Finnish mythology: Hiisi

Originally the word ”hiisi” meant a holy grove, a place where the dead were buried. Hiisi was a holy fenced area. It was forbidden to cut trees or harm nature in any way inside the fences. That is why hiisis created little woods although the other area might have been fields and meadows before. In the holy grove people worshipped the dead, it was like a graveyard of old times. In this case “hiisi people” (hiidenväki) meant the dead. When Christianity stabilized and especially on the time of purism in 1600th century, priests ordered these holy places to be destroyed.

Hiisi is also a supernatural being. In some cases “hiisi people” meant little folk which live under ground. In the time of Christianity hiisi got a quite negative meaning and it identified with the devil, becoming the archenemy of God and Jesus. Because of this hiisi is often pictured looking like a devil or a mountain troll with furry skin and a tail.  In this time were formed words like “hitto” and “hittolainen” (popular swears in Finnish), they come from the word hiisi. Also in folk poems hiisi’s synonyms are for example “lempo” (somekind of a devil), “kalma” (old word for death) and “pakana” (pagan).

Mikael Agricola, father of the written Finnish language, mentioned Hiisi in his list of Finnish gods in 1551. In that list Hiisi is said to be a forest god (a guardian sprit of the forest). In my opinion, in The Kalevala (the Finnish epic) Hiisi behaves like a forest god. A hero called Lemminkäinen tries to capture a mythological creature The Elk of The Hiisi. Hiisi tells to his pet to run fast so that Lemminkäinen wouldn’t get it. In here Hiisi acts like a guardian of the forest animal. On the other hand, in The Kalevala Hiisi owns also a horse and lives near fields. According to one story a great shaman called Väinämöinen made strings to his magical kantele instrument from the hair of Hiisi’s wife. All this refers to that hiisis live like humans, they have domestic animals and they practice farming.

In folk tales hiisis (Finnish plural form “hiidet”) live in Hiitola, far away in a thick forest where stands Hiisi’s castle. Hiisi lives in the castle with his wife, three sons and his daughter Hippe. They also have a female cat called Kipinätär (“Spark”), a furious dog, the horse and the elk. Lots of other hiisis live in the castle as well. Like the devil in Finnish folklore, hiisis were not just evil characters. Hiisi might even help a hunter not to become a meal for the beasts of the forest. It it said that the colour of the hiisi tells how bad it is, the blacker the worse.

Hiisis got bad power/energy (old Finnish word “väki”) in them that could stick into or infect humans and make them sick. This means both the supernatural creatures called hiisi as well as “hiisi people” a.k.a the dead. From the dead you could get “kalma” (a death desease). “Forest hiisi” and “water hiisi” on the other hand were both creatures as well as names of different deseases.

Hiisi lives still in Finnish swears, such as “Painu hiiteen!” (a bad translation: Get lost into hiisi!), which can mean either a holy grove/ a graveyard or the castle of Hiisi. Also words “hiidenkiuas” (an ancient heap grave made of big stones), “hiidenkivi” (a large lonely rock brought by ice age) and “hiidenkirnu” (a hole in a rock made in ice age) rememind us about the old forest god.

One nice thing to know for non-Finnish readers is that in JRR Tolkien book The Hobbit the creature goblin has been translated to "hiisi".



Sources:
Anttonen, Veikko: Uskontotieteen maastot ja kartat. SKS 2010 (s. 165-169: Rautakautinen hiisi-instituutio)
Hjelt, Marjut: Taikametsä. Tarinoita ja taikoja suomalaisesta metsästä. SKS 2000 (s. 76: Hiidet)
Lönnrot, Elias: Kalevala. SKS 2005 (runot 13 ja 14)
Koski, Mervi: Suomalaisia haltiojoita ja tauolentoja. Karisto 2008
Sarmela, Martti: Suomen perinneatlas. SKS 1994 (s. 170: Hiidenväki)
fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiisi
www.smy.fi/koulut/polku/nuotio…