Background:
A lot of the Finnish mythology was oral history, and a lot of it was lost (thanks to Christian missionaries doing what they did best - eradicating other people's culture) & some of it is combination of Christian stories, Scandinavian mythology, Saami (the Finnis-Ugric natives) mythology & influences even far away.
Since I'm not a historian I'll only talk about mythologies we have, using references mostly from Finnish mythology book by Iivar Kemppinen and Mythology fennica and any reliable internet website. Some details are so varied I'll only add the most popular information.
Just trying to add a little background information first because it's relevant considering how little was recorded on time and how much of it was overwritten by Christianity.
Romanticism & national pride was on the rise at the beginning of 1800, and it created interest in young university scholars to go collect our own history, the stories we had. There was few books written before that, but nothing as substantial as Kalevala, which was written by the widely talented doctor, linguist and a poet Elias Lönnrot.
Lönnrot spent time in different parts of Finland - and outside Finland - collecting stories, songs and spells, but gathered mostly from the former eastern Finland, Karjala, area which was lost to the Russians in the continuation war 1940-1944.
Some parts of the Kalevala were modifications of the original stories by the writer Lönnrot, to match together all the different poems and songs from many different places.
As you can probably guess from the first picture, as it might look familiar, the writer J.R.R Tolkien was a fan of Kalevala, & got some inspiration from it. The wizard Gandalf was inspired by the main-hero of Kalevala: wizard/shaman & poem-singer Väinämöinen (you can pronounce it Vainamoinen, it's close enough). This picture is a painting of Väinämöinen riding the giant eagle Kokko. There's several kokko/eagles in Kalevala but this painting portraits the one that saved Väinämöinen from distress at sea as reward for leaving one birch for the eagles to sit on when he was cutting down trees to make a field. Artist: Kolobova Margarita.
Instead of copy-pasting the entire Kalevala, I'm gonna just pick parts of the mythology and write about other beliefs in and outside Kalevala, the old customs, etc.
If someone is interested, the book Kalevala has been translated & published in 59 countries. It probably loses a lot in the translation, since the original writing is mostly old Finnish, & like all the older versions of all the languages, they're both unique and more beautiful. Kalevala is written in trochaic meter of poetry, in a "Kalevala-meter".
Sorry for any lousy punctuation, grammar and English. And that they're not in order. You can't change picture order unless you post immediately and not just save it for later. Also for some reason some of the text kept disappearing after I wrote it and then saved it. I have not been enjoying writing this here because it's been difficult. Also sorry that this is so long.
There's a lot of different information, and depending on the source, it changed quite a bit, there's hundreds of names and dozens of smaller mythological creatures that seem to overlap with each other. Not to mention how much interesting stuff there is - and in the end - how little I could add here.
To make going through this post easier here's what I wrote about in each picture.
1. Storytelling
2. What is Kalevala
3. Creation of the world
4. The creatures
5. Gods
6,7,8 More creatures
9. Afterlife
The Evil nemesis of Kalevala, Mistress of Pohjola, goddess of Manala/Tuonela/afterlife, Louhi, turned herself into a kokko/eagle, by building wings from ship-parts, using scythes as its eagles talons.
Kokko is also a word for a pyre, because the kokko-eagles could create fire.
More about Louhi later.
(Väinämöinen captivated every living being with his music.)
Storytelling:
Runolaulu/poetry-singing needs a bit explaining, because that's pretty much all the written traditions entail. The stories were poems that were sung. And Kalevala tells about war between two lands, where heroes battled with their wits and words, by poetry-singing.
"The poetry was often sung to music built on a pentachord, sometimes assisted by a kanteleplayer. The rhythm could vary but the music was arranged in either two or four lines in 5-4metre. The poems were often performed by a duo, each person singing alternative verses or groups of verses. This method of performance is called an antiphonic performance, it is a kind of 'singing match'." Wikipedia.
"Vaka vanha Väinämöinen
Tietäjä iänikuinen"
Va/ka / van/ha / Väi/nä/möi/nen
tie/tä/jä / i/än/i/kui/nen = Kalevala-meter
Couple videos in the end of this post to give some idea of both traditional poem-singing and modern rap-styled poem-singing.
