Metsaema is the mother spirit of the forest in Estonian mythology.
Metsaema is the mother spirit of the forest in Estonian mythology.
The name Metsaema translates to "forest mother" in Estonian (from metsa "forest" and ema "mother"). For this reason, the word metsaema can also be used as a descriptor of other similar deities in Eastern European mythology, for example Vir'ava. [1]
The mother of the forest acts as ruler and guardian. [2] She is sometimes also connected with fertility, acting as a midwife in some texts. [3] Forest spirits are said to be found in each forest, ruling over the animals, birds, trees, and berries. [4] Wild animals such as bears, snakes and wolves are commonly connected with them across European mythologies. [5]
The shared elements of Finno-Ugric, Slavic, Baltic and Turkic mythology can be seen in similarities between forest mother spirits. Metsaema has strong similarities with the forest mother spirits Vir'ava, from Mordven mythology, and Meža mate, from Latvian mythology. Other related deities are the Lithuanian goddess of the forest and animals, Medeina, and the Finnish goddess of the forest, Mielikki.
Mother deities are prevalent in early Estonian and Latvian mythology (called Mātes in Latvian). [6] [7] Forest spirits in Estonian mythology are most often female, as can be seen with the similar metsaneitsi, metsapiiga and metsapreili, all translating to "forest maiden". [8] This is in some contrast with Slavic mythology, where male forest spirits have the equivalent roles of protector of the forest. [9] [10] Estonian mythology, however, does have both male and female forest spirits, for example Metsavana, the old man of the forest and forest father. These kinds of deities are normally seen as solitary but are linked in some Russian and Kerelian texts as husband and wife. [11]
According to Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, straw puppets dressed alternately as Metsaema (forest mother) and Metsaisa (forest father) were used in metsiku tegemine festivals in the 17th and 18th centuries. [12] This however, may be his extrapolation due to the metsa etymological link, as there is no other written evidence of these names being used to describe the puppets. [13]
The Metsaema mänd (Forest Mother Pine) is an historic protected pine tree in Viljandi Parish, Viljandi County, Estonia. [14] [15]
Latvian mythology is the collection of myths that have emerged throughout the history of Latvia, sometimes being elaborated upon by successive generations, and at other times being rejected and replaced by other explanatory narratives. These myths stem from folk traditions of the Latvian people and pre-Christian Baltic mythology.
In Latvian mythology, the term Māte stands for "mother", sometimes written in English as Mahte. It was an epithet applied to some sixty-seventy goddesses. They were clearly distinct goddesses in most or all cases, so the term definitely referred to the mother-goddess of specific phenomena. According to professor Lotte Motz, scholar Haralds Biezais mentioned there were at least 70 characters in Baltic religion identified with the title of Mate.
Finnish mythology is a commonly applied description of the folklore of Finnish paganism, of which a modern revival is practiced by a small percentage of the Finnish people. It has many features shared with Estonian and other Finnic mythologies, but also shares some similarities with neighbouring Baltic, Slavic and, to a lesser extent, Norse mythologies.
In the Slavic religious tradition, Domovoy (Russian: Домовой, literally "[the one] of the household"; also spelled Domovoi, Domovoj, and known as Polish: Domowik, Serbian: Домовик, Ukrainian: Домовик and Belarusian: Дамавік is the household spirit of a given kin. They are deified progenitors, that is to say the fountainhead ancestors of the kin. According to the Russian folklorist E. G. Kagarov, the Domovoy is a personification of the supreme Rod in the microcosm of kinship. Sometimes he has a female counterpart, Domania, the goddess of the household, though he is most often a single god. The Domovoy expresses himself as a number of other spirits of the household in its different functions.
Other than the many gods and goddesses of the Slavs, the ancient Slavs believed in and revered many supernatural beings that existed in nature. These supernatural beings in Slavic religion come in various forms, and the same name of any single being can be spelled or transliterated differently according to language and transliteration system.
Jumala, Jumal or Jumo (Mari) means "god" in the Finnic languages and those of the Volga Finns, both the Christian God and any other deity of any religion. The word is thought to have been the name of a sky god of the ancient Finnic-speaking peoples. Jumala as a god of the sky is associated with the related Estonian Jumal, Mari Jumo and is thought to stem from an ancient tradition of the Finnic peoples.
Finnic paganism is the indigenous pagan religion in Finland, Karelia, Ingria and Estonia prior to Christianisation. It was a polytheistic religion, worshipping a number of different deities. The principal god was the god of thunder and the sky, Ukko; other important gods included Jumo (Jumala), Ahti, and Tapio. Jumala was a sky god; today, the word "Jumala" refers to all gods in general. Ahti was a god of the sea, waters and fish. Tapio was the god of forests and hunting.
Estonian mythology is a complex of myths belonging to the Estonian folk heritage and literary mythology. Information about the pre-Christian and medieval Estonian mythology is scattered in historical chronicles, travellers' accounts and in ecclesiastical registers. Systematic recordings of Estonian folklore started in the 19th century. Pre-Christian Estonian deities may have included a god known as Jumal or Taevataat in Estonian, corresponding to Jumala in Finnish, and Jumo in Mari.
Ilona is a female name in Finland and Hungary.
Kaleva – also known as Kalevi or Kalev – and his sons are important heroic figures in Estonian, Finnish and Karelian mythology. In the Finnish epic the Kalevala, he is an ancient Finnish ruler. In Estonian mythology and Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald's epic poem Kalevipoeg, King Kalev was the father of King Kalevipoeg and the husband of Linda.
Elements of a Proto-Uralic religion can be recovered from reconstructions of the Proto-Uralic language.
According to classical sources, the ancient Celts were animists. They honoured the forces of nature, saw the world as inhabited by many spirits, and saw the Divine manifesting in aspects of the natural world.
The Mokshas comprise a Mordvinian ethnic group belonging to the Volgaic branch of the Finno-Ugric peoples. They live in Russia, mostly near the Volga and Moksha rivers, a tributary of the Oka River.
Komi mythology is the traditional mythology of the Komi peoples of northern Russia.
Permian bronze casts – Permic and Western Siberian animal style cult cast figurines – were the predominant form of Finno-Ugric toreutics of the 3rd–12th centuries CE. It was spread throughout a large area of forests of the north-eastern Urals and western Siberia from the basins of the Kama and Vyatka to the Ob. In the Middle Ages, these territories were inhabited mostly by the Ugrian tribes, ancestors of the present day Hungarians and Ob-Ugrians – the Khanty and the Mansi people. Their style is referred to as the "Permian animal style".
Metsavana, also known as metsataat or metsaisa, is the old man of the forest, a forest deity in Estonian mythology.
Pseudo-mythology are myths and deities which do not exist in genuine mythology and folklore or their existence is doubtful or disproved. It may be created by researchers who liberally interpret scarce sources.
Lower mythology is a sphere of mythological representations relating to characters who have no divine status, demons and spirits, as opposed to higher gods and the official cult. This opposition is particularly pronounced in world religions.
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