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Frogs in Miniature Coffins from Churches in Finland
Folk Magic in Christian Holy Places*
Sonja Hukantaival
Introduction
Curious discoveries were made during renovation work of two Eastern
Finnish churches in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Several
tens of miniature wooden coffins with the remains of a frog inside were
found under the church floors. However, after the immediate media buzz
had blown over, these finds were soon largely forgotten. The ethnologist U.
T. Sirelius was the first scholar to briefly mention these finds in his article
about Finnish magic objects published in 1906.1 He explained that the frog
coffins were a part of fishing magic aimed at stealing the luck of the catch
from more fortunate fishermen. He also published a drawing of one of the
frog coffins that had been found. The few later mentions have been similarly
brief, and often simply repeat this notion.2
In this paper, I introduce a more comprehensive view of the
phenomenon. This is done by gathering and presenting the information on
actual finds of miniature coffins from churches and by studying late
nineteenth-century folklore on magic practices involving these objects
collected for the Folklore Archives of the Finnish Literature Society (FLS FA)
in Helsinki. This folklore shows that the practices involving a buried or
concealed miniature coffin are basically quite similar, but there is also
variation in both form and meaning. It should be noted that the place where
the coffin is buried or concealed as a part of these rituals varies greatly in the
folklore, and thus the church or churchyard is only one possibility. Since the
*
The author would like to express gratitude to Raila Kataja from the National Museum of Finland, Helka
Väisänen from Kuopio Museum, Jari Uimonen from the Evangelical Lutheran congregation of Jyväskylä,
and The Turku Cathedral Museum for information about the found miniature coffins. The language of the
article was revised by Jyri Kokkonen.
1
Uuno Taavi Sirelius, ‘Muutamista suomalaisten taikakaluista’, Virittäjä 10: 3-4 (1906), 33–40, at 38.
2
E.g. Uuno Taavi Sirelius, ‘Varautuminen: Taika- ja varausneuvot’, in U. T. Sirelius, Suomen
kansanomaista kulttuuria: Esineellisen kansatieteen tuloksia II, Otava: Helsinki 1921, 554–561, at 559;
Raila Kataja, ‘Kuopion tuomiokirkon sammakkoarkut’, Kuukauden Esine Helmikuu 2008, Suomen
Kansallismuseo: Helsinki, http://www.nba.fi/fi/kansallismuseo/kokoelmat/kuukauden_esine_2008/arkku
(last consulted 8.1.2013).
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latter are the locations where finds of miniature coffins have been reported, I
will concentrate here on these contexts.
The information on reported finds of miniature coffins is largely
based on newspaper articles written shortly after the discoveries, since only
a few of the discovered coffins were preserved. Additionally, I have used
correspondence between parish offices and museum authorities, and
recorded first-hand oral accounts describing the finding of these coffins
during renovation work. In the case of the few preserved coffins the main
sources of information are the museum catalogues and, naturally, the objects
themselves.
Before I move on to present the available data, I briefly discuss
theoretical issues of the main concepts relevant to this study, and the multi-
source methodology that I use. The concepts that are essential for discussing
these finds are firstly ‘magic’, which has already appeared in this paper, and
the broader concept of ‘folk religion’, which includes ‘magic’ as discussed
here. ‘Witchcraft’ is the third key term, and it is here understood as one form
of ‘magic’.
Since these finds are from churches belonging to the Christian
(Lutheran) faith, one of the main interests of this study is the dynamic
relationship between ‘folk religion’ and the ‘official’ religion. Other
questions discussed are the internal logic guiding these practices, how they
fit into the world view of the people, and in particular the purposes and
meanings of the rituals that involved them. In the light of the folklore, it is
apparent that the most common purpose of the miniature burial was to
punish a witch who was held responsible for an occurred misfortune by
manipulating the sympathetic link between a magic worker and his/her
magic.
Folk religion, magic, and witchcraft
The essentially abstract categories of religion, ritual, and magic are all
difficult, if not impossible, to define in any universal way that would satisfy
every scholar. This issue has been recurrently discussed in academia, and I
have also briefly reviewed this debate in a previous paper.3 My conclusion
was that the main problem lies within the relationship of reality and
language, where language is always a simplification of complex reality.
3
Sonja Hukantaival, ‘Understanding Past Actions – Changing Attitudes towards Ritual, Religion, and
Everyday Life’. Interarchaeologia 5 (in press); see also e.g. Jack Goody, ‘Religion and Ritual: The
Definitional Problem’, The British Journal of Sociology 12 (1961), 142–164; Dorothy Hammond,
‘Magic: A Problem in Semantics’, American Anthropologist 72 (1970), 1349–1356; Michael D. Bailey,
‘The Meanings of Magic’, Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 1 (2006), 1–23.
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Acknowledging this fact, it is fruitful to view categories less strictly,
allowing them to have dynamic borders.
I prefer simple definitions of terms, and thus, following the sociologist
Steve Bruce, I understand ‘religion’ as beliefs, practices, and institutions that
assume the existence of ‘supernatural’ agency.4 The notion of ‘supernatural’
makes this definition problematic, since a division of ‘worldly’ and
‘otherworldly’ existence may not apply in all cultural contexts. However, in
this particular case the definition is quite sufficient. 5 ‘Folk religion’ (also
called popular or vernacular religion), then, is one aspect of religion.
Quoting the folklorist Don Yoder: ‘Folk religion is the totality of all those
views and practices of religion that exist among the people apart from and
alongside the strictly theological and liturgical forms of the official religion.’6
Defined in this way, folk religion cannot exist without the relationship
to an ‘official’, institutionalized religion. In this case the official religion is,
naturally, Christianity; more precisely Lutheranism, and in a few cases
Russian Orthodoxy. Still, the relationship between official religion and folk
religion should not be seen as a dichotomy, and it is also important to realize
that folk religion does not equal pre-Christian religion. The folklorist Laura
Stark explains this complex relationship as follows:
[...] folk religion represents neither Christianity’s ‘contamination’ of
ethnic folk belief nor the ‘misinterpretation’ of Christianity by the
non-literate rural populace, but a functional system in which the most
useful elements of each belief system are adopted and fashioned into a
syncretic whole.7
The ‘magic’ discussed here is a part of folk religion, since it utilizes
‘otherworldly’ powers in a way not approved by the official theology.
