Sven Dufva, the most well-known character of "The tales of Ensign Stål"

(Picture I)

http://kirjabloggaus.blogspot.fi/p/sven-dufva-most-well-known-character-of.html

Kimmo Huosionmaa

This is the philosophical point of view to Sven Dufva is the most well-known poems of the book "The tales of Ensign Stål". We actually don't know if this character pure fictional or is behind it some real person. That man said to be big and strong, and sometimes I have had a very interesting thought in my mind. That is "could Sven Dufva is automaton". That theory is very wild, but as we know, the automaton fascinated theologians, military leaders, and philosophers all around the world. And sometimes I have thought that if this very interesting character could be some kind of automaton.


This wild theory might explain, why this man was so slow. If this man was some kind of early robot, it would be the very fascinating thing for historians. This poem is the tale of the soldier, who was not very smart. This man left behind others and defended some bridge alone against Russians. The poem is very strange because there is told, that if Dufva would get help, could the army stay in the positions.


But as we know that this man had no change at all to win the battle alone, and then we must say, that if that man had a machine gun, could he kept the position, but armed with a musket, that man had no change. A bridge what this man ordered to defend was not very wide because Sven Dufva could defend it alone. Sven Dufva's bridge has sometimes searched in Finland, but nobody claims to find it. And that has made somebody thought that maybe this man is only the production of images, what came to somebody's mind during the writing process. But somebody believes that this man was real, and they have wanted to find the grave of this creature.


What makes Dufva so mysterious, is that he claimed to be a little bit slow, or there was something problem in his head. And I sometimes have thought that what was the reason for that? Could he just be the Finnish spoken person, who just had difficulties to understand commands, what were given by using Swedish?  In that time Finnish was not an official language in Swedish empire, but that was not spoken very much outside the universities and royal offices.  And if Dufva would not get practice for that language, could the military service be very difficult.


 And if his fellows didn't know about that language problem, would this poor man seem some kind of slow, what could make difficult to get promotions and handling all other things were very difficult, because Swedish officials didn't speak or wrote Finnish. In that army, everybody has expected that every man used Swedish in official papers, commands, and free-time social interaction. If somebody didn't handle Swedish good enough, that could mean, that he would be isolated from the social interaction of the unit.


But when he fell by enemy bullets, the bullet hits to the heart of that man. And sometimes people have thought, that maybe there was some kind of steel plate under the skin, what could be stopped the bullets, what shot to that man's head. Maybe that metal plate put in his head some doctor, who gave Dufva the cure of the broken skull, but this is only thinking, and my dear friends, we don't know if this character real or fiction.  And some other people think that maybe this Sven Dufva was some kind of mechanic human. Those early robots were used in very limited missions, and they were actually like walking clocks, what were made for fun.


But in some cases, those mechanic men or automaton were planned to equip with explosives, and send to the enemy lines. Those robot men were very difficult to make, and that's why they were made only very little quantum. Somebody claims that even the action movie character "Rambo" have got influence from this almost mythical creature. This creature is one of the most fascinating characters in the history of books, what are written in Finland.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tales_of_Ensign_St%C3%A5l

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automaton


Picture I

http://www03.edu.fi/oppimateriaalit/stool/kuvat/02sven13.jpg

http://kirjabloggaus.blogspot.fi/p/sven-dufva-most-well-known-character-of.html