What Kalevala is about:
"Kalevala begins with the traditional Finnish creation myth, leading into stories of the creation of the earth, plants, creatures and the sky. Creation, healing, combat and internal story telling are often accomplished by the character(s) involved singing of their exploits or desires. Many parts of the stories involve a character hunting or requesting lyrics (spells) to acquire some skill, such as boat-building or the mastery of iron making.
As well as magical spell casting and singing, there are many stories of lust, romance, kidnapping and seduction. The protagonists of the stories often have to accomplish feats that are unreasonable or impossible which they often fail to achieve leading to tragedy and humiliation.
The Sampo is a pivotal element of the whole work. Many actions and their consequences are caused by the Sampo itself or a character's interaction with the Sampo. It is described as a magical talisman or device that brings its possessor great fortune and prosperity, but its precise nature has been the subject of debate to the present day"- Wikipedia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalevala short synopses of every poems plotline.
Creation of the world and/or Finland:
"Lands under the sky". And the large tree covering the world is the Pillar of the World, Worldtree, The great Oak. It's connected to the Northern star/Pohjantähti/Pohjannaula/Maailmantappi/Taivaantappi. The river behind the pillar is the Tuonen joki, River of Tuoni/Tuonela/Manala (Kingdom of the dead), which separates the land of the living from the land of the dead. The entire world was described to be a flat wheel with a dome on top of it. The sky has about 9 layers in some stories. There's also holes between those layers where things like spirits, souls and birds could travel between world of men and gods.
It's said that the Milkyway is that tree, the pillar of the world. And that Milkyway is also the road which birds fly to get from the land of the gods to the human realm. Probably why Milkyway is Linnunrata in Finnish (Road of The birds).
There's at least three versions of how the world was created, a cosmogony.
1.) Diver-myth, where diver-bird (or in Christian inspired version it was the devil) dive into the first-ocean to raise earth up to create the first land.
2.) The sphere of the sky was forged by Ilmarinen, spirit/god of air and a blacksmith. This version was adopted from Scandinavia and it's probably how Ilmarinen became a god of creation.
3.) The world was hatched from an egg of a (water)bird. This version reflects the idea that the world has three layers like in a shape of an egg. These three levels consist of the lowlands/alinen of the dead, the middle land of humans and uplands/ylinen of the gods.
The diver-myth was mentioned in Kalevala.
In Kalevala the great Oak, the Pillar of the world was still growing in the early days, when the world was created. It covered the sun and the moon and the world became dark. Someone had to cut down the tree but no one succeeded. Finally from the ocean comes a small man dressed in copper/iron, and he grows into a giant and strikes the tree three times until it falls down over the river of Tuoni to form a bridge between the land of the living and the land of the dead. After the oak fell, the sky was finally free: sunlight and moonlight returned. And so the creation of the world was finished. The magic of the tree was released into the world for the enjoyment of the people: whoever folds the treetop gets a spell forever (loitsu=spell, uncertain if it means you get one spell to use forever or you get actual magical skills). Whoever folds a branch gets to be happy forever. And whoever cuts an upper branch gets to find love everlasting.
Splinters of the oak floated into the sea and finally ended up on shore. The maiden of Hiisi, Lapland's Dog Ironteeth or some other evil creatures made witches-arrows from those splinters. This myth could be telling a story how the first weapons were created.
(Witches-arrows has another meaning which is "lumbago". There are a lot of spells in Finnish tradition and some of the healing spells of lumbago have mentioned the previously told story of cutting down the great Oak.)
One other tradition related to the great Oak is hunting of the Finnish national animal & holy animal karhu/bear. After a bear has been hunted and killed, there's a holy ceremony Peijaiset (includes other big & holy game like moose), where one tradition has been to put the bear skull on top of a tree. It might have been a metaphorical way of returning the spirit of the bear into the sky by the the World tree.
More about the king of the forest, Karhu (bear) later.
The egg-myth has many variations. This one was in a poem by Ontrei Malinen. In the poem wizard and poem-singer Väinämöinen was shot and he drifted at sea for seven years. A scoup laid six eggs on his knee he had lift up from the sea, and one egg was made of iron. The eggs broke when Väinämöinen moved his knee. Then Väinämöinen said the words of creation to create the world, sky, the land, the trees. So he was considered to be kind of a creator-hero as well.
