Finnish Paganism

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Finnish mythology has many features shared with fellow Finnic Estonian mythology and its non-Finnic neighbours, the Balts and the Scandinavians. Finnish. There myths are also shared with other Fenno-Ugric speakers like the Lapps.

Finnish mythology survived within an oral tradition of mythical poem-singing and folklore well into the 18th century.

Although the gradual influence of surrounding cultures raised the significance of the sky-god in a monolatristic manner, the father god "Ukko" (Old Man) was originally just a nature spirit like all the others. The most sacred animal, whose real name was never uttered out loud, was the bear. The bear was seen as the embodiment of the forefathers, and for this reason it was called by many euphemisms: "mesikämmen" ("mead-paw"), "otso" ("wide brow"), "kontio" ("dweller of the land").

The first historical mention of the beliefs of the Finns is by the bishop Mikael Agricola in his introduction to the Finnish translation of the New Testament in 1551. He describes many of the gods and spirits of the Tavastians and Karelians. Wider studies into Finnish mythology were made only in the 18th century by the preacher-ethnologist Lars Leevi Laestadius in his treatise of Lappish beliefs. The greatest studies were made through historians in the 19th century recording old rural poetry and folklore, most notably Elias Lönnrot who compiled the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic.