The Power of Words: Studies on Charms and Charming in Europe

Chapter XII “Dear Merciful Mother”: The Virgin Mary in Finnish and Karelian Birth Incantations

Chapter XII “Dear Merciful Mother”: The Virgin Mary in Finnish and Karelian Birth Incantations Maarit Viljakainen In her monograph Mythic Images (Siikala 2002), Anna-Leena Siikala points out that in order to perform a task successfully, a tietäjä, a specialist in a rite tradition, summons her or his assistants in the form of various supernatural beings. Siikala analyses a bathing formula recorded by Elias Lönnrot from a well-known tietäjä, Juhana Kainulainen , in Kesälahti, Finnish North Karelia, in 1828. There can be no doubt that some of the most eloquent and wide-ranging appeals for assistance in Finnish incantation materials are to be found in Kainulainen ’s incantation. It should be noted that the incantation is really long, over 300 verses. While healing his patient, Kainulainen turned to Christian helpers and certain higher beings from within the sphere of ethnic religion. He calls upon Väinämöinen, Päivätär, “the old woman Kaveh”, also known as Luonnotar, a female nature deity, and Louhi, “Mistress of Pohjola”, for help. Kainulainen’s incantation also includes a demand for help addressed to the dead and to demons. Siikala points out that we may assume that, being a singer of epic poetry, Kainulainen applied characters familiar from the epic to his incantations (Siikala 2002, 196–8). The bathing formula recorded from Kainulainen is constructed almost entirely around the episodes invoking the helpers. In his incantation , the tietäjä begs for help and cries for protection from Jesus “my master” and Mary “my mistress”. He needs help “in this task most toilsome, in this casting most difficult” (tässä työssä työlähässä, valanteissa vaikiassa). The tietäjä turns frequently to his helpers “if there is not man in me, to complete this tiring task” (un ei liene 266 THE POWER OF WORDS minussa miestä, tämän jakson jaksaoa). Siikala notes that the order of the requests for help does not on the surface appear to adhere to any clear schema. For example, the Virgin Mary, “motherly one, pure and shapely mistress” (emonen, puhas muori muollinen), is appealed to time and again, both at the beginning and the end of the incantation . Although Kainulainen does seek help from several figures in more or less the same way, the various supernatural beings were not equally important to the tietäjä or capable of providing assistance in the same way. Siikala asks the following questions: Which being was appealed to in which context? How was the request or demand for help presented? What type of influences was each supernatural being thought capable of exerting? (Siikala 2002, 196–99) The incantation recorded from Juhana Kainulainen and Siikala’s analysis and questions have inspired my own research work. In this paper, I take a closer look at the Virgin Mary in Finnish-Karelian birth incantations. My focus is on the incantation texts, particularly on the texts in which Mary is mentioned. The questions asked here include the following: What kind of divine birth assistant is Mary? How is Mary described in incantation verses? How is Mary asked for help? What kind of help is asked for? According to Senni Timonen, certain features occur in poetry throughout Karelia. For example, the Virgin Mary is everywhere. Timonen points out that Mary has acquired sharply contrasting interpretations in different traditions of the church and people. All the canonical images of Mary have existed in Karelia side by side, overlapping , merging and at times quite separate from one another, and in their numerous transformations they have passed into popular belief. Although the Reformation ended the veneration of Mary in western Finland and Finnish North Karelia during the seventeenth century, numerous indications of Mary’s medieval glory can be found even in the twentieth century. In Orthodox Karelia, popular worship of Mary survived uninterrupted alongside the official faith from the Middle Ages until the twentieth century (Timonen 1994, 301–2). Timonen points out that study of the Karelian material reveals two main types of tradition associated with Mary: one recorded among Orthodox believers, the other among Lutherans. In both traditions, in western Finland and among Swedish-speaking Finns, healers invoked Mary’s help. In western Finland, incantations appealing to Mary are 267 “Dear Merciful Mother” short and refer to her from a relative distance, as a memory. Further east, however, Marian themes and motifs increase in variety and number. Timonen points out...