"The cosmography of Finnish old religion, or the notion of the world's structure, was based on its base-uralic image. According to folklorist Anna-Leena Siikala, the basic features of the mainland cosmography were the position of Pohjantähti/Northern star as the center of the sky, the merging of the horizontal and the vertical figure, the north-south axis emphasis, and the significance of waterways as the union of this and the latter. These were central to the Finnish ancient religions, although the latter two were blurred in the Sámi bible."
There's no exact "end of the world" myths left but it's theorized that they're similar with other northeners and uralic people. According to them, it's been assumed that the world begins and ends in cycles.
Poems have mentioned that when impossible things start to happen it's the sign of the end of the world: stars dance, moon goes dark, sun sets to the north or shines from the bottom of the water, when a stone floats or flies and feathers or leaves sink. In the Savoy stories, Kihovauhkonen prophesied the end of the world like so: when the earth is woven with the iron belt and the headless horses pass through the road. He also had few other interesting prophecies in Finnish-only article, but one mentions Sweden and Turkey will battle each other in the final war.
https://fi.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kihovauhkonen
The creatures:
- Väki(=folk): group of elf-creatures, and also a name for persons magical powers. You could call "väki" to aid you in a fight or to make a spell. They're a group of invisible small creatures. There's elf-folk everywhere, like there's earth folk, water folk, forge folk etc.
"Haltia" is usually used to mean "elves" in modern days, like in fantasy literature, but they're completely different beings in Finnish mythology. Same goes for gnomes, spirits, imps etc. They are not exactly the same as the English versions yet the translations are the same.
- Haltiat/Elf-beings; gnomes, imps and spirits inhabit every living and insentient thing: air, fire, water, earth, trees, stones, and also human houses and buildings. They're usually invisible and small but can take visible forms. Some texts mention every person having a guardian spirit/elf.
Other creatures are fairies, dwarfs, trolls and giants. The last three mentioned have been described as simple minded.
- Maahiset/Goblins (the more evil folk from earth folk) live under the earth with their families (alike the spirits of the dead), living ordinary lives, collecting treasure, having fun, singing and playing music. They have weddings and give birth to children. With their beautiful music they've lured humans under their spell and even had children with humans.
Goblins can also shapeshift into giants to help carry stones for the humans or shrink down as small as possible. They can also turn invisible and visible, or take the appearance of a beautiful human.
They're old fashioned and like to live in certain kind of places, and dislike new things and changes, like churches and Christianity.
There's stories about goblins and trolls exchanging their children with human children, and the way you could tell, was noticing that your child is crippled, unusually short or mentally challenged.
The spirits, imps and gnomes inhabit every living thing and artifact, but there's also spirits of the deceased that can inhabit places like their old homes. Also whoever was buried first in the Kalmisto/holy grove (which was like a cemetery), becomes the guardian of the place although some sources say it's not a soul of the deceased but a spirit/goblin that guards the place.
Since every place has spirits and gnomes it was important to be friendly towards them and careful, like find the right place to build a house or spend the night without choosing a spot with hostile spirits. The Saami used dreams as indications on what kind of spirits live there.
The realm of the spirits and gnomes is backwards and opposite from the human realm, like the land of the dead is opposite. That's why if a human gets lost, he gets into a "hiidenkätkö", "the hiding place in hiisi" or "secret place of Hiisi", where everything is backwards and that's why you can't find your way.
- veden väki/water folk: different creatures belong into this group, like vesihiisi, vetehinen, veden neidot/water maidens and small men who occasionally rise from the ocean to help people with their great powers.
One of the more evil creatures from the water folk is näkki, which is in several cultures by different names, but in Finnish mythology Näkki was a female creature that lived in lakes and lured people with beautiful singing that was near impossible to resist.
- tulen väki/ fire folk: they live in the fire and are what makes fire a fire; fire moves, is hot and burns because the fire folk burn and move. Burn injuries are caused by the anger of fire folk (called tulenviha=anger of the flame).
To treat burn injuries people used water or snow because the water folk lives in it and they'd drive off the fire folk. Also the fire folk are used in healing. Especially in sauna, which was used to heal pretty much any ailment.
Some people possibly thought they were related to the fire folk. "Intomies", who are shamans and witches, has said when touching a hot sauna-stove stone, that "fire doesn't burn one of its own". These intomies are similar to berserkers for using self-trance and inducing either rage or frenzy to do things like heal.