‘Magic’ can be understood as goal-directed practice, but it is essentially a
specific understanding of causality. Even though many attitudes towards
magic in the classic studies of the late nineteenth – early twentieth century
by for example James George Frazer and Marcel Mauss are hopelessly
outdated, the principles of sympathetic magic outlined by them are still
relevant; they can even be regarded as fundamental structures of human
4
Steve Bruce, Religion in Modern Britain, Oxford University Press: Oxford 1995, ix.
5
About supernatural/otherworldly in Finnish folk religion see e.g. Kaarina Koski, ‘“Outoa tuntematonta
väkeä”: Näkökulmia väkeen tuonpuoleisen edustajana’, Elore 10 (2003),
http://www.elore.fi/arkisto/1_03/kos103a.html (last consulted 10.1.2014); Laura Stark, The Magical Self:
Body, Society and the Supernatural in Early Modern Rural Finland (FF Communications 290), Academia
Scientiarum Fennica: Helsinki 2006.
6
Don Yoder, ‘Toward a Definition of Folk Religion’, Western Folklore 33 (1974), 2–15, at 14.
7
Laura Stark, Peasants, Pilgrims, and Sacred Promises – Ritual and the Supernatural in Orthodox
Karelian Folk Religion (Studia Fennica Folkloristica 11), Finnish Literature Society: Helsinki 2002, 30.
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cognition. 8 The notion that magic is often believed to work through a
sympathetic connection between objects that have been in contact or simply
resemble each other is evident. Also the idea that a part represents the whole
(pars pro toto) is well documented.
The practitioner of magic manipulates these representative parts or
images in an attempt to produce desired effects in the represented whole
through this link between things. Magic, however, is not believed to simply
be a result of mechanical cause and effect: The intention of the practitioner
guides the effect, and many ‘otherworldly’ powers or entities may be
utilized or persuaded to contribute to the cause. The internal logic is not
quite this apparent in all magic. However, in the case of the miniature
coffins it seems that the laws of sympathy combined with a notion of
otherworldly power/agency (namely the väki belief9) are sufficient grounds
for understanding the practices, as will be discussed below.
Witchcraft and sorcery are in scholarly contexts often defined as
malicious magic (maleficum) seeking to cause harm,10 though some studies
also do use them as synonyms for magic.11 While a clear-cut division where
witchcraft always refers to malicious magic is very much a construct of
scholars, I have nonetheless adopted this use of the concept here. In practice,
a line between harmful and beneficial magic cannot be easily drawn, since
the impact may have differed depending on whose viewpoint is taken into
account. Some very extreme magic measures could also have been perceived
as morally acceptable in the community if the deed was thought to be
justified.12
In order to comprehend the practices involving a miniature burial, it
is crucial to realize how powerful the belief in magical harm has been. Laura
Stark’s study on the magical world view of early modern rural Finland gives
very good insight into this aspect. In a world where the possibility of magic
impact was widely accepted, stories about magic skills were a form of social
currency which produced real effects in everyday life. 13 The suspected
8
James George Frazer, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, abridged edn., Papermac:
London 1992, 11–48; Marcel Mauss, A General Theory of Magic (Routledge Classics), Routledge: New
York 2006; Jesper Sørensen, A Cognitive Theory of Magic (Cognitive Science of Religion Series),
AltaMira: Lanham 2007, 95.
9
As is discussed below, väki refers to both personal and impersonal (otherworldly) agency. See e.g.
Koski 2003; Kaarina Koski, ‘Conceptual Analysis and Variation in Belief Tradition: A Case of Death-
Related Beings’, Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore 38 (2008), 45–66,
http://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol38/koski.pdf (last consulted 4.3.2014); Stark 2006, 258–262.
10
See e.g. Jari Eilola, Rajapinnoilla: sallitun ja kielletyn määritteleminen 1600-luvun jälkipuoliskon
noituus- ja taikuustapauksissa (Bibliotheca Historica 81), Finnish Literature Society: Helsinki 2003, 50–
186.
11
See e.g. Stephen Mitchell, Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages, University of
Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia 2011, 14.
12
Stark 2006, 180–186, 194.
13
Stark 2006, 445.
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witches were members of the community, neighbours, with whom
disagreements or other social tension had escalated. When someone
suddenly fell ill, or some other kind of misfortune occurred, the reason was
readily attributed to evil thoughts, curses, or actions by an envious, or
otherwise malicious, neighbour.14
I have briefly discussed the multidisciplinary approach to matters of
folk religion that I prefer in my studies in a previously published paper.15
Perhaps a more accurate label would be a multi-source method, since I use
different source materials, while still treating them from an archaeological
perspective (even though I am also trained in folkloristics and comparative
religion). In any case, this method calls for a good understanding of how the
various source materials have formed, and the critical issues related to them.
In this study, the actual objects, the written documents and the folklore
accounts are treated as equally important, if dissimilar, sources for gaining
understanding of the phenomenon at hand.
Next, I will firstly present the cases of miniature coffins discovered in
churches that have come to my attention, and then move on to review the
folklore accounts that tell of the practices involving such objects. As
mentioned above, one key source on the discovered coffins consists of old
newspaper articles. As always with media, there is the possibility that facts
have been misunderstood by the reporter, or they have been deliberately
sensationalized. Unfortunately, it seems that only nine of these coffins have
been preserved, and thus more precise studies of the actual number, content,
or material of all the coffins are not possible. However, the few preserved
objects do ascertain that the whole story of the miniature coffins is certainly
not a fantasy.
‘Curious’ finds from churches
The locations of the eight churches where miniature coffins have been
reported are shown in Map 1. Most of the sites are fairly close to each other
in Central and Eastern Finland, but as can be seen from the map, there are
also two exceptions. Table 1 summarizes the churches and their finds. Next,
I will present these cases individually in the order in which they appear in
the map and in the table.
14
Stark 2006, 163–253; also e.g. Eilola 2003, 256–302.
15
Sonja Hukantaival, ‘Finding Folk Religion – An Archaeology of ‘Strange’ Behaviour’, Folklore:
Electronic Journal of Folklore 55 (2013), 99–124, http://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol55/hukantaival.pdf
(last consulted 10.1.2014).
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Map 1. The locations where miniature coffins have been discovered in churches: 1)
Kuopio, 2) Tuusniemi, 3) Kiihtelysvaara, 4) Pielavesi, 5) Nilsiä, 6) Heinävesi, 7)
Turku, and 8) Bringetofta.
No. Church Finds
1 Kuopio Cathedral At least 32 miniature coffins; frogs, pieces
of fishing net, textile
2 Tuusniemi Church and Possibly up to 100 miniature coffins; frogs,
Bell Tower bedbugs, hair, grains
3 Kiihtelysvaara Church Four (?) miniature coffins; cat, squirrels,
alder puppet
4 Pielavesi Old Church Miniature coffin; alder-puppet / bound
frogs, birch-bark puppets
5 Nilsiä Old Church Miniature coffin; frog, piece of fishing net,
textile
6 Heinävesi Old Church Miniature coffin; frog, piece of fishing net
7 Turku Cathedral Miniature coffin; frog, textile
8 Bringetofta Church (Swe.) Miniature coffin; bat, textile
Table 1. The churches where miniature coffins have been reported.
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Kuopio Cathedral
The newspaper Savo-Karjala wrote in July 1895 that 26 wooden miniature
coffins had been found during renovation work under the floor of Kuopio
Cathedral’s choir. 16 Kuopio is the central town of the eastern Finnish
province of Northern Savo, and the stone Cathedral was consecrated in
1816.17 According to the newspaper report, the coffins were found when the
floor of the choir was opened, and they had obviously been pushed there
through the ventilation hatches in the foundation with long poles over a
lengthy period.
The newspaper report explains that the small, c. 17 cm-long, coffins
were made of alder with a lid of aspen. Inside the coffins were the remains
of a frog to which a piece of linen cloth and a piece of net had been attached
with a needle. Most of the coffins were already decomposing but some were
still intact and one was even quite fresh. The workers assumed that the frog
coffins were a part of fishing magic; one boy had known that those who had
concealed them were ‘not from far away’ and that it was envious fishermen
who concealed these coffins in order to harm each other. The newspaper
report concluded with an appalled remark about such superstitious
practices existing in the centre of civilization in Northern Savo.
Fig 1. The coffin found in 1895
in Kuopio Cathedral and kept
in the National Museum (KM F
1253). Photo by Timo Syrjänen
(1985), National Board of
Antiquities. Copyright
restricted.
The most recently deposited
coffin was kept. According
to the newspaper Päivälehti, it was displayed in November 1895 at the
monthly meeting of the Finnish Literature Society in Helsinki. 18 At this point
it is mentioned that there had been 30 coffins altogether, but this could be a
rounded figure. This coffin is one of the two that ended up in the National
Museum in Helsinki (see Fig. 1). The other one was delivered to the museum
two years later in 1897. According to the museum catalogue, the later one
was a new find, but its discovery does not seem to have aroused similar
16
‘Kummallisia löytöjä Kuopion tuomiokirkosta’, Savo-Karjala 72 (10.7.1895), 3.
17
Bruno Granit-Ilmoniemi, Kuopion kirkko 1815–1915, Kirjapaino Sanan valta Oy: Kuopio 1915, 37.
18
‘Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuran’, Päivälehti 259 (7.11.1895), 3.
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interest in the media as two years earlier, when the report summarized
above was reposted in numerous newspapers around the country.
However, when five additional coffins were discovered in 1901 the
newspapers were again interested. I have translated here the brief report
published in Savo-Karjala in its entirety, since it also gives a good impression
of how these finds were perceived by the media when discovered:
Five small, c. 15 cm-long, coffins each with a frog and a piece of seine
net inside have again been found in the stone foundation of the
church during the repairs and painting of the cathedral of our town.
Similar finds were discovered about five years ago also when the
church was being renovated. Judging by the number of caskets now
found, one frog sacrifice per year was made since then, to who knows
what guardian spirit in the search of luck or whatever. It is truly
miserable and pitiable that such superstition still lives on, such
disgusting and also childishly ridiculous work of an ignorant
magician!19
Fig. 2. The second frog from
Kuopio Cathedral in the
National Museum (KM 3442).
The mouth of the frog appears
to have been stitched shut.
Photo: National Board of
Antiquities. Copyright
restricted.
Judging from this report it
seems that all five newly discovered coffins were fresh ones, concealed
between the years 1895 and 1901. This idea, however, could simply come
from the number of finds. The newspaper Uusi Savo gives some additional
information, noting that the coffins were ‘in the same place as the older
finds’, specifically under the floor of the women’s side (the north side) of the
church. This observation was not mentioned in the earliest report, but Uusi
Suometar, which was one of the few papers that did not simply repost the
Savo-Karjala report, reveals that this was the case.20 The letter in Uusi Savo
also mentions that the newly found coffins were planned to be kept in the
local museum.21
19
‘Löytöjä’, Savo-Karjala 80 (19.7.1901), 2.
