way, mother in another and the big girls from the village in a whole other way. My poetry begins from those songs. In fact, every written word has grown from a spoken one, poetry from song, novels and stories from told tales, conversations, and storytelling.”

Runnel first tried his hand at poetry in primary school but dabbled more seriously at the end of the 1950s. He became a vocational writer in 1971 and since 1992, Runnel has been the Chairman of the Management Board of Ilmamaa publishing house and the editor-in-chief of the series “Eesti mõttelugu” (Estonian thoughts). Hando Runnel is the author of several poetry collections; he writes for both children and adults and is also a productive essayist.