Traditions and beliefs - Finland

[Jitter]

Hello!

Until recently we have had a lot of things crammed together in the Global Mythology thread, which mad sense when they were all in the General Board. Now that we have a dedicated board, I think it would be easier to have conversations on smaller topics, and I encourage anyone interested start threads!

This one is for Finnish traditions, including discussions about ancient Finnish faith as well as present day traditions. Finnish mythology including the Kalevala can also go here. We have discussed this on several occasions in the Disqus comments but those tend to get lost in the sands of time, so perhaps a thread will be useful.

So here’s the thing I wanted to tell. I learned yesterday from a friend of mine that their mother believes souls of dead family and friends visit her (and this world in general) as birds. They mentioned she has “all kinds of beliefs and superstitions”, but they think she doesn’t really take all of them seriously. But the bird thing is real. She (their mom) might explain things such as how a couple of swans can’t really be her parents because they don’t have the accurate number of young (accurate number would be the same number as the number if her siblings that are already departed). She is in her seventies, and according to my friend from an area where “this sort if thing is common”. I was really fascinated, because I haven’t heard about such beliefs being living tradition (with the exception of the neopaganist Finnish faith groups, which she apparently has nothing to do with).

[Jitter]

By coincidence (or was it?) I came across an interesting news story related to birds and Finns just today!

In Poland, a skeleton of a girl was discovered in a cave back in 1960’s, but was not studied further at that time. Recently a team of scientists has done research on her and the findings are fascinating, and unique.

She died around 1650. At that time, Christian traditions had been the norm for a long while already, so it was special that she was buried in a cave at all. DNA analysis revealed that the girl was not from the area. She had Fennoscandian and Baltic ancestry.  More specifically, it was discovered that her DNA has some relation to one of the bodies in the Leväluhta water burial site in Finland. No others in the Leväluhta burials appear to be related to her, but not all of the bodies have bee subject to research yet. Anyways the current interpretation is that the dead girl (she was about 10-12 years old at the time of her death) was Finnish or Carelian.

An army of soldiers serving under the Swedish king was stationed in the area in the castle of Ojcow (I hope I got this right, Ran can you help me out?) in 1655-1657, so she was probably related to one of the soldiers. At the time, armies often traveled with women and children, following the men in the field. So this explains why she was there, but not the strange burial.

By the time, Christian burial was the established norm, both in Poland and in Finland. Consecrated ground, you know the drill. So, why was she buried in the cave? The article mentions that there was a Carelian belief, that a person who died in the forest could not be taken to the churchyard, because the forest was a world of its own. The laws and entities of this forest world had to be kept separate from common (i.e. Christian) cemeteries. Unfortunately nothing further about this is mentioned in the news story.

But an even more unusual thing was that she was buried with finches. One finch skull was next to her body, but another skull was placed in the mouth. This is an exceptional thing, with no parallels known in Europe. The scientists speculate it may have to do with soul birds - maybe they hoped the birds would help, when it was impossible to take the girl home for burial.

Of course, we will never know. It’s considered to be some sort of a rite, but there is no way to know whether it had a specific significance or made up on the spot or something else. Maybe she chattered or sang like a little bird? Maybe she loved birds? Sadly, there is no way to know. But I like to think it signifies that someone cared for her, and placed the bird skulls there with some positive intention, whether it was to help her along the Birds Path, or just to commemorate and adorn her grave.

Here is a link to the abstract of the scientific paper: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/pz-2021-0008/html

Here’s the news story (Finnish) in Karjalainen (newspaper of North Carelia, i.e. Joensuu and environs): https://www.karjalainen.fi/kotimaa/oudosti-haudattu-tytto-hammastyttaa-puolassa-arkeologien-arvion-mukaan-tytto-oli-suomalaistaustainen-ja-paatyi-vieraalle-maalle-ruotsin-kuninkaan-armeijan-mukana

[Róisín]

Fascinating articles. I wonder what was behind the inclusion of the birds in the burial?

[Songbird]

I've got nothing useful to add, I just wanted to show my appreciation for this thread. This is the sort of information someone like me, far away across the ocean, would never have read about otherwise! Thanks!

[Jitter]

Songbird, it is useful that you let me know you find it interesting! There’s only so many posts even I want make on top of each other

Also if you (anyone) have questions, shoot! I have a book, a tome even, now, and am contemplating getting another And in any case have access to sources in Finnish.

[Róisín]

I’m interested, total folklore nerd here, and I know that several of our lurkers are also reading along. You are not shouting into the void here.
Have you read Laufey’s folklore and Kalevala thread? She is a Finn who is/was living in Iceland, and knows all manner of useful stuff.