20
‘Pakanuus’, Uusi Suometar 157 (11.7.1895), at 2.
21
Olli, ‘Kirje Kuopiosta’, Uusi Savo 82 (20.7.1901), at 2.
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The Kuopio Museum has the information that these coffins were discovered,
but apparently the objects did not end up there. However, one coffin from
Kuopio Cathedral was delivered to the museum in 1900. This 17 cm-long
coffin contains the dried remains of a frog.22 The two coffins kept in the
National Museum in Helsinki have been briefly presented by Raila Kataja in
2008 on the museum’s web pages. Both coffins are made of alder and there is
a frog inside. The frog was either wrapped in pieces of fishing net, or the net
was put under the head of the frog. There are three pieces of net or fabric in
each coffin. In both cases the frog was impaled with a needle with some
white thread in it.23 An old photograph taken of the 1897 coffin suggests that
the frog’s mouth was stitched shut with the thread before impaling the
animal with the needle (see Fig 2.).
Tuusniemi Church
In 1907 several dozen frog coffins were found during renovation work in the
Church of Tuusniemi in Northern Savo some 40 kilometres directly east of
Kuopio. This wooden church was built in 1869. 24 The newspaper Savotar
reported that the coffins were discovered when the foundation of the church
was repaired. Also these coffins had been put under the floor through
openings in the foundation. According to the newspaper, all the coffins
contained a frog, which was wrapped in fish net or fishing line and pinned
with a needle. The newspaper report also explains that these frog coffins
were sacrifices made by fishermen in order to obtain good fishing luck and
to protect their gear against the evil eye.25
It seems that this was actually not the first or last time when miniature
coffins were found at the site. I have found a first-hand folklore account
recorded in 1916 about previous finds from Tuusniemi in the Folklore
Archives. These were discovered in the bell tower built in 1818. 26 The
informant, Antti Heiskanen, who worked as the smith’s assistant when a
striker and base were made for the bell, remembers that several miniature
alder coffins with a frog, some bedbugs, animal hair, or grains inside them
were found in the space between the ceiling and roof of the bell tower. He
also mentions that the coffins may have been concealed in order to restore
luck for the growth of grain that had been spoiled through witchcraft.27 A
22
Catalogued KHMESIE 1689; Kuopio Museum amanuensis Helka Väisänen, pers. comm. 18.3.2014.
23
Kataja 2008; The one delivered to the museum in 1895 is catalogued as KM F 1253 and the one
delivered in 1897 is catalogued as KM 3442: 1.
24
Carolus Lindberg, Suomen kirkot: Maamme kirkkorakennuksia käsittelevä tietoteos, Kustantaja
Kuvataide: Helsinki 1934, 279.
25
‘Kummallisia löytöjä kirkon sillan alta’, Savotar 120 (19.10.1907), 3.
26
Lindberg 1934, 279.
27
Helsinki, FLS FA, Tuusniemi. Lönnbohm, O. A. F. b) 2905. 1916.
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new bell was installed in 1879,28 which means that the informant apparently
recalled events that had occurred almost 40 years earlier, unless a new base
and striker were made later as well. Nevertheless, the account seems sincere.
Another piece of oral history was recorded from sexton Tuomas
Voutilainen in the mid-1930s. He explains that five years earlier, when the
stone foundation of the church was repaired on the altar side, he carried
close to 70 miniature coffins from under the church floor to a place known as
Kanahauta29 close by the church. He had opened a couple of them and one
contained a dead frog wrapped in fishing net and a 5 penni coin with red
thread passing through a hole in it. He also mentions that the frog resembled
a miniature human corpse.30
Kiihtelysvaara Church
In 1931 some miniature coffins were found during renovation work in
Kiihtelysvaara Church in North Karelia. This is also a wooden church, which
was built in 1769–70. 31 In this case the newspaper Savo apparently
exaggerated the conditions of the find, since a letter written in 1933 by the
parish office to the museum authorities in Helsinki gives slightly different
details about the finds. The newspaper reports that two crucified squirrels
inside miniature aspen coffins were discovered under the floor of the
sacristy, and that this was done as a part of love magic in order to drive a
rival mad. A cat inside a coffin was also found in the space between the
ceiling and the roof, and a puppet made of a Y-shaped alder stick and wool
yarn. The newspaper report concludes with the remark that these finds may
be 150 years old, and they are clearly the work of professional witchdoctors
that were paid with barrels of grain for their help.32
A letter written two years later to the museum authorities shows a
less dramatic side of the story. Dean Juho Noponen who wrote the letter in
response to an enquiry explained that the carcass of a cat had been found
inside a hollowed alder trunk in the sealed space between the ceiling and
roof of the southern entrance hall. He continues that two squirrel carcasses
were found in the stone foundation of the church on the side of the altar.
They had been similarly ‘packed’ as the cat, and had probably been put
there when the church did not yet have a sacristy. A puppet made of
28
Aimo Junkkari, Tuusniemen kirkko, Kuopion ev.lut. seurakunnat: Kuopio 1989, 12,
http://www.tuusniemi.fi/Tiedostot/tuusniemen%20kirkko.pdf (last consulted 14.1.2014).
29
According to a local informant, Kyllikki Tourunen (6.3.2014), the Kanahauta (Chicken Grave) is a
deep natural pit near the church.
30
Helsinki, FLS FA, Tuusniemi. Räsänen, Otto. KRK 118: 131. 1935–6.
31
Lindberg 1934, 98–99.
32
‘Merkillisiä löytöjä Kiihtelysvaaralla’, Savo 188 (15.7.1931).
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woollen yarn had also been found in this place. The architect Rancken had
discussed these finds with some antiquarians, who had told him that only
the puppet was of any interest, the letter explains. However, this puppet
could no longer be found. The carcasses had been thrown away, but first the
finds had been photographed33, and the coffins were kept by the dean.34
The coffins were delivered to the National Museum of Finland. They
are very roughly made, 40–45 cm long pieces of hollowed alder trunks.
