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<P align="justify"> According to the … <P align="justify"> According to the vertical picture of the world depicted in the segments of shamans drum skins, the pre-Christian gods of the Saami can be divided into those that lived above the sky, those that dwelt in the sky, the gods of the earth, and the gods of the underworld. Information about these old gods is uncertain, open to interpretation and relatively late. It was gathered only during the most intensive period of missionary activity in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and mainly in Sweden and Norway. By this time, the old Saami conceptions of the gods had already become blurred. On the one hand, Scandinavian and also Christian influences infiltrated the pre-Christian world view especially of the western Saamis. On the other hand, the fact that the material was gathered in languages other than Saami was a potential source of errors: the interpreter or the Saami informant himself might adapt the names of the Saami gods to ancient Scandinavian mythology in order to make his own ideas more comprehensible to outsiders. Moreover, those who gathered the classic sources, generally missionaries, already imposed their own interpretations on what they were told, and what their informants wanted to tell them. And the oldest sources, which date back to a time when the ancient religion of the Saami was still alive, were generally produced on the basis of material gathered and interpreted by missionaries among the western Saami. Nor is it clear to what extent the existing information truly represents the knowledge of the shamans, the religious specialists of the Saami, and to what extent it is a reflection of the collective tradition, the views of the whole people. </P>
<P align="justify"> A god above the sky. The [[The Sky God|Sky God]], who was the upholder of order in the world, can be considered to have lived above the sky. The information about him comes from the western Saami regions. In the regions where South and Ume Saami were spoken, his name (the names are here given in the forms in which they appear in the old sources) was <I>Radien</I> (also <I>Mailmen Radien</I> <I>Radien</I> of the World ), and further to the north and east in Pite, Lule and the North Saami of the Torne area <I>Veralden Olmai</I> the Man of the World (< Swedish <I>värld</I> world ) or <I>Veralden-Radien</I> <I>Radien</I> of the World ([[Radien (engl. ver.)|Raedie]], the Sky God). The names point to a strong Scandinavian influence. The proportion of Christian borrowings is apparent from the fact that <I>Raedie</I> is depicted on the shamans drums in the form of a trinity; <I>Raedie</I> had a whole group of avatars, some of which were formed according to the Christian doctrine of the trinity. In the Kildin Saami tradition, the god <I>Jimmel-aaja</I> (<I>Jimmel</I> god, <I>aaja</I> old man ) took part in the creation of the animal world, although according to tradition he had no part in the actual creation of the animals themselves; <I>Jimmel</I> fulfilled the wishes of the animals rather than determined them. He was an active creator, a concentration of creative forces. The fulfilment of the wishes of the animals is based on an awareness of the animal world, which is within nature itself, not externally imposed knowledge. The North and South Saamis have similar myths. Ideas about this god and his place in Saami cosmology were probably very vague even before the advent of Christianity, and they obviously became even more complicated when the Saami came into contact with the Orthodox religion. Christian and pre-Christian features probably coalesced to create a syncretic figure of a god who was an old man. </P>
<P align="justify"> [[The Sky God|The sky gods]] are usually thought to include at least [[Sun|<I>Beaivi</I>]] (the Sun), [[Moon|<I>Mánnu</I>]] (the Moon), [[The thunder god|<I>Bajánalmmái</I>]], the God of Thunder, [[The wind god|<I>Bieggaolmmái</I>]], the God of the Winds, <I>Rananeid</I>, the goddess of vegetation and <I>Madder-Attje</I>, the forefather of man. The worship of most deities was according to sex; only the worship of <I>Raedie</I> and the Sun was common to both sexes. Information about female cult practices is extremely deficient because those who collected the source material were not generally interested in them. In the Saami tradition, the Sun is associated throughout Saamiland with fertility and the origins of the Saami and of the reindeer. The Moon in some areas of the Saami tradition appears in mythology as the protector of reindeer at calving time; however, the Saami also linked the Moon with destructive mythical figures like [[Áhčešeátne-Njávešeátne (engl. ver.)|<I>Áhčešeatne</I>]] and her son [[Askovis]]. For the eastern Saami, the Sky God seems to have merged with the God of Thunder. It has been suggested that <I>Tiermes</I>, the God of Thunder of the eastern Saami, who corresponds to the North Saami <I>Dierpmis</I> and was probably of Finno-Ugric origin, was the original Saami Sky God. This would mean that <I>Raedie</I> was a later arrival formed out of Scandinavian and Christian elements that filtered into Saami culture before the advent of Christianity proper. The God of the Winds, <I>Bieggagállis</I> or <I>Bieggaolmmái</I>, was known through Saamiland; he affected the major sources of livelihood of the Saami: hunting, and later reindeer herding. </P>
