Spirits, Devils, and Fugitive Soldiers

RUSSIAN KARELIA (the former Olonets and Arkhangel provinces) with its immense forests has been admirably suited for the sojourn of the fairies and good and evil spirits. And, as a matter of fact, they did live there undisturbed, giving only now and then signs of their presence to the inhabitants of the neighborhood. They had more intimate relations only with herdsmen, hunters, and fishermen, with whom they shared the common area of interest-the forest and its immediate surroundings. The activity directed against the religious and superstitious beliefs during the decades of the Soviet domination has scared the supernatural beings into the depth of the forests, where they show themselves to just a few old people. The outer appearance of the fairies and spirits in Russian Karelia and adjacent areas in Finnish Karelia has a feature that merits special attention: they have big buttons on their clothing. These buttons gleam in the sun and moon and make the spirits look like soldiers. Extensive data about the buttons is to be found in the memorates in the Finnish Folklore Archives (Helsinki), recorded from persons who themselves came into contact with the spirits or received their information from trustworthy sources. As the following excerpts from the memorates indicate, the gleaming buttons belong especially often to the costume of the forest spirits

Archaeology · Art · Fugitive emissions · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · Geology · Historical and Archaeological Studies · History · Oceanography · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices