Myths From Lapland: Dark Spirits

Unlock the secrets of the mystical dark spirits from the enchanting folklore of Lapland. Dive into a world filled with ancient tales and fascinating legends that will transport you to a realm beyond imagination. Immerse yourself in the rich tapestry of storytelling as you discover the hidden wisdom and haunting beauty that lies within the heart of these dark spirits.

Let their mesmerizing presence ignite your curiosity and awaken your sense of wonder. Experience the magic for yourself and embark on an extraordinary journey through time and tradition.

Transcript

Meet,

It is Lina,

You are watching Fairy Chamber channel.

Continuing my series on Sami people and Sami mythology and folklore.

And this video is going to be about human nature and different spirits that are connected to human nature and human subconscious and overall human life.

And spirits that have affected human life and their behavior in Sami culture and Sami folklore.

So the first spirit is going to be Haldi.

Haldi is a spirit of a place in Sami folklore.

And in Finnish we have word Haldia,

Which pretty much means the same thing,

But it has slight differences.

So the word Haldi,

The etymology of it,

It means that it's a possessor,

It's the owner of something.

So in Finnish we have word Hallita,

Which means to control something,

The verb Hallita.

We have Hallitia,

Which means a ruler,

The owner.

So the Haldia,

It is the owner of some place or something.

So it's like umbrella term for all the spirits,

They are like possessors.

But pretty much the same thing,

Like the verb for the fairy is the umbrella term for nature spirit.

So Haldia in Sami and Finnish context,

It has similar meaning.

It is also very much connected to the whole concept of shamanism,

Because when shaman would get into the trance state,

People were said that they are lagnetaloven,

They are opening the door to the spirit world.

And also that they are Haldian house,

Possessed by Haldi or the spirit.

So the whole concept of Haldi,

It is connected with the spirit worlds and owning something.

And in Sami folklore,

The whole idea what is controlled by Haldi,

It is very different,

A little bit different to the neighbor people and tribes.

In Sami folklore,

Haldi was usually possessor of a place.

Haldi controlled nature,

So there was Haldi for a mountain,

There was Haldi for a fountain,

Haldi of lake and water areas,

Haldi of hills and rocks and trees.

And in Finnish mythology we have many nature spirits who do these possessions.

But when we speak about Haldia in Finnish mythology and folklore and say it like neighboring tribes,

Like Gomis and Maris and even Swedish people in the past,

Haldia was really connected to something related to humans and built by humans.

So there was Haldia in a sauna or in a house or in a stable or sometimes also in a forest,

But they weren't that familiar to people like the Haldias in the houses were.

But then in Sami folklore,

The Haldi that was control of the forest,

The Haldi that was control of the tree or a rock,

That was more familiar to the people than the Haldi that they had in the house.

And the Haldi that they had in a house,

That was probably a borrowed concept from some of the neighbors.

And the Sami people,

There are these written records that they are more familiar and comfortable with these Haldis that were living in nature than the Haldis that were in the corner of the house or living behind the oven.

They were seen as a bit more scary than the ones that lived in nature.

But this also depicts the wonderful nature connection that Sami people had in the past.

And many of them still have it today compared to some of the neighbor tribes.

Many of the Finnish people do have good nature connection,

But it is slightly different.

The Sami people,

They did not do sacrifices for the Haldi.

They did not try to communicate with them that way.

But there was this certain level of respect that people had when they were in a place that was believed to be owned by Haldi,

Like anywhere in nature,

It was important to behave respectfully in the company of Haldi.

Otherwise,

Haldi might come and harass you or do some way much worse than that.

So in Iceland,

There had been,

Still in the last century,

Motor roads being street-shifted.

The place has been moved because they were crossing the place where Haldi people lived.

And it has been the same in Iceland in the last century that some of the buildings and motorways,

The place had been dredged up and shifted somewhere else because there was the erupting of the ferries.

So that is one example how people still had respect for these creatures in the nearby past.

And there's different types of these Haldis in some mythology.

And then we have these spirits that were more magnificent and were more dangerous to human beings.

And then we have these spirits that were more close to human beings and spirits that would seek to advise and guidance.

Some of these spirits were called Basivekka.

When we translate it,

That means the holy people.

So Basivekka was the spirits of shamans,

Witches,

Wise men and wise women and midwives that had passed away long time ago,

But their spirits still lived in the underworld.

And the living people might seek their advice through dreams or shamanistic journeys.

So a very famous shaman from the past might give you advices in the dream world when you would know exact questions to ask.

So Basivekka,

They go to the category of helpful spirits and guidance spirits.

Then we have more evil ones like Kettanas.

This creature is borrowed from Scandinavian mythology.

It is a giant slash goblin creature that is quite stupid and very greedy.

And they are very much connected with stores.

And then we have more giants that is called Vuvru.

This one is much more dangerous giant.

This was a giant that wanted the life essence of humans.

And it was believed that Vuvru could suck human brains out of them at night with a long iron pipe.

But then people would protect themselves from Vuvru.

They would put a chalice of water near the bed so that Vuvru would drink that during the night and not their brains.

And would get the life essence from the water.

So Vuvru was a creature that people were a bit scared of.

And then we have Labaretta or Labarakku.

If you want to know the male version,

It is Labarakku.

