Copyright berkshireeagle
It's a long way from a cabin in the Berkshire woods, without electricity or a telephone, to the House of Nobility in Helsinki, Finland, but Robert Blafield's going, and the choir of St. Mark's Church will help him and the other nobles celebrate the big reunion. Blafield has written a piece of choral music for the festivities marking the 500th anniversary of his family's elevation to the Finnish nobility. A tape of the four-minute anthem, entitled "Hymn of Thanksgiving" and sung by the church choir, which he directs, has already preceded him to the Finnish capital. So, when 200 Blafields from all over the world assemble there on Nov. 13 for the celebration, the first thing they'll hear will be the 30 St. Mark's choristers singing Blafield's setting of a Lutheran text in praise of God. After that, they'll settle down for speeches on the family tree, a formal dinner-dance and an address by the president of Finland, Urho Kekkonen. The Berkshire Blafield is the grandson of a baron, but his castle is a wood-heated wooden cabin set well in from a dirt road on a rugged hillside overlooking Hillsdale, N.Y. Although the family owns a home in Lenox, Blafield, his wife, Audrey, who is a painter, and their two daughters, Kari, 10, and Alma, 14, prefer to rent part of the house and spend most of the year in the cabin as a retreat. They return to Lenox chiefly when business or winter weather leaves them no choice. Blafield, 48, says that despite the anniversary bash, neither he nor most of his relatives take much account of being like a count. "You find that most of my family are productive people — lawyers, doctors and teachers — and they don't tend to take themselves seriously," he says. "The cousins that are diplomats will wear their medals to the dinner, yes, but they don't think they're better than anyone else — which is what a true aristocracy is: You judge people on their merits. "As one of my cousins says, the fact that the family has survived throughout all the wars that Finland's had is merit enough." Actually, Blafield says, the family's noble beginnings are rather humble. An ancestor who was a servant of the Swedish king (Sweden was then under Finnish rule) fought for the king in one of those 41 wars or skirmishes that Blafield says Finland has fought and lost since 1476. In gratitude, the king made the warrior governor of the castle at Turku, a port in southwest Finland. The family continued to live in the castle as nobility for several hundred years.
