The Kalevala | Page 3

of all

their life, every word connected with the powers and elements of nature must be given its
fall value, great care has been taken in rendering these finely shaded verbs. A glance at
the mythology of this interesting people will place the import of this remark in better
view.
In the earliest age of Suomi, it appears that the people worshiped the conspicuous objects
in nature under their respective, sensible forms. All beings were persons. The Sun, Moon,
Stars, the Earth, the Air, and the Sea, were to the ancient Finns, living, self-conscious
beings. Gradually the existence of invisible agencies and energies was recognized, and
these were attributed to superior persons who lived independent of these visible entities,
but at the same time were connected with them. The basic idea in Finnish mythology
seems to lie in this: that all objects in nature are governed by invisible deities, termed
haltiat, regents or genii. These haltiat, like members of the human family, have distinctive
bodies and spirits; but the minor ones are somewhat immaterial and formless, and their
existences are entirely independent of the objects in which they are particularly interested.
They are all immortal, but they rank according to the relative importance of their
respective charges. The lower grades of the Finnish gods are sometimes subservient to
the deities of greater powers, especially to those who rule respectively the air, the water,
the field, and the forest. Thus, Pilajatar, the daughter of the aspen, although as divine as
Tapio, the god of the woodlands, is necessarily his servant.
One of the most notable
characteristics of the Finnish mythology is the interdependence among the gods. "Every
deity", says Castren, "however petty he may be, rules in his own sphere as a substantial,
independent power, or, to speak in the spirit of The Kalevala, as a self-ruling householder.
The god of the Polar-star only governs an insignificant spot in the vault of the sky, but on
this spot he knows no master."
The Finnish deities, like the ancient gods of Italy and Greece, are generally represented in
pairs, and all the gods are probably wedded. They have their individual abodes and are
surrounded by their respective families. The Primary object of worship among the early
Finns was most probably the visible sky with its sun, moon, and stars, its aurora-lights, its
thunders and its lightnings. The heavens themselves were thought divine. Then a personal
deity of the heavens, coupled with the name of his abode, was the next conception;
finally this sky-god was chosen to represent the supreme Ruler. To the sky, the sky-god,
and the supreme God, the term Jumala (thunder-home) was given.
In course of time, however, when the Finns came to have more purified ideas about
religion, they called the sky Taivas and the sky-god Ukko. The word, Ukko, seems
related to the Magyar Agg, old, and meant, therefore, an old being, a grandfather; but
ultimately it came to be used exclusively as the name of the highest of the Finnish deities.
Frost, snow, hail, ice, wind and rain, sunshine and shadow, are thought to come from the
hands of Ukko. He controls the clouds; he is called in The Kalevala, "The Leader of the
Clouds," "The Shepherd of the Lamb-Clouds," "The God of the Breezes," "The Golden
King," "The Silvern Ruler of the Air," and "The Father of the Heavens." He wields the
thunder-bolts, striking down the spirits of evil on the mountains, and is therefore termed,
"The Thunderer," like the Greek Zeus, and his abode is called, "The Thunder-Home."
Ukko is often represented as sitting upon a cloud in the vault of the sky, and bearing on
his shoulders the firmament, and therefore he is termed, "The Pivot of the Heavens." He

is armed as an omnipotent warrior; his fiery arrows are forged from copper, the lightning
is his sword, and the rainbow his bow, still called Ukkon Kaari. Like the German god,
Thor, Ukko swings a hammer; and, finally, we find, in a vein of familiar symbolism, that
his skirt sparkles with fire, that his stockings are blue, and his shoes, crimson colored.
In the following runes, Ukko here and there interposes. Thus, when the Sun and Moon
were stolen from the heavens, and hidden away in a cave of the copper-bearing mountain,
by the wicked hostess of the dismal Sariola, he, like Atlas in the mythology of Greece,
relinquishes the support of the heavens, thunders along the borders of the darkened
clouds, and strikes fire from his sword to kindle a new sun and a new moon. Again, when
Lemminkainen is hunting the fire-breathing horse of Piru, Ukko, invoked by the reckless
hero, checks the speed of the mighty courser by opening the windows of heaven, and
showering upon him flakes of snow, balls of ice, and