Hello friends!
Today I'm going to share you some stories from Finnish mythology and water spirits.
Enjoy!
Is the maiden in the spring,
With her fine hem in the bark?
As the maiden dwells in the spring,
With her fine hem in the bark.
Rise now,
Maiden,
From the spring,
Fine-hemmed one,
From the bark,
To the aid of the man alone,
To the man his destined mate.
Seeing a water spirit was often regarded as an omen,
One that signified the possibility of someone drowning.
In the past,
When people pulled drowned bodies from the water and observed frostbite marks,
They believed these were the finger impressions left by water spirits that had caused the person's demise.
Many tales carried moral lessons.
For instance,
Children were warned not to swim in deep waters.
As the water spirit,
Most commonly known as näkki,
Might catch them,
It was also considered forbidden to swim or fish when others were attending church.
And making excessive noise by the water could anger the water spirits.
Vetehinen Vetehinen is a male water spirit that originates from eastern Finland.
He may have been inspired by the Russian Vodyanov.
Vetehinen is often depicted with a long,
Dark beard,
Which in some folktales is said to be made of reeds or foam.
He is considered a feared character because it was believed that he would pull people into the water and drown them.
However,
When in a good mood,
He could be benevolent,
Helping fishermen by driving fish into their nets and blowing a warm wind to assist them.
The water spirit's behavior reflects the complexity of human morality,
Where intentions,
Circumstances,
And outcomes often blur the lines between what we deem good and evil.
Just as water can give life or take it,
Our actions can have both positive and negative consequences,
Depending on how we interact with the world.
Similar to Vellamo,
It was believed in Russia that Vodyanov had underwater cattle that occasionally came ashore.
His cows were black and produced a great deal of milk.
This following story comes from the village of Evijärvi.
Imitation My uncle told me that about a hundred years ago,
His grandfather was rowing a boat on the lake.
It was a sunny day and grandpa,
Who was known for his sweet singing voice,
Started to sing to himself.
Suddenly,
He heard a bang.
Someone had placed a ladder next to his boat,
And a man climbed up from the depths.
He had a long green beard covered with reeds.
The water spirit explained that his child had just passed away,
And requested that grandfather came to sing at the funeral,
As he had heard his beautiful voice echoing beneath the waves.
Grandfather agreed,
And the water spirit took him to his home at the bottom of the lake.
There he performed for the mourners.
As a token of gratitude,
The water spirit gifted him a white shirt that would never stain or get dirty.
However,
When grandfather returned home and told the story of how he received the shirt,
It mysteriously disappeared from his hands.
Mermaid Mermaids have several names in Finnish,
Including Merenneito,
Vedenneito,
Vellamon tytär,
Which means Vellamo's daughter,
And Vellamonneito,
Maiden of Vellamo.
According to folk tales,
They are often regarded as the daughters of Vellamo,
Or their servants.
Similar to many international mermaid stories,
Finnish mermaids were portrayed as beautiful women who sat on rocks,
Combing their hair,
And often seducing sailors.
Many of these tales originated from seaside cities and were spread by sailors.
The portrayal of mermaids with tales is a relatively recent development in these stories,
Becoming popular in the 19th century,
Likely inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid.
In Finland,
Tales about female water spirits have been passed down for thousands of years,
Primarily focusing on spirits that inhabit ponds and lakes.
It was believed that the väkki,
Who lived in desert lakes and ponds,
Where the water was still and cool,
Were innocent.
Pure and calm,
The water from these lakes was seen as beautiful and serene,
Making it preferable to draw water from there rather than from a stream.
The water spirits in lakes were thought to be kind to people.
In contrast,
Väkki that inhabited streams and rivers were more rowdy,
Adventurous,
And mischievous.
If someone needed assistance against other spirits,
Using water from a river was considered the best choice for protective spells.
Dancing Girl And this story comes from the village of Sortavala.
Men worked on a barge,
Sailing along the waters.
Among them was a fiddler who would sneak out to the deck in the evenings to play for the stars.
One night as he played,
A thick mist enveloped the surroundings,
But he decided to continue regardless.
To his surprise,
A mysterious woman emerged from the mist as he began playing,
Vanishing as soon as the music stopped.
This strange occurrence happened several nights in a row.
The man began to wish to see the woman's face,
So the following night he brought a lantern with him.
This time the woman did not disappear into the waves,
For she had taken a liking to the man who was entranced by her beauty.
Soon they got married and even had a child.
However,
The call of the water was too strong.
It is still unclear how it happened,
But the story goes that the woman split her child's soul in half,
Leaving one half with her husband and returning to the lake with the other half of her child's soul.
Utunneito,
Mistmaiden Utunneito was a spirit of the mist.
They looked like young maidens and danced above the remote ponds and lakes during misty mornings.
Mistmaidens were scared of people and disappeared when they saw one.
Lakkaväki Lakkaväki were magical creatures,
Spirits that lived in marshes and swamps.
Lakka means cloudberry in Finnish.
Lakkaväki also referred to any magical properties of swamp water and healing properties of moss and plants that grew in the swamp.
And Lakkaväki is also known as Suonväki.
Suo meaning swamp.
Spirit of the Stream The Spirit of the Stream was a formidable being.
He had a loud voice and was a skilled violinist.
If someone wanted to become a talented musician,
They should seek him on New Year's Day,
Easter,
Or Midsummer Night,
As these were times when it was believed that evil spirits were active.
Often he would invite people to make deals with him,
But he could also try to trick them and lead them into a whirlpool.
If a student managed to outsmart him,
They might become a master fiddler.
Meri-Raukka Meri-Raukka were spirits of those who had drowned at sea,
Known as Draukur in Norwegian.
They are said to shout and appear just before the storm.
Encountering one of these ghosts at sea is considered an omen of drowning.
Meri-Raukka are believed to walk above the water.
It is forbidden to speak aloud about seeing these ghosts,
As doing so could lead to drowning.
The stories of Meri-Raukka originate from Norway and are primarily told along the Norwegian coast and in Lapland,
Near the Arctic Ocean.
And here is a story from Kittila from 1920.
And for context,
Kittila is one of the most remote villages in Finland's Lapland.
I was working as a captain sailing in the Arctic Sea.
The weather was beautiful when suddenly I saw a man rising from the water.
I asked the sailor,
What is that?
He replied,
Never speak about what you see in the sea and don't think about it afterwards.
I began to turn the ship,
But the sun disappeared and a storm arose.
Despite the chaos,
We managed to sail to shore.
Meri-Raukka appears when the wind picks up,
A storm always follows,
And people drown.
But you can never mention them if you see them.
Näkki Näkki is a mysterious water creature in Finnish folklore.
Its story is about it being common throughout Finland as a shapeshifter.
Näkki was often used to scare children away from swimming too deep,
As it would catch them and drown them if they ventured too far.
This character is also found in other Scandinavian and Germanic countries.
Norwegian it is called Nocken,
Swedish Näkken,
German Nix,
Nixen,
And Dutch Nikker,
And in Old English,
Nikor.
In Norway and Finland,
Näkki can appear as a shapeless figure,
Entirely covered in seaweed.
In some Finnish tales,
Näkki is depicted as a beautiful,
Curvy woman,
But her face is completely dark.
In Finland and Sweden,
There are also stories of Näkki as a handsome young man who wears a flower wreath on his head and plays a harp by the riverbank to lure young women or men to him,
Ultimately drowning them.
Näkki is known for being a masterful musician.
Like spirits of the stream,
It offered music lessons in exchange for a deal.
At times,
Näkki would play so beautifully that listeners would be enchanted and follow him to the water.
A spell used in Finland for protection against Näkki involved saying Näkki maale minä veteen,
Which translates,
Näkki to the land,
Me to the water.
It was customary to take sand or stones from the water before swimming and throw that to the beach when saying this spell.
According to belief,
Näkki could walk on land,
But never straight too far from its home river or lake.
In both Finland and Sweden,
Näkki could also take the form of a water horse,
Luring children to climb on its back.
In Sweden,
This creature was known as Pekka hästen,
While in Finland it was called Vesi hävonen,
The water horse.
The Swedish word for water lily is Näkros,
Meaning the rose of Näkki.
And in Finland,
An older term for a seashell is Näkkingenkä,
Meaning the shoe of Näkki.