- metsän väki/forest folk: both folk that lives in the forest and also a power that causes forest-related ills and IS the magic in the forests. There's different type of forest creatures that belong to this group. Both beautiful, well meaning creatures and dangerous, horrifying creatures. The good folk include servants (of Tapio), fairies called sinipiiat, daughters and sons of the forest. They take care of the forest, like clean it. More evil creatures include goblins, foresthiisi and fairies. They could intentionally trick, lure and bewitch people and make them lose their way in the forest. There could be a noidankehä/a witches circle in the forest, which can bewitch anyone who steps inside the circle. The circle can be a circle of mushrooms.
- Kalman väki/death folk sometimes meant ghosts, sometimes death related elves. They can cause serious illnesses but their power can be used to heal them too. And they can appear as omen of death, but only shaman like tietäjät/"knowers", animals and the dying people could see them. Only the most powerful wizards/shamans could control kalman väki.
- Other väki include: vuoren/kallion väki, mountain/cliff folk, taivaan väki/sky folk, ukkosen väki/thunder folk, pajan väki/forge folk.
There's even sex-related folk:
- naisen/vitun väki, women's/vaginas folk. They could cause harm, particularly in men's lives; like a woman jumping over a fish net could make the fishnet unable to catch fish. But women's folk could also enhance the strength of hunting gear.
The gods:
(Painting, a scene from Kalevala: Suomuhauki, giant Scalepike, that gets in the way of Väinämöinen and his ship. After killing Suomuhauki with his sword, Väinämöinen takes the pikes jawbone to make the first Finnish zither.)
There are several gods or haltiat/spirits, listed by another famous Finnish scholar Mikael Agricola. All gods/spirits are male unless mentioned otherwise. Wife and family members of the main gods were left in the dark after Christian influence, because Christian god was inhuman all-powerful, whereas old gods were human-like, and a god having a family was "approachable" and not as god-like.
Some information in this list was left short. Some information doesn't exist. This list was gathered by Finnish Mikael Agricola, "father of literary Finnish". He felt like this should be the list of the gods so I'm gonna mention them even if I can't find much information about the less known gods/spirits.
-Ukko: god of thunder. Old man, Lord, Pitkänen (basically all-father). He had a wife called Akka (Old Hag). Akka has been also thought to be god called Ryönikkä, Rauni, Maan emoinen (mother of earth), and she's often considered to be goddess of fertility. As Ukko controls weather and brings rain on the fields, Akka fertilizes the crops.
Ukko is one of the most oldest gods and has a strong presence even today. People used to pray to him to bring rain, bless with a good weather, to calm down storms, heal sicknesses, help, protection, success and pretty much everything could be prayed for.
Weapons found from the Ironage were thought to be Ukko's thunder that had struck earth and they were used for healing purposes. Same with things like thunder struck wood.
Ceremonies to pray for Ukko were performed after spring sowing and the autumn harvest. Ceremonies entailed spells/prayers drinking a cup of beer or spirits and a feast.
At times the ceremony involved getting completely drunk.
There's a lot more information on the details of some of the ceremonies but they're not important for this introduction.
There has been really old poems about Ukko and Akka being small goblins. The line between godhood and elf-beings were blurry at one point. The ideas what gods were like have been constantly changing and "improving".
-Ahti/Ahto, known as the god of ocean and lakes, yet is mentioned as such only in spells.
His wife is named Vellamo, who has basically the same role as Ahti and the same abilities and both were prayed to give plenty of fish and a good sailing weather and so on.
-Ilmarinen/Ilmari/Ilma/Ilmori/Ilmollinen, blacksmith. Considered to be god of air (ilma=Air), weather and wind. He invented iron in later stories and became the god of blacksmithing. One of his creations was the magical object Sampo and he was involved in other adventures in Kalevala. He became the blacksmith-god after people started to use iron.
Ilmarinen forged the sky with such talent that there's no markings from the pliers and hammer. He also forged aurora borealis and the colours of dusk and dawn.
- Tapio, god/spirit of forests. His wife was Mielikki, the matron of the forests. Tapio also had several daughters Tellervo, Tyytikki and Tuulikki. Some songs and stories have mentioned one to be Annikki.
People prayed for luck in hunting because Tapio ruled over all the wild animals.
