This presentation explores typical topographic features found at sacred sites of folk belief in the Finnish forests, and whether specific motifs of folk belief tend to be connected to certain types of topographic features.
Paper long abstract
Finnish folklore archives contain a wealth of belief narratives about supranormal beings and events tied to specific places in forests. Studying folk belief with a departure point in specific places to which it is connected reveals new patterns which could not be seen by studying only the narratives in themselves.
This paper is not just based on archival and cartographic studies, but field visits to more than 150 forest sites in southern Finland identified by local belief traditions as inhabited by spirits or in other ways sacred or supranormal. Through field visits the sites can experienced with human senses, often revealing topographic features and other sensory elements which are not mentioned in the belief narratives and are often also not detectible on topographic maps.
This presentation will a) explore typical topographic features and combinations thereof found at sacred sites of folk belief in the Finnish forests, and b) examine whether specific motifs of folk belief, such as certain kinds of supranormal beings, tend to be connected to certain types of topographic features and whether there are regional variations.