Finnish Paganism

The old faith of the Finns and Karelians, remembered through sung poetry gathered in the Kalevala.

ancient – c. 1300 CE · Finland and Karelia · Indigenous & Animist

Before Christianisation in the 12th–13th centuries, Finns honoured the sky god Ukko, forest and water spirits, and bear ceremonies. Their songs, preserved by rune singers into the 1800s, were compiled by Elias Lönnrot into the Kalevala, with its world made from a duck’s eggs and its sage Väinämöinen.

Key figures

• Ukko, god of the sky and thunder
• Väinämöinen, the singer-sage
• Tapio, lord of the forest

Texts

• Kalevala (compiled 1835)
• Runo songs

Beliefs

• The world came from a broken egg
• Forests and waters have guardian spirits
• Song and spells carry power

Rituals

• Sacred groves
• Bear feasts
• Sung spells (runo singing)

Grew from

• Animism & Shamanism

Connections in the atlas

• Elias Lönnrot
• Hiisi
• The spark of the new sun falls into a lake
• The Kalevala
• Parallel texts: Swallowed by a great fish or monster
• The master or mistress of animals
• Norse sea and river roads
• The hidden sun
• The divine smith
• Creation From a Cosmic Egg