There are three of them, all similar, and it seems that one of them belonged
to the puppet. It also seems that the larger trunk where the cat had been was
not kept after all. This inconsistency was noticed by the antiquarians, but
they never received an answer from the dean when inquiring about it.35
The Old Church of Pielavesi
The fourth church where miniature coffins have been reported is the old
church of Pielavesi in Northern Savo. This wooden church, situated on an
island in Lake Pielavesi, was in use from 1797 until it was dismantled in
1882.36 According to an account in the Dialect Archives of the Institute for
the Languages of Finland recorded in 1933 two miniature coffins were found
between the stones on the north side in the church’s foundation. This
account was published by Tenka (formerly Touko) Issakainen:
The experience of the pastor’s son Svante J. Hornborg (1860–1928) was
recalled and recorded by his nephew after his death. The c. 20 cm-
long coffins had a human figure carved from alder inside. The figure
had eyes made from tin and a cross on the chest. On top of the cross
was a coin. The coin and cross were fastened on the figure with red
thread.37
33
The photograph has been published in Ilma Vatanen, ‘Kiihtelysvaaran kotiseutumuseon syntyvaiheet’,
in M. Peltonen ed., Kiihtelysvaara ennen ja nyt, Kiihtelysvaaran kunta ja seurakunta: Kiihtelysvaara
1977, 167–173, at 172; and Jari Uimonen, Kirkko vaaralla – keskellä kylää. Kiihtelysvaaran
seurakuntaelämää 1500-luvulta tähän päivään, Kiihtelysvaara-Seura ry.: Kiihtelysvaara 2003, 15.
34
Helsinki, National Board of Antiquities, Topographic Historical Archive, Kiihtelysvaara.
35
Helsinki, National Museum of Finland, Main catalogue, KM 7604: 1–3.
36
Marja Terttu Knapas, ’Pielaveden kirkot’, in M. T. Knapas ed., Ylä-Savon kirkot, (Suomen kirkot –
Finlands kyrkor 19), National Board of Antiquities: Helsinki 1993, 67–98, at 68–71.
37
Touko Issakainen, ‘Taikatekstien arkistokontekstit ja hermeneuttinen tutkimusote’, in T. Kurki ed.,
Kansanrunousarkisto, lukijat ja tulkinnat, Finnish Literature Society: Helsinki 2004, 111–137, at 132–
133; Touko Issakainen, ‘“Vainajien lapset”. Taikaesineet ajassa’, Ennen ja nyt 2 (2006), at 5,
http://www.ennenjanyt.net/2006_2/issakainen.pdf (16.1.2014); Tenka Issakainen, Tavallista taikuutta.
Tulkinta suomalaisten taikojen merkityksistä Mikko Koljosen osaamisen valossa, (Annales Universitatis
Turkuensis C 347) University of Turku: Turku 2012, 140,
http://www.doria.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/84792/AnnalesC347Issakainen.pdf?sequence=1 (last
consulted 16.1.2014).
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Even though these coffins had been found by the informant’s uncle, it seems
that he may have kept them and showed them to the nephew, since the
description is so detailed. It is naturally also possible that parts of this
account come from the nephew’s imagination, but magic practices involving
similar alder puppets are nevertheless well known, 38 making the account
perfectly plausible.
For example, a similar alder puppet bound with red thread and put
inside a miniature alder coffin has been reported to have been found in the
eighteenth century in the Liperi churchyard in North Karelia. 39 Also
Issakainen writes about alder puppets found outside the church; in Karttula
in Northern Savo. They were found in the 1870s and one of them is kept in
the National Museum.40
Another piece of oral history explains that when the old church of
Pielavesi was demolished, some human figures made of birch bark and frogs
bound with thread, strips of textile, or birch bark were found under the
church floor. The account explains that they had been put there as part of
magic practices. The human figures were small, c. 10–20 cm long. 41 This
account was recorded in the mid-1930s, with approximately 50 years
between the record and the find event. However, in the light of these two
pieces of oral history, it seems clear that some magic artefacts were found
when this church was dismantled.
The Old Churches of Nilsiä and Heinävesi
There is also oral history recorded in the 1930s concerning finds from the old
church of Nilsiä in Northern Savo and the old church of Heinävesi in
Southern Savo. The old church of Nilsiä was in use from 1797 to 1906, and it
was dismantled in 1915.42 According to an account in the Folklore Archives,
a miniature coffin containing a frog was found under the altar during the
dismantling work. The account also mentions that this coffin is kept in the
Kuopio Museum.43 The coffin is in fact part of the collections of the Kuopio
Museum, and it is kept in the small local museum in Nilsiä. According to the
museum catalogue, this 17 cm-long coffin made of birch contained a frog, a
38
See e.g. Matti Kuusi, ’Pohjoispohjalaista taikuutta kahden vuosisadan takaa’, in M. Kuusi,
Perisuomalaista ja kansainvälistä (Tietolipas 99), Finnish Literature Society: Helsinki 1985, 22–44, at
39–44; Issakainen 2006; Juha Ruohonen, ’A Witch’s Coin from Tervo’, in J. Harjula, M. Helamaa & J.
Haarala eds., Times, Things & Places: 36 Essays for Jussi-Pekka Taavitsainen, J. P. Taavitsainen
Festschrift Committee: Turku 2011, 344–357, 350–354.
39
Ilmari Manninen, Liperin seurakunnan historia Ruotsin vallan aikana, (Suomen Kirkkohistoriallisen
Seuran Toimituksia XV), Suomen Kirkkohistoriallinen Seura: Helsinki 1917, 80.
40
Issakainen 2004, 133; 2006, 1.
41
Helsinki, FLS FA, Vehmersalmi. Airaksinen, Emil. KRK 91:73. 1935–6.
