Mythic Images & Shamanism

Mythic Images & Shamanism, III

Suomi terms

p.	*term*	*meaming*
20	noita	sorcerer, shaman
71	va:ki	magic force
72	luku	passage
	sanat	words
	synty	origin
	virsi	verse
79	tieta:ja:	who who knoweth
	tietomies	"man of knowledge"
79-80	loihtija	spell-caster
80	lukia	one who reciteth
	osaaja	one who is able
	laulaja	singer
	runoja	one who reciteth formulae
	lumoja	bewitcher
	puolijumala	demigod
	na:kija:	seer
	arpoja	diviner
81	patvaska	marriage-blesser
84	rukousloitsut	prayer-incantations
112	luonto	one’s spirit
251	haltija	person’s double
	hahmo	person’s ‘form’
260	lovi	trance

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pp. 61-63 journey of C^ukc^i shaman

p.	*journey*
61	destination : tent of wife of 7-tined stag-god
	destination : fire of wife of grey owl god
62	I (shaman) become a flying (trunkless) head with arms & with legs (both sets attached directly to the head – the usual Eskimo idea of a deity)
	"My souls fly in different directions ..., themselves invisible, And carrying knowledge in[to] my breast [thorax]". [These are "spirit helpers" in the form of birds – p. 63]
	I am "Flying overhead, in a circular sail [i.e., oblate-sphaeroid flying-saucer]," inside whereof :
	"I have swum in the sea like a floating pelt. {bathyscaph-like}
	I have penetrated the earth inner parts, Like an antler from the demonic elk When it caught on the sand of the riverbank".
	"I rose above the ends of the earths ... My eyes saw the tents of the upper-worldly lands [while I remained] Hidden in my sail [flying saucer]."
63	"I saw how the waning moon Collided with the waxing moon, And how, after its death, It plummeted." [interplanetary collisions are reported by flying-saucer contactees]
	"I saw how East and West Vied with each other To see who could run over a hole filled with sharp bone fragments."
	"I saw how the spirits of the Northern Lights Played ball".
	"I saw the daughter of the Twilight, Who wears a splendid garment. ... From the holes in its sleeves Shines a fiery glow."
	"I saw the great lady of the earth ..., Who sits upon a beaver pelt".

p. 63 spirit-helpers of Tundra Nenets shaman

"the spirit helpers, "two times seven heavenly youths" {i.e., Marut-s, who also sometimes number 14}, use a lasso to catch a reddish, full-grown animal from a herd of reindeer, and the shaman then undertakes his journey in the form of this year-old stag."

female spirit-helpers are : "... "my two times seven widows", and "my two times seven lovers"."

"having adopted the form of the mythical minley bird, he [shaman] summons and assembles his spirit helpers, and converses with the spirit who answers questions"."

pp. 66-67 forest Nenets shamanic myth

p.	*myth*
66	Nigh unto "the Lake of the Gods" dwelt "the crippled ... Nannuun-Kurjuuts.
	*Once, while cutting timber in the forest, he ... found himself on the back of a sacred minryy* bird, which thereupon rose into the air so that the ground became barely visible."**
	Thereby he "arrived at a mountain on which larches were growing, where ... he noticed four resin trolls collecting resin." {<arabi^ deities of myrrh & of frankincense must resemble these resin trolls}
67	"The resin trolls began ... cutting their bodies from top to bottom into two parts with a knife; thus two people were created, who after a time combined once more to make one. They did the same to the Samoyed, who felt pain only in his nose. ...
	He came to a tent ... where seven parnyy lived. They began ... snipping pieces off their body with a barbed knife{cf. Bodish hooked chopper}; from these came new people, who after a time combined once more to make one. They did the same to him. ...
	He came to a humble cottage. On one side sat an old, grey-haired man, on the other there were seven beds. The man said : "... these are the beds of my sons, ... when a man becomes old his chest {vitality?} begins to decay, now my seventh son will eat you later." ...
	He took the man to a path that looked like a pipe{viz., the bent channel within it}; as the Samoyed went along, there were earthen walls on either side. Light came from above, and the path ended at the Samoyed’s tent, right by the sled of the guardian spirit."

Words of the Tieta:ja:

