Questions of EthnoCultural Substrata in the FinnoKarelian Song

Questions of Ethno-Cultural Substrata in the Finno-Karelian Song of Creation the Sampo-Cycle Frog University of Helsinki Cultural Exchanges Across the Baltic Sea in the Middle Ages 1 st Meeting of the Austmarr Network 14 th– 15 th April 2011, Tartu, Estonia and

The Sampo-Cycle: A Case Study n Corpus-based analysis n Textual entities – verbally conventionallized ‘songs’ n n Probably 900+ variants and fragments Constituent elements n Motifs, images, cultural figures, episodes –Theory and methodology will not be outlined here n Contextualizing data n n Socio-historical processes Cross-cultural contexts n Intersections and ethnocultural substrata n Evidence of earlier era n Maintained currency & evolved

What is the Sampo-Cycle? n Three main ’acts’ of several ’scenes’ each: n The Song of Creation n n The Forging of the Sampo n n The shooting of Väinämöinen-diver Väinämöinen as first land World-egg Väinämöinen’s ransom The deception of the tree Ilmarinen forges the Sampo Theft of the Sampo n n n Väinämöinen organizes sea-raid Väinämöinen puts inhabitants of Pohjola to sleep and accomplishes theft Pohjola wakes and pursues in ship Enemy ship destroyed on magically raised land Otherworld mistress becomes bird and grabs Sampo Väinämöinen strikes bird; sampo is broken, bird flies off with lid

An ‘Ideal’ Model of Stratified Influences Corpora (19 th – 20 th century) ---------------------------------Reformation (16 th / 17 th century) ---------------------------------Christianization (ca. 11 th century onward) (Slavic influences) --------------------------------------------Iron Age (Germanic influences) ---------------------------------*Finnic cultural era (Baltic influences? ) ---------------------------------*Finno-Permic / *Finno-Volgic cultural era (Indo-Aryan influences? ) ---------------------------------*Finno-Ugric cultural era (Indo-European influences? )

Plurality in Myth n Multiple cosmologies Väinämöinen-World-Creation n Ploughing the sea (The Singing Competition) n Forging the heavens (incantations) n Dualist diver myth (local aetiological legends) n

Proto-Finno-Ugric Cultural Era n Supreme sky-god *Ilma n n Dualist antithesis (foreign; ’other’? ) Dualist bird-diver creation myth Sky-god (duck) and antithesis (loon) n Antithesis succeeds owing to magical powers n n Central & Northern Eurasian shamanism n Ritual specialist; dangerous soul journey; separable soul; stratified cosmology with world pillar as means of travel; immediate contact with supreme celestial god/sphere as well as underworld

Proto-Finno-Permic / Proto-Finno-Volgic Period n Linguistic-cultural era or regional isogloss? n n Problem of stemma models and cultural interaction World-egg creation of heavenly bodies n n *Juma [’god’] – loan from an Indo-Aryan language? n n Finno-Volgic isogloss What Indo-Aryan Language? n n Exhibited in Finnic, Permic, and Volgic Stemma-model presumption that language of contact survived *Taivas [’heaven’] – *sambas [’(world) pillar’] n Indo-Aryan loans / loan complex – Finnic isogloss n n Models for chronology? Changing conceptions / cosmogony

Proto-Finnic Cultural Era? n *Taivas–*sambas (Indo-Aryan? ) n n n ATU 1148 b? n n Aetiology of thunder from grinding/milling stones *Ilma → *Ilma-ri / *juma → *juma-la n n n New conception of ’heaven’/’vault of heaven’ Distinct from *Ilma [’Sky; Supreme God’] Disambiguates god from phenomenon of sky Identification maintained in Uralic languages; not I-E langs Iron-working technologies n n Nail-star (Germanic influence? – cf. Thor) Aetiology of lightning struck from smithing at bottom of sky/top of world pillar (also Latvian Pērkons) Smith of heaven (aetiology of vault of heaven) Attributed to *Ilma-ri – not Ukko [’Old Man’/thunder god]

Proto-Finnic to North Finnic Cultural Era? n ’Old Man’ emerges as thunder god n *Ilma-ri displaced from status as central celestial god n n n . . . or distinguished as separate being? North Finnic or Pan-Finnic’ Väinämöinen and World-Creation Diver-function; celestial figure (*Ilmar-ri) of dualist cosmology absent n First earth created from own corpse n n n Indo-European motif (cf. Germanic diver-creation) North Finnic n Väinämöinen not attested in South Finnic n (Does not mean he was not known!)

Proto-Finnic to North Finnic Cultural Era? n Institution of tietäjä vs. noita/shaman n Interaction with otherworld through verbal actualization n n Väinämöinen provides cultural model for institution n n No soul-journeys; separable soul not in illness diagnostics; world pillar not required to access celestial god Ukko Väinämöinen myths employ shamanic narrative patterns and motifs, but place emphasis on knowledge acquired which can be employed in incantations Germanic influences n n Incantation tradition developed in relation to Germanic models Väinämöinen’s centrality parallels Germanic Odin

Proto-Finnic to North Finnic Cultural Era? n Institution of tietäjä vs. noita/shaman n Lexical distinction of tietäjä and noita n n Implies parallel institutions of ritual specialist Epic traditions maintained by tietäjä institution as conduit of authority Noita holds negative connotations and characterized as ’other’ Possible competing institutions

Proto-Finnic to North Finnic Cultural Era? n The Sampo-Cycle n Ilmari(nen) subordinated to Väinämöinen n n The forging of the Sampo employs images of forging the vault of heaven and world pillar n n n Narrative assertions of relationships between mythic figures Ilmage power, narrative power employed in new context Subordinates Ilmari’s creative acts to Väinämöinen’s authority The Sampo is destroyed; the vault of heaven carried away n (Shamans can no longer access the celestial sphere? !)

Synthesis in the Sampo-Cycle n The Shooting of Väinämöinen n n Väinämöinen’s Ransom n n 2 MC historiola? ? ? The death of the Germanic god which became Baldr The Deception of the Tree n The rape of Germanic Iðunn n n The Forging of the Sampo n n The Smith of Heaven Theft of the Sampo n n Reflexes of potential Circum-Baltic tradition? Potential relationship to ATU 1148 b? The escape and battle for the Sampo n Germanic mytho-heroic epic story-pattern n n Uncertain whether this story-pattern irefers to a mythological model Intertextual references to the Väinämöinen-World-Creation n Cf. The Song of Lemminkäinen

Perspectives n The Sampo-Cycle emerged with: The institution of the tietäjä n The rise of Väinämöinen (‘eternal tietäjä’) n The dominant incantation tradition n n The Sampo-Cycle: n Assimilated and manipulated a range of contemporary mythological material n n Both vernacular and Germanic Constructed oppositions between the ideologies of the tietäjä and shamanic institutions n A ‘new’ mythology for a ‘new’ instutution