42
Lindberg 1934, 178.
43
Helsinki, FLS FA, Nilsiä. Pirinen, Kalle. KRK 112:14. 1935–6.
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piece of fishing net and a piece of linen fabric. It was found in 1912 under
Nilsiä Church. However, the contents of the coffin have been lost at some
stage and only the coffin remains.44
The old church of Heinävesi was in use from 1840 until it was burnt
down by lightning in 1887.45 An account in the Folklore Archives explains
that a miniature coffin containing a frog and a piece of seine net was found
in the stone foundation when it was taken apart. The account explains this as
an attempt to improve fishing luck.46
Turku Cathedral
The above presented sites are all situated on the eastern side of the border
between western and eastern Finnish cultures (see Map 2 below), but one
frog coffin has also been found in the south-western part of the country
known as Finland Proper. The Turku Cathedral, the medieval masonry
church where the find was discovered, is the national shrine of Finland. In
addition to the location, this find also differs from the above ones by its
slightly older date.
The miniature coffin was found inside the jamb of the portal of the
Tigerstedt-Wallenstierna chapel on the south side of the cathedral during
extensive renovation work in 1923–24. The c. 20 cm-long coffin is very
elaborately made from varnished pine with a strip of linen cloth glued to the
rim. The lid has been fastened with a nail in each end. There are three small
holes drilled in a horizontal line on both sides of the coffin. According to the
find information, a frog’s skeleton and a bundle of cloth were inside.
However, when the object was now taken from storage for examination, no
skeleton could be found. It must have been either removed at some stage or
it simply decomposed. Only a small piece of a bone that had stuck on the
cloth was discovered. According to archaeo-osteologist Auli Bläuer, the
piece of bone is certainly either from a frog or a lizard,47 which means that
the original observation of a frog is highly likely to be correct. There are two
pieces of white textile in a bundle inside the coffin: one larger piece of finer
linen or cotton cloth, and a smaller, rougher piece. There is an inscription on
the bottom of the coffin bearing the stylized initials ‘HM’.
44
Catalogued KHMESIE 477; Kuopio Museum amanuensis Helka Väisänen, pers. comm. 18.3.2014.
45
Lindberg 1934, 43.
46
Helsinki, FLS FA, Heinävesi. Pakarinen, Kalle. KT 79:49. 1937.
47
Pers. comm. 18.9.2013.
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Fig. 3. The miniature coffin
found in Turku Cathedral is
very elaborately made. Photo
by Sonja Hukantaival (2014).
The coffin is kept in storage
at the Cathedral Museum
and is catalogued with the
number 1397. It was
displayed in the museum’s
exhibition at least in the
early 1950s. The coffin was also photographed shortly after it was found,
48
and one of these photographs is published in the book about witches and
witchcraft trials in Finland in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries by Marko
Nenonen and Timo Kervinen. This book mentions that the coffin was
deposited in the 1680s, but no grounds are given for this interpretation.49
The date must come from when the space was taken into use as a burial
chapel in 1687. The space, however, was in fact originally a medieval
porch. 50 The find information is not precise enough to establish that the
coffin was concealed in a place that had been accessible only in the late
seventeenth century.
To find out if the coffin could be even older than this, the small piece
of bone found in it was AMS-radiocarbon dated.51 The result was a 14C age of
180 ± 30 BP which gives a calibrated date (2 sigma) with the highest
probability (52.2 %) in the period 1720–1820 AD or (19.5 % probability) in
1650–1700 AD. The nineteenth century is also possible, but considerably less
likely (4.1 % probability) than the earlier dates. A peak in the calibration
curve coinciding with the early twentieth century can be disregarded, since
the coffin was discovered in the 1920s, and it is not likely that it had been
recently concealed. Radiocarbon dating is not very precise and this effect is
emphasized when dating recent items. 52 Still, the radiocarbon date
confirmed that the frog inside the coffin was certainly not older than the late
seventeenth century. Building-historical considerations increase the
probability of a late seventeenth century dating and the miniature coffin
48
Juhani Rinne & Iikka Kronqvist, Turun tuomiokirkko: opas kokoelmiin tutustuttaessa, Turku Cathedral:
Turku 1952, 16; its old number was 106: 31.
49
Marko Nenonen & Timo Kervinen, Synnin palkka on kuolema: Suomalaiset noidat ja noitavainot
1500–1700-luvulla, Otava: Helsinki 1994, 66–67.
50
C. J. Gardberg, Simo Heininen & P. O. Welin, Kansallispyhäkkö. Turun Tuomiokirkko 1300–2000,
Tammi: Helsinki 2000, 187.
51
Ua-48076.
52
See e.g. R. E. Taylor, ‘Radiocarbon Dating in Archaeology’, in C. Smith ed., Encyclopedia of Global
Archaeology, Springer: New York 2014; Kit W. Wesler, ‘Dating Methods in Historical Archaeology’, in
C. Smith ed., Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, Springer: New York 2014.
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coincides typologically with the full-sized coffins in the Uppsala Cathedral
of Kjellberg Type 5, which dates to c. 1650–1750.53 Thus the find is quite
reliably placed in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century.
Bringetofta Church: an analogous case from Sweden
In addition to the Finnish finds presented above, one find from southern
Sweden has come to my attention. A miniature pine coffin (15 cm long) was
found during restoration work in 1992 in the medieval church of Bringetofta
in Jönköping County, Småland. It was published by Eva Londos in the
periodical of the local heritage society. The object had been walled up under
a window in the western wall that was built in 1754. Inside this coffin was a
piece of white linen textile that was likely to have been a piece of clothing.
