Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald's parents were born at the Jömper estate, Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire (in present-day Jõepere, Lääne-Viru County, Estonia) where his father Juhan worked as a shoemaker and granary keeper and mother Anne was a chambermaid.

[1] The family sent their son to continue his studies at the Wesenberg (Rakvere) district school.

[2] He was the member of numerous scientific societies in Europe and received honorary doctorates from a number of universities.

Kreutzwald is the author of several moralistic folk books, most of them translated into German: Plague of Wine 1840, The World and Some Things One Can Find in It 1848–49, Reynard the Fox 1850, and Wise Men of Gotham 1857.

In addition to these works, he composed the national epic Kalevipoeg (Kalev's Son),[3] using material initially gathered by his friend Friedrich Robert Faehlmann;[4] and wrote many other works based on Estonian folklore, such as Old Estonian Fairy-Tales (1866), collections of verses, and the poem Lembitu (1885), published after his death.