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Wäinölä
17 Sept, 07:43edited
The Milk Hare, or Tussegutt“A dear child has many names,” and indeed, no one was dearer to the housewives of Finnskogen (in Norway) a century ago than the tussegutt, or milk hare. Its proper Finnish name is para. It was also called the milk imp (melkepuken).It was a creature that required a great deal of work and sorcery to make, but once it was finished it was also a fellow that could make itself useful. Its task was to go around all the cowsheds at night and suck milk from the cows — only a little from each cow, so that it would not be noticed. Once full, it ran home and poured the milk into a tub, which had to be standing ready with even the smallest splash of milk in it, so that the tussegutt would know where to deliver the milk.It was incredible how far such a tussegutt could run. Old people claimed that it could run across seven parishes in a single night. But then it would
Wäinölä
23 Jul, 12:01
Stay tuned for more journeys of exploration into the mythic lands of Finno-Ugria.[ Wäinölä 🇫🇮 ]
Wäinölä
23 Jul, 12:00
The giant spruce by the sacrificial niche.Photograph by:[ Wäinölä 🇫🇮 ]
Wäinölä
22 Jul, 18:35
If your first thought on seeing birches is “bar codes,” your soul may require immediate woodland treatment.[ Wäinölä 🇫🇮 ]
Wäinölä
22 Jul, 13:32
“To the memory of the Shemeikka and Vornanen lineages of rune-singers and hunters.Wayfarer, halt! The spirits of the noblest of your people address you from antiquity.Erected by the Karelian Cultural Society with the support of the public in the summer of 1929.”[ Wäinölä 🇫🇮 ]
Wäinölä
22 Jul, 13:18
As with Varemöhk, Frestreikka, or Metä Äijä ('Man of the Forest') was likewise the recipient of offerings at the Syytinkoukar sacrificial niche in Muurla, Finland.Recorded tradition maintains that in the 1850s and 1860s hunters would still offer bird toes and paws of the mountain hare. At the time of my visit there were coins and flowers left there by other visitors.Photographs by:[ Wäinölä 🇫🇮 ]
Wäinölä
22 Jul, 12:50
A glacial erratic in Muurla, Finland, known as Varemöhk. Offerings were made here to a forest guardian called Frestreikka, whose pedigree leads to Viena (White Karelia), from where his cult was carried to this village by White Karelian wolf hunters.Based on the items found at the site, the worship seems to have continued at least into the 1950s.Photograph by:[ Wäinölä 🇫🇮 ]
Wäinölä
21 Jul, 11:21edited
“Another time the Chudes¹ came in great numbers to Lake Nuortijärvi — for Nuortijärvi lay along one of their main routes through Kola — and they laid waste to an entire Skolt Sámi village, killing every soul. Only one lass they spared, taking her along with them, supposedly as a cook.At the mouth of the Lutto River they stopped and spent the night in an abandoned cabin. There the lass began to pity the men, saying:«You poor fellows are terribly dirty and your clothes are in a dreadful state. Would it not be a good idea now to wash all your garments clean, since there is plenty of water and a kettle here? I will do the washing.»«Well, that would be fine,» said the men, and they took off all their clothes and lay about completely naked in the sauna while she went off to do the washing. But she stuffed the rags, the kettles, and everything else into the ice-hole and fled.At last
Wäinölä
20 Jul, 23:03edited
An animistic understanding of radio from the 1920s“And the same old Savonian personified space in the manner of the ancient Egyptians when speaking of the modern radio:«Whoever builds a radio set needs plenty of those mitten-thumbs and all manner of lever contraptions, which gather from the Air-Sphere Maiden her sensory impressions and gifts of speech.»”— Ahti Rytkönen: Savupirttien kansaa (1931) [quoted segment transl. from the original Finnish]The radio does not create sound. Its little thumbs, senses, and levers gather speech-gifts from a female being inhabiting the air.The modern machine has been understood through an older animistic grammar. Space is not an empty transmission medium; it is a personified bearer of voices, from whom the apparatus collects what is already present.Art: Reclining female borrowed from Akseli Gallen-Kallela. The rest of the illustration by:[
Wäinölä
30 Jun, 18:47
N:o 2816 by Karl Fazer (🇫🇮) might easily be the most stylish box of candy ever sold.[ Wäinölä 🇫🇮 ]
Wäinölä
22 Jun, 13:35edited