Näkki was thought to particularly enjoy murky waters,
Often hiding beneath water lilies where it was hard to see.
At times,
Näkki was depicted as completely shapeless and was believed to reside in whirlpools.
This is a story from Ingria,
Näkki in the waves.
The older folks always told me stories about the Näkki in the local lake,
But I was always skeptical.
Once when I was young,
My friends and I went swimming in the Miikula river.
We hadn't even stepped into the water when we saw a long-haired woman rising from the river.
She was looking down at the water,
But her upper body was covered by her long hair.
The lake waves caused her to rise and fall in the water at least four or five times before she disappeared.
We realized that it was the Näkki of the river,
And none of us wanted to swim there after that.
When we returned to the village,
We shared what we had seen,
But most people didn't believe us.
Only the oldest villagers took our word seriously,
And they warned us not to swim there again.
A few days later,
Three young boys decided to go swimming.
One of them,
A very skilled swimmer,
Was pulled into the waves when the other boys weren't paying attention.
The entire village searched for his body,
But it wasn't until a week later that we found it downstream.
Then we have another story from village of Eura.
Eura is a village in southwestern Finland.
Better to look away.
It was a Saturday evening and a girl went to the river to fetch water.
There was a large rock in the river,
And Näkki was sitting on the top of it.
She was naked and her slightly green-tinted skin was glistening in the sun,
And it had such large breasts that she could throw them over her shoulders.
Girl was rather religious and pious,
For her father was a sacristan in the local vicarage.
Aren't you ashamed of yourself,
Showing off yourself like that?
Girl scoffed.
I am not here to please you for sure.
Näkki snapped and jumped into the stream.
Girl was angry and went to the sauna to cool her nerves.
Then she went back to the river to wash her eyes.
That is where she was found the next morning.
Her face covered in the water.
People know this story is true,
For it happened to the daughter of Lapinkylä sacristan.
And this following story comes from Kaukola.
Little Näkki Once in Ruokolahti,
A fisherman caught a girl with a seine.
She was only about 10 years old.
She didn't eat or speak,
Only watched the fire.
Then she quietly said,
Neither mom or dad knows where the little Näkki is.
She stayed for three days with one of the fisherman's families.
They felt sorry for her and took her back to the lake,
Where she swam home.
This next story comes from Åland.
Enchanted Fiddle It was the time of the summer solstice,
And a dance was being held in the town hall.
A fiddler played his violin and people began to dance.
They danced and danced,
Unable to stop.
While the fiddler couldn't stop playing,
It felt as if the music had enchanted them,
And they could dance non-stop until the end of time.
On the third day,
People were still dancing,
Showing no signs of exhaustion.
A young boy watched the scene unfold.
He was deaf,
So the music had no effect on him.
Suspecting foul play,
He recalled the stories about Näkki,
The spirit known for possessing musicians and their instruments.
The boy took a pair of scissors,
Approached the fiddler,
And cut the violin strings.
The fiddler awoke from his enchantment.
The last thing he remembered was walking by the river with his violin before the unknown spirit had taken control of him.
As the music stopped,
The dancers fell to the floor.
They had not felt pain before,
But now everyone was exhausted,
And their feet were hurting.
This next story comes from the village of Gullas.
War the dog Kids were playing on the beach,
Building a sandcastle.
A large dog emerged from the lake and walked over to the children,
Beginning to play with them.
The children were excited and climbed onto the dog's back.
When the dog started to walk towards the lake,
One child sitting on the back almost fell and shouted,
Nikki,
Näkki,
That was close,
I almost sat on the tail.
Then the dog shook the children off its back and disappeared into the lake.
This next story comes from the village of Kurkijoki.
Not my aunt When we were kids,
There was a time we went swimming when we should have been at church.
While by the water,
We spotted Näkki sitting on a stone,
Combing her long hair with a black comb.
Thinking it was our aunt,
We shouted,
Täti,
Täti.
Täti means aunt in Finnish.
When she turned to face us,
We realized she had a dark face and was grinning at us.
She had long breasts,
Which she tossed over her shoulders before jumping into the water.
We ran home to tell everyone what we had seen.