And female version would be Labarakku.

And this was a spirit that people scared children not to go missing.

And Labarakku was a spirit that lived in a tree or a bush or a stone.

And that would snatch children.

So this was a creature that children were scared of.

That they should not go too far from home and get lost.

Because otherwise Labarakku would snatch them.

And then we have a creature called Skarru.

Which was a spirit of enviousness and jealousy.

And bad luck.

There's lots of these kind of spirits that were spirits of enviousness and jealousy in Sami culture.

We also have them in Finnish culture and mythology.

So Skarru was this kind of spirit that would bring enviousness and bad luck for people.

And people would protect themselves from it.

They would do certain type of rituals to protect them.

And they could also build a seita which is in Sami holy worshipping place or praying place in Sami culture.

And they should build a seita from wood.

And bless that so that Skarru would not get them.

Then we have another spirit of enviousness.

And that is called Korramans.

And more familiar name is Korttu.

And it was believed that when people would face people that were enemy for them or jealous to them.

And those people who were jealous to them or to you.

They would send a curse to you.

And this would mean that they would release the Korttu.

So the Korttu would stop you to get any luck in anything.

You might lose your family or your guns would not work when you go hunting.

Or you would not get any fish when you go fishing.

So Korttu would be that kind of bad luck rush person would get that.

Another person who was jealous of them would send to them if they did not like them.

And there was people like the fairies also how to protect yourself from Korttu.

So Korttu could be this like actual spirit or just spirit that would be controlled by the other witch or shaman or regular person with knowledge of the magic.

So there is like many ways to describe this creature.

And also it was used to control the whole communities.

In a good way in the sense that people were scared of Korttu.

They would trash the community or houses or not behave well.

So in that sense when it comes to trashing Korttu would be quite useful.

And also just to people needed to behave well.

Because otherwise Korttu would come to them if they would break the rules that people had to meet together.

And then the second spirit is quite sad one.

It is called Eipaaras in Northern Sami.

Äppärä in Finnish.

And if we translate Äppärä in English it means bastard.

And Eipaaras was a protector of children.

Surprisingly the protector of the wounded children,

The protector of children that were hurt.

And Eipaaras it was a spirit of a child that was murdered usually by the mother or it was a child born outside marriage.

And it usually would appear in those places where it was murdered.

Usually somewhere hidden,

Maybe in the forest or by the lake or next to a mountain or something somewhere.

So the ghost of Eipaaras would appear in those places.

Sometimes once in a year or sometimes once in every 7th year.

And usually Eipaaras would appear in twilight strikes place.

It would quite often appear to those children that were abused or children that were having a hard time at all.

And it was usually described to be a very unpleasant experience.

I would imagine that meeting Eipaaras would scare someone.

But if this would happen,

People would call the town witch or the shaman to find out the story of Eipaaras.

And when they would find out who was this person who did injustice to Eipaaras and to this child that Eipaaras would appear.

Then Eipaaras would continue its journey to the spirit world or reconnect to this world.

And in Christian times when Eipaaras appeared,

There was one way to release the soul of a class to catch it and try to baptize it.

Then we have spirits that are related to dreaming and sleeping and dream world.

One of them is Karakkus which is an Islamic version of poltergeist.

And Karakkus would appear to haunted houses and make some noise there.

Or to people in their dreams or while they were sleeping they would come and pick them while they were sleeping and create nightmares to them.

Then there was also Deltan who was literally a creature that represented nightmare.

And Deltan would take a form of an animal usually.

Quite often it was a bird when we are talking about Sami folklore.

And Deltan would go to the human while they were sleeping and they would sit on their chest and press the chest so that that would create nightmares to the person.

Then we have Delko which is reflection and in Finnish language we also call this as Etiainen.

And this word is also used by the Sami people in Finnish speaking areas.

Etiainen could be the reflection of the human themselves.

You would see your doppelgänger somewhere,

The spiritual doppelgänger.

And usually this Veikka,

It was a bad omen when Etiainen could also be a good omen but Veikka was usually a bad omen.

Veikka,

If you would see this spiritual doppelgänger of yourself it would usually mean death or bad news or some great danger.

So Veikka would come to warn a person or they might see Veikka in this future situation where you can see yourself or your doppelgänger and something bad is going to happen to you.

So when you see that in a dream or somewhere you are prepared how to handle the situation.

So Veikka is not necessarily a bad creature,

It is a warning sign.

Then we have Kommi who is the ghost.

And I don't know if it is pronounced as Kommi or Kommi.

And in Finnish language we have both Kommitus which probably comes from this word.

Or Koratalous,

Vice versa,

I don't know.

Kommi is a ghost,

Literally an umbrella term for ghost and it can also mean any supernatural creature.

So I guess you would call all these spirits as Kommis.

And Kommi was a person who had unfinished businesses or person who was killed or died while dead.

And they cannot get any rest in this world until their death is revenged and they get some justice.

So that is the story of Kommi.

So these were some stories from Sámi mythology.

Different creatures that represent the dark side of human nature.

And these reflections that humans have all about the dark.

Dark thoughts and evilness and all kinds of things like that.

Thank you for watching guys,

I hope you enjoyed this.

And if you like my videos please be sure to subscribe to more mythological stories.

I will see you next time,

Bye!