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The Great Oak: an Annual Calendric and Agricultural Fertility Myth of the Baltic Finns

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The Great Oak: an Annual Calendric and Agricultural Fertility Myth of the Baltic Finns Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, Vol. 14, No 3, pp. 319-330 Copyright © 2014 MAA Printed in Greece. All rights reserved. THE GREAT OAK: AN ANNUAL CALENDRIC AND AGRICULTURAL FERTILITY MYTH OF THE BALTIC FINNS M. Ridderstad Division of Geophysics and Astronomy, Department of Physics, University of Helsinki ([email protected]) ABSTRACT ‘The Great Oak’ is one of the most important myths presented in the poetry of the Bal- tic Finns. The contents of the myth have been formed and reformed in various cultural environments during many different historical periods. In this paper, the myth is ana- lysed and its historical development is reconstructed by investigating its details and by comparing it to other similar myths and the known history of the Finnic peoples. It is shown that ‘The Great Oak’ is mainly a calendric and agricultural fertility myth related to the annual solar and vegetation cycle. Certain mythemes encountered in many variants of the poem reveal that it was related to slash-and-burn cultivation and the success of the annual agricultural yield, the measure of which was the production of beer for festival and ritual use. It turns out that the poem was sung on the fields of Ritvala in Tavastia in the rites held between the start of the sowing season in May and the midsummer. It is thus shown that the concrete use of the poem was connected to the annual rituals per- formed to ensure agricultural fertility. KEYWORDS: myth of the Great Oak, Finnic mythology, calendric myths, cycle of the year, solar mythology 320 M. RIDDERSTAD 1. INTRODUCTION signs of the spread of Christianity appear The ancient calendars and the astronom- in Southern Finland (Purhonen 1998). Both ical and calendric mythology of the Finnic Finland and Carelia were Christian by the peoples living around the Baltic Sea can be end of the 14th century, although the pre- reconstructed from historical and ethno- Christian religion still continued to thrive, graphical sources (e.g., Vilkuna 1950; mixed with Christian influences, until the Lintrop 1999; Koivulehto 2000; Siikala 2012; 17th century in Western Finland and until Ridderstad 2014a, 2014b). The central as- the 19th century in Eastern Finland (Siikala tronomically themed mythology related to 1992: 288-291). The Finnic ethnic mytholo- the annual calendric cycle and the celestial gy and poetry recorded during the 16th- bodies includes well-known myths such as 20th centuries was very similar to the one The Great Oak, The Robbery of Sampo, The that had been created during the Medieval Liberation of the Sun, The Wedding of Päivölä, Catholic period before the Reformation in and The Birth of the Bear. the 16th century. To understand the development of the The myths, i.e., the poetry citing the calendric myths of the Finnic peoples it is myths presented in this paper, were writ- first necessary to briefly review the history ten down mostly in the 19th century. Be- of these peoples, as it is currently known, fore this, they were in a constant state of based on historical records as well as lin- change. The myths were always reinter- guistic, genetic and archaeological studies. preted and new relations were built, lead- According to the present knowledge, the ing to the relatively young age of some im- Finno-Ugric peoples lived roughly in the portant themes present in the mythology, area between the mid-Urals and the eastern while some of the mythological content end of the Bay of Finland until the Bronze likely has very distant origins both in place Age (Häkkinen 2010a, and references there- and in time. Some mythemes could be as in). During this period, their contacts with old as Neolithic, even Mesolithic or Paleo- various Indo-European peoples were al- lithic. Mostly, however, the Finnic mythol- ready extensive. It is currently not known ogy probably contains themes that were whether the Finno-Ugric peoples had any created during the period when agriculture direct contact with the Paleo-European was known and practised, i.e., from the late peoples inhabiting the area of Finland until Neolithic or the start of the Bronze Age (ca. the Bronze Age. The speakers of the early 2000 BCE-1800 BCE) to the late medieval Samí languages first entered Finland in the times (ca. 1200-1550 CE in Finland). early Iron Age from ca. 500 BCE on (Häk- Thus, there are several different layers of kinen 2010a, 2010b). They were followed traditions of different ages present in the by the Finnic peoples, who spread from the Finnic mythology. There also seem to be area of present Estonia and the eastern end many layers in the ancient calendric