Mythology Musing – Finnish Magic & The Realm of Tuonela
Finland’s approach to the supernatural is different. In the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, magic isn't about wand-waving; it's about singing. It’s about knowing the true origin words of a thing to control it.
The underworld, Tuonela, is the dark realm of the dead where heroes face their ultimate demise and are sometimes resurrected through ancient, magical laments (Moine, 2017). And then there's Louhi, a powerful witch-queen and Mistress of the Northland, whose immense magical powers rival the greatest male heroes of the epic (Luthy, n.d.).
Finnish lore treats death and the supernatural not as an infection, but as a primal force of nature that can be commanded if your voice is strong enough.
Lemminkainen's mother collects his dismembered body and sings to Suonetar, a deity of healing, blood and veins, to beseech her aid in resurrecting her son:
Come and give us thine assistance, Harness thou thy fleetest racer, Call to aid thy strongest courser, In thy scarlet sledge come swiftly, Drive through all the bones and channels, Drive throughout these lifeless tissues, Drive thy courser through each vessel, Bind the flesh and bones securely, In the joints put finest silver, Purest gold in all the fissures.
(Kalevala, Rune XV)
Lemminkäinen's Mother, by Akseli Gallen-Kallela - Finnish National Gallery / Hannu Pakarinen, Public Domain.
The concept of "singing the true name of a thing" to bend reality is essentially audio necromancy. Whether you're locked in a digital audio workstation at 2 AM, tweaking a darkwave synth patch to find the exact resonant frequency that makes your chest vibrate, or singing along with Def Leppard at the top of your lungs, you are channeling a bit of that Kalevala magic. Sound is power.
Lönnrot, E. (1849). Kalevala: The Epic Poem of Finland. Translated by John Martin Crawford (Project Gutenberg).
Tuonela - Underworld (Wikipedia)
Louhi & The Kalevala (Wikipedia)
Moine, A. (2017). Des mots et des corps.
Luthy, M. J. (n.d.). The Meanings of Names in the Finnish Kalevala Epic.