Wrapped inside this cloth were the remains of a bat. At the time of this
publication, no similar finds were known to Londos. The find is kept at the
Jönköping County Museum.54
‘A frog is then put in an alder coffin’ – The folklore evidence
The folklore evidence gathered in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
century about practices involving a miniature coffin is fortunately quite
extensive, so there is no need to try to guess what meanings they could have
been carrying. Naturally, this material has also passed through formation
processes that have influenced its present state. The interests of the
collectors, the willingness of informants to discuss these practices, and the
archives’ classification system all contribute to the material available for
research. The total number of accounts studied here is 63, 49 of which are
published in either the Suomen Kansan Muinaisia Taikoja (Ancient Magic of
the Finnish People) series or the Suomen Kansan Vanhat Runot (Ancient
Poems of the Finnish People) series. The unpublished ones are kept in the
Folklore Archives of the Finnish Literature Society in Helsinki (FLS FA). A
table with complete reference information to each account is found as an
appendix at the end of this paper.
53
Joakim Kjellberg, pers. comm. 9.4.2014; Joakim Kjellberg, ‘To Organize the Dead: The Stratigraphy of
Post-Reformation Graves from Uppsala Cathedral’ (unpublished manuscript).
54
Eva Londos, ‘Föremål och fenomen: En fladdermus begravning?’, Hembygdsförbundet Informerar:
Jönköpings Läns Hembygdsförbund 17: 4 (1992), 10–11.
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Map 2. The locations where folklore concerning magic miniature coffins has been
collected are marked with dots. The dashed line indicates the approximate course of
the border between the western and eastern Finnish cultures.
The area where folklore material describing these coffins has been collected
is shown in Map 2. The largest amount of material has been recorded in
Central Finland (16 accounts). The other areas are Northern Savo (14
accounts), North Karelia (9 accounts), North Ostrobothnia (8 accounts),
Dvina Karelia in Russia (7 accounts), Kainuu (3 accounts), Ladoga Karelia in
Russia (2 accounts), Southern Savo (1 account), and South Lapland (1
account). The remaining 2 accounts are recorded in Ostrobothnia without
more exact information. The Karelian areas in Russia belong to the Orthodox
faith, while the other regions are Lutheran. As can be seen on Map 2 the
folklore material has only been collected from areas belonging to eastern
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Finnish and Karelian cultures.55 However, two of the cases of coffin finds
presented above (Turku and Bringetofta) indicate that the picture may not
have been quite this simple.
When looking at the reasons why a ritual ending with burying a
miniature coffin was carried out, especially one type of situation dominates:
when misfortune was suspected to have been caused by means of witchcraft.
Most of the accounts (67 %) describe practices of counter-magic, where evil
influences are directed back towards the sender, often lethally. The accounts
describing these practices are often quite long and detailed. I have chosen
here as an example a shorter published description that I have translated
from Finnish. This account was recorded in Pihtipudas in Central Finland in
the 1890s.
When a field has been spoiled and one wants to kill the one
responsible for this, one should circle around the field three times
with a frog in a bucket of water. Water from the bucket is sprinkled on
the field while circling. Then the frog is removed, its legs are bound
with red thread, and it is put in a coffin made of alder wood. The
coffin is then buried in the churchyard in the most recent grave while
reciting burial words and saying: ‘As many devils will come to take
the life of the spoiler as the number of needles of coniferous trees in
the range of the church bell’s chime.’ This will kill the witch
responsible for ruining the field.56
In this account a sympathetic connection between the ‘spoiled’, bewitched,
field and the frog is made through water sprinkled on the field. In many
other accounts something associated with the bewitched object (field, farm
animals, hunting or fishing equipment) is put with the frog (or other
animal/object, see below) in the coffin, sometimes even in its mouth; for
example some grains or sprouts of a bewitched field, or pieces cut from the
equipment. The circling around the affected area and bounding with red
thread, or alternatively impaling with nails or needles, are also recurring
elements of these rituals.
However, not all accounts describe counter-magic. A small part of
them (15 %) tell of malignant magic, where something or someone is
bewitched and even killed. In principle, these practices are in outer
appearance very similar to the above discussed counter-magic ones.
55
About the cultural areas based on historical provinces and the cultural border, see Matti Sarmela,
Finnish Folklore Atlas, (Ethnic Culture of Finland 2), Finnish Literature Society: Helsinki 2009, 11, 661–
662, 665. http://www.kotikone.fi/matti.sarmela/folkloreatlas.pdf (3.6.2014).
56
Suomen Kansan Muinaisia Taikoja III: Maanviljelystaikoja, A. V. Rantasalo ed., Finnish Literature
Society: Helsinki 1912, no. 658 e5.
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However, in these cases something belonging to the intended victim is
buried in the coffin. For example, one account tells that a field can be
bewitched so that sprouts will not grow if some grains are taken from its
harvest and put in the mouth of a frog which is then buried in a miniature
coffin in the churchyard.57 The crucial difference between the meanings is
the intention of the practitioner which guides the effect.
As already hinted above, frogs are not the only things that could be
buried in these rituals, but they are the most commonly mentioned (in 70 %
of the accounts). The next frequently mentioned animal is pike, or simply
fish. Squirrels are also mentioned, and one account even describes the burial
of a human foetus. This Dvina Karelian account explains that if someone has
bewitched a cowshed or stable by concealing a foetus in it, the witch is killed
if this foetus is buried in a miniature alder coffin in the churchyard. 58 A
small number of accounts describe a miniature burial where the content of
the coffin does not include an animal. For example, one account explains
that if a hunter has been bewitched to die in pain, some of his blood should
be taken before he dies and buried in a miniature alder coffin on the north
side of a hill under an anthill. This will cause the death of the witch
simultaneously as the victim dies.59
Other substances of the body mentioned to have been buried without
any accompanying animal are milk, feathers, and pieces of hooves (horse
and sheep). The cases where feathers were buried alone or together with a
frog are special in the sense that they were aimed at harming or killing a
thief who has stolen a bird from a trap. In one account from Dvina Karelia
soil taken from the bottom of the lake under the seine net should be buried
in a miniature coffin if the fishing equipment has been bewitched. This coffin
should be buried on the north side of a hill in a place where the sun never
shines, and then a forest spirit will kill the witch.60 Also some human-made
objects could be used: one account describes the burial of a knife, 61 and
another a woman’s headdress.62 These are both examples of malicious magic
aimed at killing someone.