Tapio and his family and servants look like humans who are either naked or beautifully dressed. But Tapio has been described as having a beard of wood and two eyes like bottomless lakes.
Finland has been called as "Tapiola" after Tapio.
There's also stories about Tapiotar which was a female Tapio and the goddess of the forest.
- Lemminkäinen: considered to be the god of fertility.
- Väinämöinen was once considered to be a god or god-like, equal to Ukko, god of thunder. He had powers that were god-like, he was revered, and people prayed to him. Since he was also known for his gifts as a musician "like no other", people prayed for him to entice the fishes so that fishermen could catch a lot of fish or lure deers so hunters could get a lot of game.
He had children who had gifts of healing.
- Kaleva/Kalevi: mythic hero of the baltic-ocean Finns. He was known as a king and as an ancient giant. His sons were more well-known than him, kalevanpojat/son's of Kaleva. Those sons were giants as well. They were behind any changes in the landscape, like giant stones in the nature, and it was said that they had built castles all around Finland. Kaleva created the land of Kalevala, he's the forefather of the Finnish people, first to move into Finland, and a father of the known heroes Väinämöinen, Kullervo and Lemminkäinen - but this is also only one version.
- Liekkiö: mentioned as both a lord of trees, roots and grass but also as a ghost of dead abandoned children, that dwell at night, cries and wails, mimics and scares travelers.
- Rahko: a being that hides the moon.
- Köntys: probably helped with farming.
- Kratti: guardian of treasure. Similar to Aarni.
- Tonttu: "Elf", gnome.
- Kapeet: creatures of air and sky, cause moon eclipse.
- Vedenemä: the same as Vellamo, wife of Ahti, the god/spirit of water, basically has the same role as Ahti.
- Nyyrikki: maybe the son or the daughter of the god of the forest Tapio and his wife Mielikki, and a spirit of hunting.
- Hittavainen: forest-spirit who helps hunters to hunt for rabbits.
- Rauni: possibly the other name for Ukko god of thunder and sky, or a female version of Ukko or just another name for Akka. Also possibly a god of fertility.
- Rongetus: gives farmers rye. Unknown what sort of being or what was the exact name.
- Virankannos: spirit of oats, oat fields, farming of oats. Since oats is relatively new it's more probable Virankannos had other roles like being the god/spirit of harvest and the male version of god of fertility.
-Äkräs: spirit of the harvest.
- Menninkäiset: goblins.
- Pellonpekko: (troll of the fields) god/spirit of beer and barley.
The names from Kalevala and other mythological entities are still popular Finnish names.
More mythical creatures:
Every animal, plant and nonliving thing has a first-parent, a mythic being called "emuu".
Emuu was the same word as emo ("mother", usually called for animal mothers, in modern day never about human mothers). Today we use "emo". No relation to "emu".
The first-parent emuu looks after its own species and takes care of them. Hunters used to say spells to ask for luck in hunting from the emuu's. It was thought that emuu's decided which hunter would get one of their children as prey, if any.
Evil creatures also had emuu's and that's how they were banished: to go back to their emuu, first-parent, or if evil creatures refused to hear you, you could say you'll tell on them to their emuu. Also emuu's could be told that they need to control their children. Although most emuu's had names, those names varied. Here's few, rest can be found for example https://fi.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emuu - they're from Mythology fennica and Martti Haavio "Suomalainen mytologia".
Kati: emuu of trees. Beautiful maiden/goddess who gives birth to trees.
Kytöläinen: emuu of worms. Also gives birth to willows.
Juonetar: emuu of deers. (Juhongatress")
Höyheneukko – emuu of fowls (means "feather-hag")
Juoletar – an otter emuu
Despite the feminine -tar in Juoletar, they're male (juolua = joenhaara)
*
ird) bird shaped soulanimal. Bird brought the soul in rebirth and took it in the time of death.
And since birds were believed to inhabit the souls of the dead, harming them was strictly forbidden.
Some traditions had a soulbird carved from wood hanged up over the beds to look after the soul while people slept, so the soul doesn't wander off.
People fed the birds through winter with things like fat and seeds, perhaps because they believed the bird could be their deceased loved one who came to visit.
Now we feed the birds because winters are cold and a bit scarce on food so we don't want them to starve. Also feeding birds is fun because they're cute.
- Etiäinen also (eeliänen) is a reflection of a person, doppelganger or some kind of a premonition that goes before the original, actual person and seems to be doing the same exact things as the actual person - before they do it.
