Finland. A cultural encyclopedia

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Finland is snow and ice, midnight sun and endless forest, sauna and Santa Claus. But it is much, much more. In more than 300 key words by almost 80 Finnish experts and scholars, Finland: a Cultural Encyclopedia tells what this country between East and West is made of. It shows what distinguishes Finland from the rest of the world and what unites it with it. The book introduces the central names in Finnish music, scholarship, design and architecture. It covers Finnish culture from religion to rock'n'roll, from mythology to media, from eating to education, from sisu to sex. It reveals the hidden meaning for Finns of snow, light, trees and lakes. Secure against the passions of men, and fearing nothing from the anger of the gods, they have attained that uncommon state of felicity, in which there is no craving left to form a single wish. Tacitus, Germania, A.D.98.