Finnish mythical creatures

Eero Ojanen 2017: Suomalaiset taruolennot
illustrated by Sirkku Linnea

The Finnish folklore has a sprite for everything in nature. Through these creatures people explained, how the world was created and why the different phenomena appeared.

This book is divided into sections of different creature types. First come the giants, then the dwarfs (such as gnomes, elves, fairies and leprechauns).

 One section is given to the creatures from Kalevala, one for Forest folks, one for the protectors of plants. There are creatures that live underwater, those who help and care for people and animals. Then there are those, who are plain weird and those whose only purpose is to make life difficult.  The last section is describes different mythical animals in the stories.

Hiisi, a kind of devil likes to build from stones

Some of the names of these creatures live in the Finnish language: hitto is used like a swearword "damn", just like "hiisi vieköön" (may the devil take...).  To this day, children play "Hippa" (tag), which was a creature that chased animals in the forest so the hunters could catch them.

Some of the locations got its name from a creature like Kouvola. Kouvo is a messenger of death and was widely feared.

Some of the less known creatures are:
Ägräs, the god of agriculture
Kiputyttö, the maid of underworld, reliever of pain
Rahko, the painter of moon
Madderakka, the saami protecor of women
Liekkiö, dead child that haunts people
Aarni, the protector of hidden treasures
Para, secure the milk production, later on protect sheep and grains
Nyrkes, the force that makes things happen

The gnomes like to live in peace in the forest

Wikipedia gives a great list of Finnish mythology. Godchecker also lists some of Finnish gods. Even though, joulupukki is never written with a Y.

Trolls

Sami J. Anteroinen 2008: Peikot
illustrated by Elena Klykova

The book gives detailed information about trolls in Finlan. It is known that trolls live in forest. So the most sightings of trolls have been made in Ostrobothnia, where are too few places to hide.

The troll are vanishing in to Lapland, where there is still room for them.  Their habitat is diminishing just like rare animals. The book also tells about trolls' eating habits, birth and charecteristics. I always thought trolls are small, but this book discribes them almost like giants.

 Most famous folklore is about changelings. The story tells that trolls used to switch human children with their own. The author is suggesting, that trolls wanted to have more intelligence in their gene pool.

In my mind trolls are always accociated with Norway. Norway has done a great job in branding trolls. This book shows me that trolls have been part of Finnish folklore as well. 

Ghost stories of Grandpa Elf

Eero Ojanen 2008: Tonttuvaarin kummitustarinoita
illustrated by Ari Jokinen

Old ghost stories told by a Grandpa Elf. He tells in the book stories that happened somewhere else. Where he lives, nothing ever happens.

The atmosphere is created by the first story, where someone is breathing in your neck. Then a barn is haunted by a horse and the cudgel of death.

Then Granpa Elf tells a story about a horrible rider, who has been seen to ride toward the manor.

The story of the guards of the treasure can be also read in the Mauri Kunnas: Tales from Doghill.

Ghosts' Christmasparty

The story of the strict landowner tells what happens, when you do not treat others so nice. When he died, his body couldn’t be carried into the church: the doors wouldn’t open.

At the border of two villages is haunted by someone, who moved the border posts. Someone hear whining. They find a body, it is buried and the whining stops. One hears clinking and they find stolen property.


 At a dangerous cross roads white lady keeps asking not to leave her.

At Chirstmas the deceased celebrate at the church. When the dawn comes, the church is empty.

A shoemaker is the first to be buried in a cemetery. He was a very colorful character, who even after his death makes pranks to those who walk by the cemetery by night.

At this point Grandpa Elf wonders if there is ghosts if no one sees them. Grandpa Elf tells that nightmares are created when someone presses the sleeper hard, so that the sleep is disturbed and the sleeper feels distressed. The Finnish word for nightmare is painajainen and to press is painaa. So there for some presses us when we have nightmares.

Lapland is the place to have prmonnitions.

Lumbago in Finnish means Witches arrow (noidannuoli) and it was believed that witches shoot people with arrows and that causes the pain in the back. Other diseases are transmitted the same way. When someone looks ate you with the evil eye, you feel strange tingling. When objects are nowhere to be found, a spirit has taken it.

Premonitions are only seen in places where there is not a lot of movement, as is in Lapland. In a house, the people knew that someone was coming, before they could be seen. The wife told the guests that she had heard noises and seen these guests, who had then disappeared. Soon the real people had arrived.

Boogeymen lurking behind the outhouse.

Boogeymen are told to be seen in the dark. At the time, when toilets had separate outhouses, the kids were afraid to go there, because in the dark was boogeymen in the dark.

Ghost were seen, where people were. But then they disappeared from the Southern and then from the Western Finland. Most ghosts were seen 100 years ago. Today not so much.

Finland has few castles and many manors. The ghosts in those were appreciated. In the past, people were very afraid of ghosts, now a place isn’t distinguished or classy if it does not have its own ghost. For example the Olavinlinna in Savonlinna is haunted by a girl, who had been masoned in the walls, because she had let the enemy in the castle. She was innocent and now she is haunting the castle. In Hämeen linna haunts the sister of the chief that build the castle.

Today ghost have hard time finding jobs. They have lost their motivation, because no one is interested in them anymore. People find excitement elsewhere. Or maybe people are not afraid anymore. The ghosts have become technical. The Finnish word painovirhepaholainen means devil typo. People are not making mistakes, there is always something (aka the devil) that makes the mistakes. There is always light and noise, people are in a hurry. There is no place for ghosts. Grandpa Elf wonders, if he is really silent and paying attention, would he still see ghosts.