<P align="justify"> <I>Rananeid</I> or <I>Ruonaneid</I> (<I>ruoná</I> green, <I>nieida</I> maiden ) was a female divinity found in certain Norwegian sources, who according to Leem was considered to be closest to the God above the sky. <I>Rananeid</I> was said to dwell high in the firmament just a little lower than <i>Raedie</i>. She was the goddess of those mountains and fells that first turned green in the spring, and she allowed the new grass to grow as food for the reindeer. It is known that the Saami sacrificed to her so that the reindeer wouldreach the grass pasturages in time. This divinity corresponds to the spirit of plants <I>Raa z-ajk</I> (<I>raa ss</I> grass, verdure, <I>ajk</I> mother) of the Ter and Kildin Saami tradition. </P>
<P align="justify"> <I>Madder-Attje</I> (in South Saami <I>Maadteraajja</I>), the Father of Man (<I>madter</I> pre-, proto- ) was a divinity that was known probably only in a limited South Saami area, and he was clearly associated with the Saami shaman ([[Shamanism|Shamanism]]). According to some eighteenth-century sources, only the most mighty shamans had the right to draw the symbol of <i>Maadteraajja</I> on their drums, and only they were able to contact the Father of Man. Moreover, the powerful shamans alone had a knowledge of the origins of mankind. Of the gods who dwelt on earth, it is known that there was a God of Hunting, [[Leaibeolmmái]] the Alder Man, a Goddess of Plants, <I>Rananeid</I>, and <I>Máttaráhkká</I>, the wife of <I>Madder-Attje</I>, and their daughters. <I>Maadteraajja</I> and the daughters were known in both the South and North Saami regions. These female divinities were connected with the beginning and end of life, and they were particularly associated with women and their activities. </P>
<P align="justify"> The South Saami tradition has numerous aahka female divinities. <I>Maadteraahka</I> (<I>ahka</I> old woman, hag ), the Mother of Man had three daughters; <I>Saaraahka</I>, (possibly Creative Old Woman), <I>Joeksaahka</I> (Old Woman of the Bow) ja <I>Oksaahka</I> ( Old Woman of the Door ). These were mainly worshiped by women, and they lived beneath the Lapp lodge under the area sacred to the women, which was situated opposite the [[Boaššu|boaššu]], the sacred area of the men. They were mainly associated with procreation. Sources relating to the South Saami region (Trøndelag) describe the activities of these divinities as follows: When <I>Raedie</I> had created the human soul, he sent it to <I>Maadteraajja</I>, who in turn handed it over to his daughters, of whom <I>Saarahka</I> was the actual goddess of pregnancy and birth (Human being). <I>Joeksaahka</I> helped and protected women in birth-giving, and she was capable of changing a girl child in the womb into a boy if she was properly propitiated with sacrifices. The connection of <I>Joeksaahka</I> with hunting is already apparent from her name, and she was connected with the God of Hunting Leaibolmmái, to whose protection she entrusted a baby boy after birth. The duties of <I>Oksaahka</I> included watching over babies from the time they were born to when they began to walk. In the North Saami areas of Finland, only <I>Máttaráhkká</I> was known, not her daughters, although according to nineteenth-century sources a divinity called <I>Sáráhkká</I> was known in Sweden; she was believed to dwell beside the fireplace. In the late Saami tradition there existed a syncretic <I>Sáráhkká</I> cult that conformed to the model of Christian practices, and which was not associated with women alone but was also favoured by men. </P>
<P align="justify"> The gods of the underworld included [[Jábmiidáhkka (engl. ver.)|<I>Jábmiidáhkká</I>]], the Ruler of the Underworld (Death and the dead) and [[Ruto]], the God of Pestilence. [[Jábmiidáhkka (engl. ver.)|<I>Jábmiidáhkká</I>]] was the major female underworld divinity, and while she allowed the souls of the departed to spread grave diseases among the living, she was also the ruler of a place that resembled the world above, and which was thus more or less a happy one. <I>Ruto</I> was a powerful enemy of man, even of shamans, and indeed of other divinities. The symbol of <I>Ruto</I> on the shaman's drum is interpreted as being the horse, which was foreign to Saami culture, and which the Saami are known to have made sacrifices to. Because of the horse sacrifices and the horse symbolism, <I>Ruto</I> has been considered an imported element in the Saami pantheon. Older scholarly literature linked <I>Ruto</I> with the Scandinavian god <I>Odin</I>. However, it is possible to find direct counterparts of <I>Ruto</I> among the Finnic peoples of Siberia. </P>
<P align="justify"> It is difficult, and to some extent arbitrary, to draw a line between gods and other supernatural creatures, and it is based merely on convention. For the Saami, this world and the supernatural generally constituted a continuum rather than a Western type of dichotomy between the secular and the sacred. Close to the worldly end of the continuum there existed all kinds of visible and invisible fellow creatures, whose acknowledgement often required no more than ordinary observance; in the middle of the continuum were the shines with their powerful spirits who nevertheless still assumed partly human features. In the present context, gods are considered to be those invisible powers located at the other end of the continuum, beings who could only be approached with prayers and sacrifices. </P><BR><BR>
[[Table of contents: Saami Pre-Christian world view, mythology and folklore|Table of contents: Saami Pre-Christian world view, mythology and folklore]]<BR><BR>thology and folklore]]<BR><BR> +
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