For example people could hear a family member coming home before they did, but shortly after the actual family-member does arrive home making the actual sounds you thought you heard earlier.
Etiäinen can be both heard and seen, like a shadow, or you can see someone out in the town who looks exactly like someone you know.
Every person gets their etiäinen when they're three year old and also persons personal guardian elf/spirit can function similarly outside their host-person.
More mythical creatures:
At Finnish swamps, the will-o-the-wisps (aarnivalkea=treasure fire) burned over a hidden treasure, which was guarded by the haltia/spirit Aarni. The fires were believed to burn especially on midsummers eve. That's when the spirits revealed the location of the treasure.
Will-o-the-wisps have also been related to hauntings. Especially the will-o-the-wisps in cemeteries, murder scenes etc. were thought to be the spirits of the deceased. Some of the will-o-the-wisps were called "liekkiö" (kinda like the word "flame"). They've been considered to be ghostbirds or souls of childrens. Birds were thought to carry the souls of the deceased.
The making of Sampo. Akseli Gallen-Kallela.
"In Finnish mythology, the Sampo brought good fortune to its holder. When the Sampo was stolen, it is said that Ilmarinen’s homeland fell upon hard times and sent an expedition to retrieve it, but in the ensuing battle it was smashed and lost at sea."
List of animals both revered and considered "evil":
- There's many mythologies about our nature & wildlife. Starting from this innocent looking black woodpecker in this painting:
if you hear & see it knocking near your house, it means death is coming to knock on your house.
The black woodpecker was another sacred bird in Kalevala. So sacred, it was not named. It had "pet names" but not A name. But many interpreters believe the woodpecker was symbolized by Nyrikki, son of Tapio with the scarlet head-gear who Lemminkäinen asks to make notches to help him track the elk of Hiisi (as part of his trials in the stories of Kalevala).
- Käärme/snake: Snakes have been feared and respected. Finland doesn't have especially dangerous snakes, but only one venomous snake that can cause death depending on the bite-area and possible allergies. Still their bite and appeareance has made them feared and disliked. But especially nonvenomous snakes were kept in people's homes as physical versions of the household spirits and gnomes. Both had equally supernatural roles. The snakes were taken good care of in exchange of their blessing and bringing fortune, like for keeping the livestock healthy, the snakes were given fresh cows milk first, before any of the people in the farm could drink it. Same with harvested crops. The snakes were connected to the livestock and to the person who fed them. If snake was neglected or killed, the livestock would stop producing milk and fall sick. Same happens to the person who fed the snake. And that's one explanation for why the matron or patron of the house fell sick.
- Karhu/bear: one of the holiest animals. They were so sacred they didn't have a real name and they had dozens of euphemisms like kontio, otso, King of The forest, nalle (=modern day teddy bear) and even modern day "karhu" wasn't their real name. The reason to avoid using bear's actual name was to prevent calling the beast upon yourself. One possible original name was "oksi". Modern day equivalent to the word could be "otso".
One story in Kivijärvi tells a story how a bear came to human settlement to do ill, but a giant-sized man strikes the bear and then the bear begs for mercy. Then a deal was made: the bear promised to stay in the forests, eat berries and ants - and even to sleep the entire winter. But if the bear would return to the human settlements, then it would be killed. And it kept its promise most of the time unless livestock got into its kingdom, the forest.
- Korppi, varikset/ravens, crows: they were thought to be harbingers of evil. Raven was also called kaarne, bird of Lempo, made from embers and charcoal. They, like many other birds, came to collect the souls of the dead.
- Sisilisko/lizard: same family with the snake: they're sons of snakes born from Louhi, called also eye of Hiisi. Have been used as protectors in homes like snakes.
- sammakko/frog: considered both evil like snakes but also compared to goblins and protectors. Killing or hurting frogs could result in someone in the household dying or the livestock like cows bleeding blood instead of giving milk.
- Ampiainen/wasp: Lemmon lintu/bird of Lempo, Lempo, Hiien lintu/bird of Hiisi, son of Kyyjätär/Snakeress. Bird of a whore. Neuliainen/needle. Basically thought to be a tiny bird.
- Hämähäkki/spider: another "son of whore". Also whore of Hiisi. Surma/death. Even though Finland doesn't have any venomous spiders I suppose they were just nasty looking enough.
-lumikko/weasel: Because it changed colour depending on the changing seasons (having brown and white coats), was fast and wary and wasn't seen much it was a mysterious animal. Even thought to be by some an actual white coloured snake that would have a venomous bite. And since it was blamed for attacking cows in the barns, biting their udders, it wasn't liked and people used spells to make it leave livestock alone. It was appeased with spells until people thought that it protects animals that are the same colour.
- Susi/wolf: The reason why wolves are to this day the most hated animals in Finland, could have its roots in Finnish mythology. Wolves, like other predators like the bear, was thought to have come from Tuonela or Pohjola (the fictional evil North), and born from the wind. Wolves caused damage to livestock and possibly killed humans back then, which is why they were considered evil. The damage wolves cause today is small, but they've been hunted to near extinction with only about 100 left in the entire country. People - pretty much only hunters - seriously hate wolves.
(Side note: personally I find these myths about the wild animals highly interesting. Modern day people, like the people in my country, are so far from being connected to the nature, that they think no living beings have any worth, and kids today just torture small animals. Superstition isn't usually good, but being connected to nature and valuing every living being and seeing their worth even when considering them half "evil" for their dangerous nature, respecting them because of it.)
- There's also a lot of revered animals like most birds (swans being the holiest and other waterbirds, cuckoo birds, cranes and swallows) are holy and loved, even to this day. Baltic Finns were called the people of the waterbird - relating to the creation-myth of the waterbirds egg. Waterbirds like swans were a popular topic in the rockpaintings so the relationship is very old.
Also horses and Finnish have a long, close partnership with a lot of history. In folk poems horses were believed to have been made from iron and stones. That's how strong and admired they were.
"Ilmarinen kyntää kyisen pellon".
“Thus the blacksmith, Ilmarinen, Safely plows the field of serpents, Lifts the vipers in his plowing, Buries them beneath the furrow, Harmless all against his magic. When the task had been completed, Ilmarinen, quick returning, Thus addressed Pohjola’s hostess: “I have plowed the field of Hiisi, Plowed the field of hissing serpents, Stilled and banished all the vipers; Give me, ancient dame, thy daughter, Fairest maiden of the Northland.” - Kalevala.
Iku-Turso/Meritursas:
- in Kalevala and for Finns in Baltic sea area Iku-Turso was a sea-monster or a guardian of the sea. The word "iku" is short for "ikuinen" which could mean that Iku-Turso existed since the beginning of the time and will keep existing till the end. "Iku" has also been used to mean respected/honoured. And yet the first written stories with several hundreds of years of difference Iku-Turso was mentioned as a god of war and not as a sea-monster.
Fun fact: Finland has had its own "swastika" shaped symbols which were symbols of Iku-Turso, and were thought to bring luck.
- In Kalevala she's known as Louhi. She's the mistress of Pohjola/Northlands, lady of Tuonela and she has dozens of other names. She lived in Pohjola, in Kivimäki, Kipuvuori (=in Rockhill, Mountain of Pain.)
On other stories she doesn't necessarily have a name, just names like Sparse teeth Hag of Northlands, Pohjolan emäntä/akka/hag of North & other names like that. She causes diseases, frost and icy winds. But she's also powerful witch and a shapeshifter. She can control weather and the sun and the moon. She gave birth to many supernatural and evil beings but also had beautiful human daughters and in Kalevala the heroes try to woo them.
Kullervo goes to war. Akseli Gallen-Kallela.
Veneration of the dead was a big part of Finnish old religion, the nature worship. There's a lot of stories revolving around the dead and afterlife.
Afterlife:
Tuonela/Tuoni/Manala is an island of the dead. It was believed to be located in the north (just "north"), either underground or underwater.
The dead get there by crossing the river Tuoni on a raft/boat, rowed by girls and boys of Tuonela. It's an backward, upside, mirror-image sort of realm.
The river is dark/black and either slow and mellow or has a raging rapid streams with vortex (=kinahmi).
The ruler of Tuonela is the Lady of Tuonela, also called Kalmatar.
Tuonela has existed in the Finnish mythology for a long time and shares similarities with other old religions around the world.