Hölmölässä - Noodleheads in Finland

Martti Sirola, freely from Eero Salola's texts 1999

In the Finnish stories Hölmölä is a village, in which live humoristic stupid. The nitwits are known all over Europe. In Finland the stories were told to mock, in a friendly way another group that lived nearby. Hölmölä isn’t an actual place, but a fictional place, where people try to figure out every day problems. The people living in Hölmölä think thoroughly before they start anything. They try to avoid damages as much as possible. Their train of thought is a bit odd and slow, but it is ok, because the Hölmölä people are hardworking and honest. They are silly, but they are not fooled by anyone. They are fools by their own actions. Their attempts to be reasonable lead to silly stories that are laughed at all around Finland, but not in Hölmölä.

The classic stories of the people in Hölmölä (or hölmöläiset in Finnish) are the following two:

Light to the cabin
The hölmöläinens built a house, but they forgot to make windows. Now they wanted to have light in the cabin. Back in the day there was no electricity. They thought and thought about it and finally some had an idea. The world is full of light and they have bags. What if the men would carry the light into the house and the women would carry the darkness out of the house. Soon they were running around, carrying light in the bags. Matti (an everyday Joe in Finland) happens to visit Hölmölä every once in a while and saw the hölmöläinens carrying light. One of the villagers told Matti what they were doing. Matti thought for a while and made a suggestion. The hölmöläinens talked about it and decided to listen to Matti. Matti took an ax and cut a small hole to the wall. The hölmöläinens went insdie and saw light coming in through the window. What a great idea! Once Matti was gone, the hölmöläinens wanted to enlarge the window. That way there would be more light. They cut Window larger and larger and soon there was no wall left. But this was not enough, the hölmöläinens wanted more light. They cut down another wall. Still this was not enough and they started on the third wall. Then the house came down. The hölmöläinens were sad since they did not have a cottage any more. But that’s ok, at least they had light.

The women in Hölmölä bathe
The Hölmölä village had a thriving field of wheat. Among the wheat was a lot of blue cornflowers. And as the wind blew, the field looked like a glossy gold and blue lake. Seven Hölmölä women were waking by and thought the field was a lake. They had become sweaty waking in the straight sun light and they wanted to swim and cool down. It did not matter that they did not know how to swim; they did not need to go deep. Their hands would reach the bottom if they stayed in the shallow water. The Women took off theur clothes and walked into the lake. The others saw that it was not deep at all. It would be a great place to roll around and swim. They swam for a while and got dressed again. One of them began wondering if anyone had drowned while they were swimming. One of the women started counting but counted only six women. Then the woman counting noticed that she had not counted herself. So she started again: I, one, two, three, four, five, and six. Still only six. She counted again. Six. The women started crying and wondering who drowned. Matti was walking by and asked what was wrong. The women told him. Matti suggested that they put their noses to the ground and count the holes. The women did that and luckily there were seven holes. No one had drowned and the women were happy.

There are many similar stories of the Hölmölä people. In one they are are running out of salt and decide to cultivate salt in the field. In one story a dog is running in the field and the hölmöläinens want to chase it away so it will not trample the wheat. But a man running in the field would trample the wheat even more, so they deside to have four men carrying the one man chasing the dog.

 These stories were very popular when I was a child. Today I think the kids hear the modern people doing stupid stuff, so they do not have to read about fictional goofs.

Mimmit

Three books from Mimmit:
Pakkasherra ja Kylmänhuokuja 2012,
Mimmit ja ketunpoikanen 2013 and
Mimmit ja luolan salaisuus 2013

All written by Pauliina Lerche and illustratred by Meri Mort.

Mimmit is an animation that is part of Mimmikoto children’s program. In the show, Mimmit creat all kinds of crafts, cook and play traditional games. In every episode there is an animated short story. Actually they could be seen as music videos. The stories in the animations are based on Finnish mythology. The music is influenced by the Karelian traditional folksongs. What I like about them is that the animation is so clear. The colors used are bright, the music resembles old folk songs.

Mimmit and Ketunpoikanen

The first book published was Pakkaherra and Kylmänhuokuja. Mimmit (the girls in Finnish) are waiting for winter, but it is not coming. Mimmit travel way up north and meet all kinds of creatures. Finally the find Pakkasherra (Mr. Frost) fighting with Kylmänhuokuja (Coldbreath,). In mythology Pakkasherra froze the land and brought snow and Kylmänhuokuja chilled the air and froze the lakes. Mimmit get the two to reconcile and finally there is snow.

Mimmit fly to find out, what happend to winter in Pakkasherra 

...

Second book, Mimmit ja ketunpoikanen, is a story about a fox cub, which hurts his leg in glass. It is spring and underneath the snow, all kinds of trash show up. Mimmit take care of the fox and the old tree in the yard rewards them and turns them into foxes. The girls run in the forest with the fox and they meet all kinds of creatures.

The third book, Mimmit ja luolansalaisuus, takes place in the fall. Mimmit are harvesting the crop and then they hear a strange sound from the forest. It comes out of a cave. What is in the cave? The book is filled with mythological creatures like maahinen (=gnome, but the Finnish gnomes aren't cute garden gnomes). In all the books the colors are bright and clear cut.