p.	*SKVR*	*spell*
105	VII:3:44	"I will ... erect an iron stake, from earth all the way to heaven ...; with lizards will I bind it, wind it with black worms, twine it with bright snakes."
107	VII:4:1663	"I had a black dog long ago, A cur the color of iron {cf. iron hound on Daoist path for souls of the dead}. Its mouth a hundred fathoms wide, Its jaws as broad as six axe-handles, ... To eat the village’s curses, To peck at the village’s witches."
	VII:4:1684	"a black dog ... A cur the color of iron, ... from whose muzzle fire struck, And from whose nose came flame To eat the village’s curses".
108	VII:4:1714	"a black dog ... A cur the color of iron, .. With it I undid sorcery’s harm, Freed persons from perilous plights."
	VII:4:1764	"a black dog ... A cur the color of iron, .. To eat the villages curses, To feed on the village’s witches."
109	VII:4:1730	"Take a horse from the Hiisi, ... One which has hooves of iron".
110	VII:4:1590	"A boy was born in Pohjola, a tall man in Pimento:la: ...; his father calls him Immokki, his mother calls him Ainokki, his sisters call him Seotar."
112	VII:4:1743	"luonto ... from the lovi, From the undergrowth, my haltija, *My synty* from deep in the earth".**
		colors of blood of luonto (of others) : puna (‘red’), nieta (‘chestnut’), rusko (‘brown’), valko (‘white’), kelta (‘yellow’), sini (‘blue’).
113		"I shall send the pains there To the sledge of a bright-coloured cat, To the cart of a black cock ... To the rowers of a hundred-boarded boat, ... To a burbot’s mouth in the rapids".
		"Where [Whither] shall I send the pains? ... To dark Pohjola, To Tapio’s careful shores, ... To the mouth of Rutja’s sea To eat the horses of war".
		"Where [Whither] shall I ...? To a squirrel’s forehead To an ermine’s paws, ... Onto a great pike’s shoulders, ...
114		To the sea’s black vendace, To the bony perch".
		"Jymy, god of the heavens, True guardian of the clouds, ... Build an iron fence, ... Bind it with earth-eggs, Lash it with lizards!
		In bygone days the castles moved, ... the lakes trembled, The copper mountains quaked!"
		"Squirrel, ... Run up a red string Upward to heaven, Carry word to the Lords". {cf. Chinese red path = ecliptic?}
115		"Go there [thither], .. ... where [whither] I send you [pains] : To ... the Hiisi, To those blacksmiths’ forges; He will then boil the pain In nine cauldrons".
		When the witch essayeth to surmount it, "I will raise the fence From earth to heaven, So that the eagle ... Cannot fly over my fence;" when the witch essayeth to squeeze under it, "I will lower the fence From heaven to earth, So that the worm ... Cannot go under my fence."
		"There are three dogs most difficult : One is grimace, another, vileness, And the third is a home-bound dog."
		"The stallion is harnessed on the road, Its head is made of clay {cf. baked-clay horses at tomb of S^ih Huan Di}, Its mane is fashioned from iron, A golden cup is on its rump ..."
116		"Let men come from the sea, ... from a landlocked pond, A fathom tall above the knee Half a fathom below the knee, Two fathoms wide."
		"Go there [thither] ... where [whither] I send you [pains] : To the lands of those who made you, ...
		Take hold of him [maker of you pains] by the heel, By the left toe grasp him, And by the right shoulder, Fight him hand to hand With copper claws, With steel teeth."

SKVR = Suomen Kansan Vanhat Runot 1-XIV. (‘The Antient Poe:ms of the Finnish People’ : in Finnish) Helsinki, 1908-48.

pp. 118-119 Finnish mythical geography

p.	*SKVR*	*geography*
118		"the nine heavens and six celestial domes of the upper world included ... Ukko"
118-9		"In the uppermost layer of the universe were also located Va:ina:mo:inen, who appears as the model of a mighty tieta:ja:, *as well as his partner in the Lo:ylyn sanat* (Words for Sauna Steam), Joukahainen."**
119	I:4:398b	the snake’s forbears in "muddy ruins, broken rocks of steel, to a depth of nine fathoms".
		"Through these layers of Heaven and Underworld (Manala) there runs an opening, a vent, or break, through which, for example, the spark in the Birth of Fire incantation hurtles from one world to the next.
	I:4:267	"Then there dropped a fiery spark, Through the earth, through Manala, Through the nine firmaments, Through the children’s cradle, Through a sooty smoke-hole".
		The opening which connects the world’s layers lies in the centre of the "solid earth’s northern hill", the world’s mountain, a site to which diseases are banished :
	I:4:599	"Go to the place to which I command you : To wind-buffeted hut, to the edge of a great hill! In the center of the hill is a stone, In the center of the stone is a hole"."
	I:4:823a	*in Pohjola dwelt "the tieta:ja:’s adversary "The Lapp of Turja"*
	I:4:832a	and the local watchdog "Dog of Lapland, iron-toothed, the runner of the eternal shore"."

p. 119 mythical assistants

*SKVR*	*assistant*
	"Mythical assistants included ... the Water’s Mistress, the Forest’s Mistress, Sanervatar ("The Sauna Maid"), and ...
	Pihan piika ("Maid of the Barnyard"), .... responsible for protecting the cattle.
	The latter was also known as Pellon neito ("Maiden of the Field") and Manteren alainen akka ("old woman under the mainland")."
I:4:991	"the raven flying through the clouds, whose beak is a fitting place for the banishment of illnesses."

FOLKLORE FELLOWS COMMUNICATIONS, Vol CXXX, No. 280 = Anna-Leena Siikala : Mythic Images and Shamanism. Helsinki : Academia Scientarum Fennica, 2002. pp. 71-120