In this chapter, I will examine the rituals and songs performed when entering the forest. They consist of offerings, seductive songs for spirits and the forest, and prayers and and exhortations to forest spirits, requesting them to act as providers of game animals and as guides to find the location of prey. The addressees also include the thunder-god Ukko. These songs have been almost ignored by Kuusi, Haavio, Sarmela and the majority of the Finnish scholars, as the tendency has been to treat the Births of the Bear and to jump to the songs for the awakening of the bear from the den and the hunters’ explanations for the bear’s death.1156 Only Lotte Tarkka has paid great attention to the seductive songs addressed to the female forest spirits.1157 The songs analyzed in this chapter are fundamental to fully understand how the forest was personalized and how the hunters presented themselves and built intimate relationships with the persons of the woodland.1158
To begin, it was mandatory to give offerings. Otto Jussila from Joutsa told that the hunters took three spruces, bound them together and put them on a hummock. After that they tied a board on the branches of the spruces. In Joutsa, this was the “table of Tapio.”1159 The hunters offered a bottle of spirits and a bottle of ale on the top of the board, and some drops of the alcoholic drinks were poured on the roots of the spruces.1160 The hunters thereby offered alcoholic drinks to the master spirit Tapio. As
1156Kuusi 1963: 41–55; Haavio 1967: 15–41; Sarmela 1991; Sarmela 2007: 70–94; Sarmela 2009:
79–107.
1157 Tarkka 1998: 106–108.
1158 On the personalization of the bear and the forest, see Sections 3.6, 3.10, 3:13 and 3:14.
1159 Tapion pöytä. Elsewhere the “table of Tapio” could be a young spruce with an unusual shape; see Sections 4.2, 4.4.
1160 SKS KRA Lilli Lilius b 181. 1888. Joutsa. Otto Jussila.
the forest spirit was conceived as an anthropomorphic and humanlike being, he was supposed to enjoy the alcoholic beverages that humans loved.
The offering had a preventive goal, being a ritual way to avoid the anger of the forest spirits and the contagion provoked by their rage. In Olonets Karelia, for example, an offering of coffee neutralized the anger of water spirits when people chipped ice from a well after sunset.1161 The offering of ale pleased the forest spirit, making it favorable towards the hunter. The Finno-Karelians always offered the forest spirits an enjoyable and socially valuable product, such as ale, spirits, coffee or bread.
The offering of alcoholic drinks was part of an exchange ritual: the hunter offered ale and spirits in order to receive a bear in the future. The Finno-Karelian folk beliefs were strongly based on reciprocity and exchange.1162 If the hunters had the intention to kill a bear, they should offer something in exchange. Offerings regulated the balance between “this world” and the “other side” represented by the forest spirits.
The reciprocity between humans and sacred agents operated following moral principles recognized by both parties.1163 Stark stresses that “agreement upon shared
‘rules of the game’ and submission to a system of mutual moral obligation were expressed through collective symbols.”1164 Ale was much more than an intoxicating beverage. It was a collective symbol with great relevance in almost all the rituals of the village communities, from agricultural spring rituals1165 to Christmas.1166 Ale and spirits were cultural products of the fields, and drinking ale in ritual situations was associated with the fertility of the crops. As the bear was also considered the “grain of the forest,”1167 the exchange of ale and spirits could be related to a shared code: an offering of ale and spirits (the product of the barley owned by humans) should precede the offering of the bear (the “grain” owned by the forest spirits).
If one of the parties failed to meet its obligation, it could be punished. If a sacred agent failed to fulfil its part of the bargain, the humans could punish him. In Orthodox Karelia, even some Christian saints or icons that were supposed to act as pre-Christian forest spirits could be punished by the believers.1168 An old man from Suojärvi prayed
1161SKS KRA Helmi Helminen 2314. Tulomanjärvi 1943. Solomanda Petrov b. 1862; cited in Stark 2006: 271.
1162 Stark 2002: 40; Tarkka 1988: 102; Sarmela 1969.
1163 Stark 2002: 41.
1164 Stark 2002: 41.
1165 Ukon vakat.
1166 Apo 2001: 369.
1167 Metsän vilja; see Section 6.13.
1168 Stark 2002: 41.
to Saint Ilja (Elijah), offered pastries and alcohol to his icon, and told him, “Saint Ilja, watch over my cows so that bears don’t get them.”1169 But when a bear killed his cow, he got mad and broke the icon with an axe, saying, “I fed you my best pieces and gave you my best liquor and this is the miracle you gave me.”1170
If the hunter did not make offerings to the forest spirits, they could be punished with bad luck in hunting. However, when the hunters made offerings, they believed that the forest spirit was, in one way or another, “obliged” to give the desired quarry.
The hunters also offered small quantities of gold or silver, pouring it on a tree or on its roots. The hunters from Latvajärvi sang to the forest spirit:
Come, Ahti,1171 for the division of money, kumpu,1172 for sharing the gold.
I have the most famous of the gold;
I have good silver
brought from the war by my father;1173 they are clinking in the purse.1174
The song presents the hunt as a mutual transaction, a true “division”: the hunter offered money, silver and gold, and he received in exchange a bear, called “money” or
“gold” or “silver” in some Bear Songs.1175 In Uhtua, the hunter lamented that the present forest spirits were not interested in this exchange, as the old forest spirits had been:
Although the old dwellers came clinking in gold swinging in silver,
1169 SKS KRA Santeri Huovinen 105. Ruskeala 1936; cited in Stark 2002: 41. English translation by Laura Stark.
1170 SKS KRA Santeri Huovinen 105. Ruskeala 1936; cited in Stark 2002: 41. English translation by Laura Stark.
1171 Rare variation for the forest spirit. Generally Ahti is the master of the water.
1172 Rare variation for the forest or the earth spirit, identificated with a hill (kumpu).
1173 The money offered could be fulfilled with the “death force” (kalman väki) present in the war fields.
1174 Tule, Ahti, rahan jaolle, / kumpu, kullan muuttelohon. / miun on kullat kuulusammat, / miulla on huolovat hopiat, / isoni soasta tuomat, / ne kuluo kukkaroissa (SKVR I4/1098: 36–41. Latvajärvi.
Castrén n. 140. 39).
1175 See Sections 6.2, 7.10.
not the present people;
they don’t bother with my silver, they don’t listen to my gold.1176
The hunter was probably trying to convince the forest spirits to accept the deal, stressing that the old ones were much more generous and beautiful, clinking in their gold and silver. He smartly took advantage of the vanity of male and female forest spirits.
The offerings could be made during the hunt as well. The tietäjä and hunter Jeremias Seppänen from Ruhtinansalmi told that he poured silver or offered coins on trees nearby bear dens.1177 After that, the hunter sang: “Give, forest, in in the future too, / roll your grains, / mercifully, your presents.”1178
These lines stressed the nature of the deal. The hunter offered silver, but he expected that the forest spirits would give gifts and grains (bears and other prey) in exchange in the future. For this reason, offerings were an indispensable ritual device to obtain game animals.