Iso tammi
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Iso tammi ( Finnish , "big oak") is the world tree in Finnish mythology in the shape of a huge oak that covers the sky.
myth
In the Finnish national epic Kalevala , the great oak grows into the world from the beginning, when the world is still being shaped and created. The oak covers the moon and the sun, and the world goes dark. A feller is wanted for the tree and someone does not try. Eventually the sea becomes a little man in brass, who grows into a giant and hits the tree with three blows. The lights of the sky are finally being released and the world is ready. The magical powers of wood are released to the delight of people. The topper gets eternal magic , the branch breaker gets eternal happiness and the leaf cutter gets eternal love .
The oak chips drift at sea and finally land on the shore. The little housemaid of Hiisi , a Lappish dog with iron teeth or some other evil creature turn them into witch arrows . This detail may not be accidental, it may contain a mythical idea of the origins of weapons - they arise at the same time and relate to the same cultural advances as many well-producing things. When treating witch arrows, their birth is sometimes counted in spells ( loitsut ) as the fall of a large oak.
There are other signs of the world tree in Finnish mythology. The way in which the bear's skull is lifted into a tree during a bear ritual ( peijaiset ) may have symbolically established the connection of the bear's soul to the sky through the world tree.
Finnish mythology also calls large oak the names tasmatammi and rutimoraita . Tammi means oak and tasma is a rare word that was apparently borrowed from the Turks through the Komi in ancient times , which means a rope and a tie, such as in a harness. Tasmatammi apparently meant a tree that connects the earth and the sky like a string. Rutimo, on the other hand, refers to iron , which means that wood is iron-resistant; raita means sal willow .
The Finnish researcher Timo Heikkilä interprets some features of magical objects of the Ukon kirves as a reference to the world tree. According to some stories that explain the synty of the sky lights, the sky lights are hung from the branches of a tree.
distribution
When fully grown, the long-lived oak is sacred to the Baltic Sea Finns and many Central European peoples such as the Germanic peoples and the Celts. It is believed that oak leaves bring good luck. Oak later became a symbol of endurance and strength. It has the status of a national tree in Germany , England , France , the USA and Estonia , among others . Oak leaves are also something of a symbol for Finnish veterans of the Winter and Continuation War . In the warmer climate of antiquity, noble deciduous trees thrived much further north in Scandinavia than they do today.
World tree Yggdrasil , an ash. Illustration for the Snorra Edda from 1847
literature
- Martti Haavio: Suomalainen mytologia. Porvoo Helsinki, WSOY, 1967.