Our mother shook her head and said,
It was Näkki,
You had no business swimming when you should have been at church.
This next story also comes from a Kaukola village.
It is called Time Has Come.
This story takes place in Ala-Kaukola.
Simo Kiiski was the master of the house and he had a 20-year-old son named Matti.
On a hot July day,
Matti was plowing some fallow land.
Nearby,
Their neighbor Jaakko and his sons were busy making hay.
After finishing his work,
Matti took his horse to the stable.
There was a steep slope by the nearby river that swimmers usually avoided.
Suddenly,
Jaakko and the other farmers heard a voice calling out,
Time has come,
Time has come,
But Matti has not come yet.
Unbeknownst to them,
Matti had gone to the river and did not hear the voice.
Concerned,
Jaakko and the others rushed to find him and shared what they had heard.
Jaakko's father had once told him about a young man who had drowned in that very river when he was a boy.
I won't swim,
Matti said,
But let me wash my hands and face.
As Matti bent down to wash his hands,
Something from the water suddenly pulled him in.
Jaakko's son,
Heikki,
Jumped into the river and managed to bring Matti to the surface,
But it was too late.
His spirit was gone.
Tursas Tursas is a sea monster,
Typically described as a giant squid or a sea snake.
Tursas is also an old Finnish word for a sea lion.
There are numerous eyewitness accounts of these creatures,
And their physical appearances vary.
Some resemble a mix of cows and fish,
While others have the head of a cat or a horse.
Ikuturso Ikuturso is an ancient sea monster mentioned in folk poems.
In southern Karelia,
People believed that Ikuturso had the power to heal burns.
In some stories,
Tursas is described as a demon of diseases,
Capable of spreading illness through water.
Symbolically taught to throw arrows of disease.
And here are some poems.
This first one is from Kiimaisjärvi from 1839.
Ikuturso,
Bull of Tuoni,
Arrow thrower,
Bowstring's breaker,
Bringer of bitter winds,
The terror.
Rise,
Tursa,
From the deep sea.
Come,
Take these arrows to their mark.
Guide them swiftly,
Bring them whole.
And this next one is from Inbilahti from 1847.
Let the Tursas come from the sea to eat the fire's anger.
Fire's brought to the crown's belly.
And this next story comes from Vihti from 1937.
Water snake Next to the Nummenkylä manor,
There is a small pond.
Old stories tell of a large crown snake that once lived in this pond and enjoyed chasing and terrifying people.
However,
The snake never ventured into land.
Boating and swimming in the lake was considered dangerous,
As the snake was said to take swimmers down to its underwater kingdom.
Even today,
Although the snake hasn't been seen for many years,
The older residents still share stories about it.
And this next one is called Water horse.
And these stories is from Lappajärvi from 1935.
Lappajärvi is located in Finland's lake district.
About 30 years ago,
People reported seeing a strange creature in the lake.
It was a deep lake.
It was said that a fine thread spun completely could reach the bottom.
From that spot,
An odd creature emerged,
Its head resembling that of a horse,
But with a long neck.
It swam quickly and then disappeared.
Many people watched from the shore,
Wondering what it could be.
And this next story is from Sortavala from 1936.
And Sortavala is in Karelia,
Part of Russia these days.
In Sortavala,
In the Nokkalahti river,
There lived a sea cow that was known for its loud calls.
Eventually,
A priest arrived,
Uttered some holy words,
And the sea cow vanished.
It is said that it may have began swimming towards Lake Laatokka,
As no one ever saw it again after that.
And this next story comes from the village of Loppi,
Which is a little village in southern Finland.
And this one is from 1935.
Strange lizard.
Children often went swimming on Sundays.
One day,
There was a creature on the beach that resembled a large lizard.
The lizard began to speak and said the children could sit on its back.
The children screamed in fear and ran quickly into the cabin,
Closing the door behind them.
Desihisi.
Desihisi translates to water devil,
Water demon,
Water giant or water troll.
The word hiisi has several meanings in Finnish.
It is a character similar to näkki and can appear in the form of a human or an animal.
Desihisi is known to drag people into the water,
And when they are on land,
They are very rowdy and cause mayhem.
And this next story comes from Heinola from 1936.
Grave of hiisi.
