Finland, who devoted a short but active life to
the study of the language and literature
of his country. The result of Castrèn's
mythological researches are comprised in a
series of lectures, originally delivered in the
Swedish language, and since translated into
German by A. Schiefner, another ardent
student of Finnish antiquities, who has likewise
favoured the world with a German
translation of the Kalewala.

As, however, in spite of these helps, we
venture to suspect that the Finnish mythology
will be entirely new to many of our
readers, and as, moreover, this same mythology
is exceedingly curious, we deem it not
inexpedient to construct a Finnish Pantheon,
of small dimensions, but, we trust, by no
means incomplete. Nevertheless, we would
premise that this article merely takes cognisance
of the gods of the ancient Finns, as
distinguished from the demons and the
heroes.

For him who would saunter easily along ,
the not very familiar path of Finnish mythology,
and scratch himself as little as possible j
against the erudite thorns that menace him ,
from the wayside; the best method is, to
assume at once, that the principal celestial
deity, — the Zeus or Odin of the system—is
named Ukko. The student may be told that
Ukko, properly speaking, is no deity at all,
but merely an epithet answering to the
Cockney "Old un;" and, on that account,
considered a title of respect by Finns of good
breeding. In confirmation of this opinion
he may also learn, that when a Finnish
Chesterfield meets a bear—an animal that is
considered to have extraordinary claims on
human politeness—it is the etiquette to address
him as, " My old un, my bird, my
beauty, my golden one." Jumala, he may be
informed, is the original deity of the upper
regions, flattered, like the bear, by the appellation
Ukko. But there is a formidable
opinion on the other side, to the effect that
Jumala never denoted any particular god,
but merely implies deity in general, so that
every one of the gods may be called a Jumala
in his turn, without impropriety. In the
opinion of Matthias Castrèn, Jumala originally
denoted the sky, which was first revered
by the rudest Finns, without any notion of
personality; then it came to signify the
divine inhabitant of the sky, as the most
primitive form of nature-worship was
abandoned; and lastly, it was sublimed into that
merely abstract sense, which expresses no
distinctive character. To heaven itself was
given the name taivas, and taivahan
ukko (the old man of the sky), took the place
of Jumala in the second signification.

However, let the controversy respecting
the superior antiquity of Jumala and Ukko be
settled as it may, certain it is, that in the
classic age of Finnish Mythology, the celestial
chief is called by the latter appellation.
Therefore we say, let the easy-going student
stick to Ukko, and banish Jumala from his
mind, as a very perplexing personage, who
assists controversialists to raise as many
clouds as he is reported to govern.

We fix our thoughts then on Ukko, the
supreme ruler of the Finnish sky, whose
attributes are not a little remarkable. His
stockings are blue, his shoes are of various
colours, and his shirt darts forth sparks of
flame. The lightning is his sword, and he
is in the habit of shooting copper arrows from
the rainbow. His station is the centre of
the firmament, which, by some ingenious
process hard to conceive, he carries on his
shoulders; but he is by no means so firmly
fixed in one position, that, when the sun and
moon happen to be lost (as was once actually
the case) he cannot roam about the horizon
to look for them.

Over the domestic relations of Ukko a veil
is thrown, which is the more singular as the
Finnish deities were generally supposed to
be substantial householders, with wives and
families. It is whispered, indeed that Ukko
has a wife, named Rauni; and Agricola, in
his list of deities, makes the remark, that
when Rauni thundered, Ukko thundered too.
There, however, information seems to stop;
and as this thundering on both sides does
not seem to denote any high degree of domestic
felicity, we may assume that Ukko's
marriage was not altogether a happy one;
and that therefore the Finns, from
motives of delicacy, alluded to it as little as
possible.

As ruler of the sky, Ukko necessarily
directs all the meteorological phenomena.
Clouds, rain, snow, hail, lightning, and thunder
come under his special jurisdiction; and,
strange to say, the Finnish mind considers
thunder as so completely distinct from lightning,
that while the former is regarded with
the most abject terror, the latter is treated
with comparative levity. Thus, a man may
pray that Ukko will disperse his enemies
with lightning, or even lend him a fire-flash,
but no one dreams of praying for thunder.
Nor is this distinction confined to the old
Runes; a particular dread of thunder is common
in various parts of Finland, even at the
present day.

So immediately are clouds and sunshine
connected with the fertility of the earth, that
the recognition of Ukko as an agricultural
deity is no more than natural. In the sowing
season the old Finns used to honour him
with an especial festival, at which his health
was the standing-toast. However, so great
is the power of Ukko, that his aid may be
supplicated even in cases that have no
immediate reference to his high office as ruler of
the sky. Thus, he has been asked to stop
blood in the case of a cut foot, to keep a bear
from devouring sheep, and to supply the
devotee with a good pair of shoes for
travelling in the snow.

Nevertheless, mighty as Ukko may be, we