Louhi, as a ruler of the underworld, was probably created from the idea that the earth is a mother and the underworld inside the earth is the womb. And the entrance to the underworld is where the father-sky inseminates the earth through the wind. So mother earth is divine as it's fertile, where life begins and where life returns after death.
Ancient burial traditions are similar with many other cultures: you bury the deceased with possessions like money, weapons and food for the journey ahead. You sacrifice an animal over the grave and then cook and eat it over the grave with the rest of the funeral-guests.
Often the casket cover was shaped like a boat, so they were "buried into the earth on a boat". Some of the dead were burned on a boat Viking-style. But ancient Finn weren't Vikings. The boat-tradition is older and is related to the way you need to get to the afterlife, Tuonela.
Before Christian etc. cemeteries, the deceased were buried under a tree, this tree was called a "karsikko", a holy place. First it began with burying only one person under one tree, later it became entire families, which made these groves holy groves, and they were called "Kalmisto" and also as "Hiisi". Hiisi was also the name for any important, holy places, like places for worship.
The relatives brought sacrifices for the dead. They still believed that they were around, enjoying the sacrifices.
There were a lot of funeral traditions, one being how families tricked the soul of the deceased from returning back home, by hanging wooden objects to the trees - from home to burial ground.
The traditions were strict because according to some sources people feared the dead as much as the family wanted for the dead to appear to them. But they wanted to see them in a beautiful form, often in a form of a bird - and not as a rotting corpse.
Kekri, is a still-existing holy day, when the dead walk the earth. There wasn't exact date for kekri but it's about the last week of October, kinda in the same time as Halloween. It was a day to arrange a feast for the dead although on that regard there's mixed sources. Because that time period became a feast for the farmers as well: it was after harvest, time for rest, and the cellars and pantries were filled with food for the long winter. So some sources say it was the day of the dead first, others claim it was a celebration of harvest first.
The painting by Akseli Gallen-Kallela is a scene from Kalevala, where Lemminkäinen dies after trying to kill the black swan of Tuonela (as Louhi had commanded), which was a holy animal for the Finnish, and the punishment for the crime was death. The stories about his killer varies, but it's been said it was someone who had been angered previously by Lemminkäinen, and that it wasn't an ordinary human.
Pieces of killed Lemminkäinen were in the river, and the mother of Lemminkäinen collected the pieces and put her son back together again.
From Kalevala: story of Aino.
Aino was a sister of Joukahainen, and after losing a battle of songs with Väinämöinen, Joukahainen was singed into the swamp. For getting out, he promised his sister to become the bride of Väinämöinen. But after Aino heard she would have to marry an old man, she drowned herself. Väinämöinen tried to pull her out of the water but could only catch a fish, he then tried to eat. But the fish got away and told Väinämöinen that it was actually Aino who had turned into a fish.
After that Väinämöinen denied the Finnish people to ever marry off a bride to a man who's too old and not to get married too young. Väinämöinen had several commandments that the people followed.
One example is, that it's forbidden to yell at midnight as the sound could attract evil supernatural threats.
Acting disrespectful and rowdy was forbidden when in nature. For example, while on a boat or swimming you need to showed respect and be well mannered and not do things like curse, because otherwise you can upset the spirits of the water "veden väki", and they could cause harm to you because of it. One punishment would be viha (=hate/anger) which was a sickness, and to get rid of it you had to return it to the place where you caught it.
When I was a kid, in Midsummer Eve's sauna, my mother warned me not to be loud or the elf/gnome/saunatonttu would come and punish me. So some of these things still exist in everyday life. Especially tonttu/gnomes.
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(Hiisi. Akseli Gallen-Kallela)
-Hiisi used to mean holy grounds, like the burial grounds "Kalmisto". Later, after Christian influence, hiisi was an evil demon -like creature.
(Nicolai Kochergin. Kalevala. Lemminkainen comes to Pohjola.)
https://youtu.be/Wbq3186GThY symphony of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, "Tuonelan joutsen", "The Swan of Tuonela".
https://youtu.be/IT_vQCVdni4 Tuuletar, poem-singing in modern form: freestyle rap and beatboxing, with exact yet randomly chosen lines from Kalevala (as you can see the book change hands). It's pretty impressive.
https://youtu.be/vfYuHK-xFkg without rapping.
https://youtu.be/Hz-2FoCqpr0 The original poem-singing. Two old men singing, the last of the old poem-singers.