Below Jyränkoski,
Next to the beach,
There is a deep slope called Hiidenhauta.
The grave of hiisi.
Initially,
The water is low,
But it becomes steep very quickly.
There are whirlpools in the slope,
Even though there is no current.
The water in Hiidenhauta is beach black.
People say that when you swim there,
It feels like a magnet is pulling you in.
Many have drowned in this area,
Mostly small children,
And no bodies have ever been found.
Parents do not allow their children to visit that beach.
Those who believe the old stories think that in the dark depths,
The vesihisi lives,
Waiting.
And this next story is from the village of Karjalohjo,
Also in southern Finland,
And this one is called Water Giant.
In the past,
There lived a hiisi in lake Artijärvi.
He was a massive being,
And when he walked in the lake,
You could see the brim of his hat above the water's surface.
Hiisi kept cattle,
Including large,
Beautiful,
Milk-producing cows that dwelled in the lake.
Sometimes these cows would come to shore to graze on the flowers.
Hiisi was very kind-hearted.
He allowed humans to milk his cows,
Which provided delicious milk in abundance.
He generously offered money to the poor in the area.
If he ever needed tools,
He would simply borrow them from the townspeople.
As long as there was no church in Artijärvi,
Hiisi lived a happy and peaceful life in harmony with the people.
However,
When the church was built and the church bell started to ring,
He became enraged.
The sound reminded him of a great bull's roar.
In his fury,
Hiisi decided to leave the entire county and move to the sea.
He leaped from hill to hill at great speed to prevent his feet from sinking into the ground,
And to this day you can still see his footprints etched into many rocks in the area.
This next story is called Ship Spirits,
And it comes from Pyhäjärvi.
Valkrin from the village of Valkama shared this story with me.
He claimed to have seen the spirit of a ship.
One day,
While sailing,
He witnessed a little man with a suit-covered face chop out of the boat.
The sailors exclaimed,
Oh troubles are coming.
A few days later,
The ship hit a rock.
Valkrin lost all his belongings when the boat sank,
But at least he was alive.
This next story comes from the same village.
In Pyhäranta,
A new ship was being launched into the water for the first time,
But things didn't go as planned because the boat elves were causing trouble.
There were two boat elves,
A man and a woman,
Who argued non-stop,
As both wanted to be the ship's soul spirit.
One elf lived at the front of the ship,
While the other lived at the back.
The elf at the back tricked the other into jumping into the sea,
As the ship sailed on the other elf.
Now in the water,
Began to swim after the boat,
But was unable to catch up.
And this last story comes from the village of Sortavala.
Traitor,
Traitor.
In the village,
There is an enchanted spring in the hills,
And folklore says that a treasure is buried nearby.
To obtain the treasure,
One must sacrifice a blonde-haired boy to the fountain.
Once a man caught a rabbit and attempted to offer it as a sacrifice,
But he heard a voice from the hill shout,
Traitor,
Traitor,
Offering a rabbit.
Terrified,
The man ran away as fast as he could.
On another occasion,
A villager was traveling in the dark along the road near the fountain,
When he noticed green fire burning above the spring.
He tied his horse to a nearby fence and approached the fire,
Knowing that digging for the treasure would be risky.
Suddenly,
He heard another horse galloping behind him.
When he turned around,
He recognized a fellow villager.
However,
When he looked back at the spring,
The green fire vanished.
Finnish anthropologist Suvi Niinisalo,
Author of Vedenneitojen lähteillä,
In Search of Mermaids,
Has compared the Näkki stories to universal myths about sirens as seducers.
She believes that the character may be thousands of years old,
Reflecting humanity's complex relationship with water.
On one hand,
Water was considered sacred and a source of life.
On the other hand,
Before the development of diving gear,
The depths of water remained unknown and dangerous.
And here are some fun facts.
Maritime museum in the city of Kotka is called Vellamo.
Ahti is the name of a Finnish seafood brand.
Näkken is the name of a Swedish condom label,
And they are also sold in Finland under the name Näkki.
Vesi hiisi sihisi hississä.
Water demon was hissing in the lift,
Is a Finnish nonsense sentence that is used as a tongue twister.
Vesi hiisi sihisi hississä.
