Finding Petronella
A young woman, a 90-year-old legend, and the journey of a lifetime.
About
From June to October 2014, Jenny O’Connell embarked on a walking journey across Finland, following the footsteps of the legendary Petronella Van Der Moer into the wilderness above Finland’s Arctic Circle. This is her blog from the journey.
When I met Petronella van der Moer in 2013 and learned of her legendary 1949 adventure across Finland’s Arctic Circle, somewhere deep down I recognized I’d just touched something I badly needed. Petronella was bold and free in ways that I could only dream of. A wild part of myself had gone missing a long time ago. I set out on that journey to get her back. My 800-mile trek into the Lappish… Read More
It has taken five years, but we have arrived: to the place where my skill as a writer meets the story. To the place where the book gets more space than my paid gigs, or my obligations. To a place of spirit, and of deep faith. Welcome to The Year of the Book. A lot has happened since my last update. I taught myself how to write a book proposal. Sent it…. Read More
“It was not a bad highway, as highways go—long and flat and lined with evergreens and small houses—but it was a far cry from the serenely wooded trails of my imagination. Yet, Highway E75 was what I had. On my map of Finland it was a red line, pointing straight north. My head ached from the smell of exhaust and the roar of semi trucks. Curious faces peered at me from the… Read More
“These are people who live close to God, their god, the river. They bathe in her, scoop her up in containers to make coffee, drink her down. They skin ptarmigan and watch her current run red, then clear. They rake her bottom with their shovels, feed her through a sluice, collect her finest, densest soil in their pans, bottle up and pocket her gold. Each turn of the shovel sounds like ehkä…. Read More
3/14/18 I’m standing in the meadow, soles of my feet slowly freezing, wishing the body did not have limits. My eyes will never be wide enough to catch this sky, the shimmering veil of green falling like slow stars on my head. My mouth is no good either; what? what? is all I can say, all I can ever say when I am struck with wonder. I clutch my heart. I do… Read More
The Sami woman named Leena looked me up and down. I was wearing the warmest clothes I own—a ski jacket, snow pants, my best gloves and boots. Underneath all that I had heavy long underwear, a down vest, and my thickest fleece. I live in Maine now, I thought when I packed my bag last week to return above the Arctic Circle. This will be enough. “No.” Leena lit a cigarette and raised… Read More
For those of you Finnish speakers, your moment has come. Here is a stirring, eloquent account of our epic 115-km journey to Lemmenjoki, written by none other than my partner in crime and modern-day Klaus, Annukka Rantalainen! Thank you to Seppo J. Partanen and Kultahippu for posting, and to Annukka for this great rendition. http://www.kultahippu.fi/tarinat-2/lemmenjoki/tunnelmapaloja-petronellan-jalanjaljilta/ PROJECT UPDATE: I am currently based out of a snowy cabin in upstate New York, and have… Read More
Saturday October 11, 2014 It is somewhere way deep down in the morning before the light, and I am awake. I am awake because I can’t figure out how to say goodbye. I came to Finland with the hope of being more than a tourist. I wanted to slow down and settle in, to stay long enough to allow the people and the place to sink into my skin. I have written about the major triumphs and pitfalls… Read More
This is it, I thought. From where I stood on the summit of Morgam-Viibus, the rolling hills of Lemmenjoki stretched out for miles and the magnitude of what I had just done (in that moment, in the nine days leading up to it, in these four months in Finland, in the past year, in the past six years, in my life) crashed over me like the sand and fury at the bottom of… Read More
“You are still here!” Tinnti the boat driver looked at me in mild surprise as I walked up to where he and a bunch of other men were seated on the bench at Kultahamina. “Of course.” “Where you been?” “Pihlajamäki.” “When you come back?” “Maybe next weekend to go fishing with Aki and Ami, and then in a few weeks I’ll go down south to hike Petronella’s longer route here over Morgam-Vibus. After… Read More
Finding Petronella 