Myth | Lore | History

The only way to get there is to be lost. Imagine a shimmering city looming before you. You hear voices calling in the distance. Large buildings reach to the clouds. Sleek cars slip through the streets. The latest tech is woven through the fabric of daily life, and so is the gold. This gleaming city is modern, yet futuristic. Except – you were deep in the forest only a second ago. Welcome to the hidden […]

I’ve never been lucky enough to see the Northern Lights, and maybe that’s why I’m so interested in aurora borealis stories from Finnish and Sámi culture. I wanted to share my favourite bits of aurora borealis folklore here – let me know which one is most intriguing to you! Aurora borealis as sparks from a fox’s tail In Finland, the name for the aurora borealis is “revontulet” – fox’s fires. It comes from an ancient

In Finland, runes aren’t what you might think. At least, not in the same way. “Runo” means “poem,” and while the word is borrowed from the Proto-Germanic word, to us it’s different than the Norse futharks1. ⁠ What are “runes” in Finland, Karelia, and Estonia? ⁠Rune-singing/runolaulu is an ancient form of oral folk poetry and storytelling from Finnish, Karelian, and Estonian culture (who are different from Scandinavians). Linguistic research suggests it’s older than the separation

Imagine an autumnal fire-crackle, song and stillness after harvest, a pause between worlds when the veil is thinnest. This time of year seems right for that sort of thing, for divination and feasting and weaving the past and future together. ⁠In Finland & Karelia, it was called Kekri. Kekri was a liminal time of harvest and ancestors. It fell at the end of the agricultural harvest, sometime between Michaelmas (September 29) and All Saints’ Day.

In Finno-Ugric paganism, the bear’s true name was too sacred to speak aloud, lest you attract it. It was replaced with euphemistic, respectful names instead. Finnish euphemisms for “bear” Because speaking the true name of the bear was taboo to ancient Finno-Ugric people, they used terms of endearment and euphemisms like mesikämmen (“honey-paw”,) metsän omena (“apple of the forest”,) and metsän kuningas (“king of the forest”). One common name for the bear in Finnish paganism