On his third field trip, in late summer of 1832, Elias Lönnrot reached Viena, the elusive object of his two previous journeys.
Lönnrot had completed the degree of Doctor of Medicine in the beginning of the summer, and after the ceremonies and festivities, he went with four of his fellow doctorands to Laukko for a brief holiday. There, according to Lönnrot, we spent a couple of days that might not quite meet with a doctor's approval, although, including old Törngren, we were seven doctors altogether.
In the middle of July, Lönnrot set out on his field trip accompanied by two students, Juhana Törngren and Juhana Wirzén. The journey from Laukko to Saunajärvi in Kuhmo took five weeks and not a day of that was spent sober. In addition to emptying bottle after bottle of rum and spirits, the party spent much time played cards, with Lönnrot winning a substantial sum from some local officials in Nurmes to augment the travel budget.
At the beginning of the trip, Lönnrot wrote an spirited letter to his friends A.R. Lang and G. Cavonius. The travel account Lönnrot published in Helsingfors Morgonblad the next year begins in Nurmes.
What happened in Russia on this trip is not relevant here, but Lönnrot's description of his return to Finland is. He compares the Karelians "these people I call Finns" and the common people in his native land.
Lönnrot came back from his third trip with some 3.000 lines of folk poetry, most of this from the village of Akonlahti. He crossed the border into Russia on 26 August and spent a little less than a week in Karelia. When he returned to Finland, Lönnrot made his way to Helsinki quickly, passing through Lentiira in Kuhmo, Kajaani, Kuopio and Porvoo, and arriving at his destination on 17 September.