system of the Bay of Finland to the northern side of of the Finnic peoples. For example, the an- the Bay ca. 1-300 CE. Tavastia, the inland cient Finnish year could be divided into southern Finland was settled by these peo- months or other periods in more than one ples ca. 300-500 CE. Germanic peoples way. The most important of these were the probably inhabited the southern coastal common Indo-European concept of the Finland several times from the Bronze Age eight-divided solar year with the division (1500 BCE-500 BCE) until the start of the points being the two solstices, the equinox- Viking Age, ca. 700-800 CE. During the Vi- es and the four mid-quarter days between king Age, many regions of the coastal Fin- these, and the ancient Finnic division of the land were abandoned while, simultaneous- year into two halves by the ‘Bear Days’ of ly, Scandinavian influences seem to have Midwinter and the Midsummer, and again intensified (see, e.g., Kivikoski 1951). At the into summer and winter halves by the end of the Viking Age ca. 1000 CE, clear Summer and Winter Nights, all of which were determined by the seasonal changes © University of the Aegean, 2014, Mediterranean Archaeology & Archaeometry, 14, 3 (2014) 319-330 THE GREAT OAK: AN ANNUAL CALENDRIC AND FERTILITY MYTH 321 and the lunar calendar (see Vilkuna 1950: tence of myths and mythemes is probably 104-105, 283-285). Naturally, there were related to the universality of the mental also local variations in the calendric tradi- imagery encountered in them; that also en- tions and the related mythology concern- ables them to cross temporal, cultural and ing the cycle of the year. language barriers more easily. By tracing In this paper, a central myth related to the central themes and mythemes and their the annual calendric cycle of the ancient mutual temporal order one may recon- Finnic peoples, the myth of the Great Oak struct the historical development of a myth is discussed. The content, age and origins to some degree. of The Great Oak are analysed and traced It is obvious that the history of every using not only the myth itself, but also myth is extremely complex and investigat- some other related calendric myths. It turns ing its history is an immense task. A myth out that several layers can be recognized in has been in a constant state of alteration the myth that can be related to some major during all of its history, so usually no first cultural developments among the Finnic or ‘original’ version of a myth can in prac- peoples and their ancestors. It also turns tice be reconstructed – every version of the out that this myth can be related to similar myth is an ‘altered’ version. Therefore, the annual ritual use in agricultural fertility comparison of several different myths with rites, as has been previously demonstrated similar themes greatly enhances the possi- in the case of the myth of the Robbery of bilities for associating the myths with cor- Sampo. rect cultural developments and historical 2. METHODS periods. If a myth can be shown to have had a To investigate the origins of the myths definite connection to or even a concrete and their mutual relations one must con- use in a ritual, a celebration, a ceremony, sider the way myths are created, sustained, etc., that connection will lead to the inter- and changed. Every myth is related to the pretation of the myth in the culture in features of the culture it was created question. For example, a cosmic creation and/or used in. A myth and its central myth could be sung or performed in mythemes, which are the minimal units or founding ceremonies, a vegetation myth kernels of the myth, can often be related to could be performed during agricultural some central cultural feature(s) of a period, fertility rites, the creation myth of an ani- e.g., the need for achieving agricultural fer- mal species can be performed during hunt- tility or successful hunting; the basis for ing rituals, and so on. Thus, a valid proof certain practices in wedding ceremonies, that a myth is related to certain cultural trading customs, or the social relations be- features can be obtained via recorded his- tween persons in different social orders; torical use of the myth in rituals. and so on. Often the traces of the previous In the following, I will try to shed some versions of a myth, related to the central light on the annual calendric mythology of cultural features of preceding cultural pe- the Baltic Finns by analysing the Finnic riods or other cultures may also be seen in myth of the Great Oak and tracing the pur- the myth. It can be observed that when a pose it served in the late Iron Age and his- culture changes, so does its mythology: the torical times. I will investigate its historical myths may be reinterpreted, acquire new developments, connect it to some im- content, or be combined.
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