If you've ever wondered what the ancient Finnish or other Finno-Ugric hillforts looked like, of which often nothing but a couple of portal stones remain, then here's some good news.There is ample reason to believe that the fortification seen in this 1898 photograph (top; colorized) taken by U. T. Sirelius in Khanty territory in the Vasyugan region of Siberia is fairly close to e.g. ancient Finnish ones.Saitpa nei'on, voitit vallan, Sorrit jo sotiveräjät, Langetit jo lautalinnan.— SKVR VII2 3003. Ilomantsi, Europaeus, D. E. D. H, n. 201. 1845.[ You won the maiden, won dominion; you crushed the battle-gates, you brought down the plank-built fortress. ]Lower-left photo: the "battle-gates", lower-right photo: Hakastaro hill, the site of an ancient hillfort. Photos by Leif Rajalin.[ Wäinölä 🇫🇮 ]
Wäinölä
12 May, 11:14
forwarded from @swastikaswag
Wäinölä
8 Apr, 19:43
Finnish national costumes as advertised in Kotiliesi ('Home hearth') magazine in 1939: 1: Central Finland (Jyväskylä region), 2: Alavus, 3: Jurva, 4: Central Ostrobothnia (Härmä & Isokyrö), 5: Häme, 6: Tuukkala, 7: Pyhäjärvi, 8: Tuuteri, 9: Munsala.[ Wäinölä 🇫🇮 ]
Wäinölä
1 Apr, 18:09
forwarded from @emantalehti
Emäntälehti : Martta-yhdistyksen äänenkannattaja. Kaikki numerot vuosilta 1902–1939.PDF:[ 1902 ] [ 1903 ] [ 1904 ] [ 1905 ] [ 1906 ] [ 1907 ] [ 1908 ] [ 1909 ] [ 1910 ] [ 1911 ] [ 1912 ] [ 1913 ] [ 1914 ] [ 1915 ] [ 1916 ] [ 1917 ] [ 1918 ] [ 1919 ] [ 1920 ] [ 1921 ] [ 1922 ] [ 1923 ] [ 1924 ] [ 1925 ] [ 1926 ] [ 1927 ] [ 1928 ] [ 1929 ] [ 1930 ] [ 1931 ] [ 1932 ] [ 1933 ] [ 1934 ] [ 1935 ] [ 1936 ] [ 1937 ] [ 1938 ] [ 1939 ]ZIP:[ 1902–1939 ]@emantalehti
Wäinölä
31 Mar, 10:52edited
An automobile hurtles through the dark night sky like a meteorite that has pierced the atmosphere. At the wheel is a devilish figure, clutching under his arm a naked woman intoxicated by speed — and by fear as well. It is Kalevala's Lemminkäinen at the wheel
Wäinölä
30 Mar, 16:17
An automobile hurtles through the dark night sky like a meteorite that has pierced the atmosphere. At the wheel is a devilish figure, clutching under his arm a naked woman intoxicated by speed — and by fear as well.It is Kalevala's Lemminkäinen at the wheel, with Kyllikki beside him. Gallen-Kallela transforms this ancient tale of the snatching of a bride into a modern context, where the traditional sledge is replaced by a red car, and the hero, Lemminkäinen, becomes a motor-car fanatic.Bil-Bol from 1907 is a jewel of poster art, and one of the most popular works ever produced by Akseli Gallen-Kallela.According to one story, Gallen-Kallela designed the poster for his friend Yrjö Weilin; according to another, for the Swedish Baron Cedeström, who that same year founded the car dealership Bilbolaget i Stockholm and later flew a small airplane named ‘Bilbol.’Available as poster at
Wäinölä
21 Mar, 16:03
Hooked crossword puzzle (1925).[ Wäinölä 🇫🇮 ]
Wäinölä
26 Feb, 16:08
What was actually found in Germany (left) vs what wasn't (right).[ Wäinölä 🇫🇮 ]
Wäinölä
11 Jan, 12:51
“Without asserting anything about nationality, it may be stated that the cultural condition of our Stone Age continues in the culture of our Lapps.The difference, however, is that the greater part of the Lapps have long lived as reindeer herders; in the Stone Age reindeer husbandry cannot have been the principal livelihood. Another difference is that the Lapps long ago abandoned the use of stone and fashioned the tools and implements of daily life from bone.But if, nevertheless, we wish to give life to the image we have obtained of Stone Age settlement, we do not do so by comparing the life of the people of that time with peasant life in villages, nor even with life on forest homesteads, but with the Lapps — and then the mental image is correct.”— A. M. Tallgren: Suomen historia I – Suomen muinaisuus (1931)[ Wäinölä 🇫🇮 ]
Wäinölä
6 Jan, 13:26
Two expressions of the same ritual logic: Christianity inhabiting a seasonal system (left), and Yule operating on its own terms (right).Christmas as Ritual Season (Not Doctrinal Feast)Even among committed Christians, there is no consensus on the origins or historical grounding of Christmas symbols. What is defended is the season itself, not the accuracy of its explanations — further evidence that Christmas operates primarily as a ritual season, not a doctrinal feast. This becomes clear not through speculative “Pagan gotcha” arguments, but by listening to Christians themselves.Some explicitly acknowledge that Christmas customs were adapted from earlier seasonal practices to facilitate conversion. Others accept that the date does not correspond to the historical birth of Jesus, insisting instead that “it symbolizes it.” Still others reject pre-Christian continuities outright — while
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