Even though several accounts describing practices involving an alder
puppet (called ‘alder child’, ‘alder boy’, or ‘alder man’) have been recorded,
I have only come across one describing the burial of the object in a miniature
57
SKMT III, 565 j.
58
Suomen Kansan Muinaisia Taikoja IV, 2: Karjataikoja, A. V. Rantasalo ed., Finnish Literature Society:
Helsinki 1933, no. XIV 234.
59
Suomen Kansan Muinaisia Taikoja I: Metsästystaikoja, M. Varonen ed., Finnish Literature Society:
Helsinki 1891, no. 106.
60
Suomen Kansan Muinaisia Taikoja II: Kalastustaikoja, M. Varonen ed., Finnish Literature Society:
Helsinki 1892, no. 349.
61
SKMT I, 100.
62
SKMT IV:2, XIV 352.
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coffin.63 However, one puppet inside its coffin from Northern Savo kept in
the National Museum,64 and the finds from the old Church of Pielavesi and
Liperi churchyard presented above also show that this has been done, but
perhaps it was not as common as the use of frogs. The folklorist Matti Kuusi
has summarized the various uses of an alder puppet. It could be used for
example to punish an unidentified thief, to protect a child against the ‘night-
crying-maker’, in healing magic, and love magic.65 An alder puppet could
also be used when delivering cattle from the ‘forest cover’; where this image
represents the forest which is forced to release the cattle it has enchanted.66
Cattle could also be protected against wolves with the help of an alder
puppet conjured to act as a herdsman.67
Some of the counter-magic examples give a choice between actually
killing the witch and only making him/her suffer. This choice is made
through details in the burial. For example, one account from Pihtipudas in
Central Finland explains that if the frog coffin is thrown in rapids the witch
will die but if it is buried under a stone he/she will suffer. 68 A record from
Puolanka in Kainuu explains that if the pike used in this case is buried in a
black coffin the witch will die, but will only suffer if the coffin is white and
no burial words are recited.69 In some accounts the choice is made through
the position of the coffin: if it is buried with the bottom down (as in a normal
burial) the witch will die, but will only suffer if it is buried on its side.
As shown by the examples given here, the church and churchyard
were not the only locations where these miniature coffins could be buried.
The burial place was often associated with the bewitched site, for example
when curing a bewitched field the coffin may have been buried by this field.
However, in several cases it is clear that the chosen location of burial was
connected with the kind of otherworldly aid sought for the effort, as in the
example given above where a forest spirit was mentioned. Especially places
with streaming water were favoured, and some accounts specify that a water
spirit will assist in punishing the guilty. This is related to the väki belief
discussed in the following section.
63
Tenka Issakainen, Tavallista taikuutta. Tulkinta suomalaisten taikojen merkityksistä Mikko Koljosen
osaamisen valossa (Annales Universitatis Turkuensis C 347), Turun yliopisto: Turku 2012, 144–145.
64
Sirelius 1906, 35; Ilmari Manninen, ‘Kansanomaisesta tautiopista ja taikaparannuksista’, in E. Jutikkala
ed., Suomen Kulttuurihistoria I, Gummerus: Jyväskylä 1933, 228–244, at 243; catalogued as KM F 277.
65
Kuusi 1985, 42–43.
66
SKMT IV:2, VII 179, 180; see also Stark 2006, 357–380 about the ‘forest-cover’.
67
Suomen Kansan Muinaisia Taikoja IV, 1: Karjataikoja, A. V. Rantasalo ed., Finnish Literature Society:
Helsinki 1933, no. VI 77.
68
SKMT III, 422.
69
SKMT III, 143.
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Discussion: Magic to Kill, Magic to Heal
The folklore accounts show that the miniature coffin rituals were strong
magic, often believed to have lethal consequences. The majority of these
records describe counter-magic where an unidentified witch or thief is
punished for sorcery or theft. However, the newspaper reports reviewed
above explain these practices as malignant magic performed by envious
people in order to harm rivals practising the same livelihood. It is likely that
there are two kinds of sources of bias present that form this divergent
picture. Firstly, the newspaper reports are likely to be sensationalized to
some degree; a shocking story of gruesome witchcraft is always more
interesting than one about more socially acceptable behaviour. Secondly,
since counter-witchcraft was seen as socially acceptable (see below),
informants may have been more comfortable in discussing it with a folklore
collector. In reality, as also some of the folklore accounts indicate, a similar
ritual may have been possible both in order to bewitch and to counteract
sorcery. Since the notion of the coffins as sacrifices found in the media is not
confirmed in any of the folklore material, it may simply be the interpretation
of reporters.
Laura Stark’s studies show that counter-magic where a witch was
punished by sending back the evil influence to its source was a socially
acceptable form of magic in the rural communities. These practices, often
referred to as ‘sending back the dog’, were thought to only affect the guilty.
They were thus a safe way to direct punishment, since they could not harm
the innocent. For this reason, they were especially well suited to cases where
the identity of the offender was uncertain. Stark also explains how this
punishment of witches fit into the Christian environment. The magically-
oriented and popular Christian world views shared the expectation that
evildoers would be punished by supernatural means, with both modes of
thought seeking moral closure. The Christian norm for forgiveness,
however, clashed with the idea of magical revenge as a form of self-
protection. The idea of forgiveness deprived victims of moral closure
achieved through vengeance, and in the minds of the community it left the
evildoers free to continue terrorizing their neighbours.70
Since folk religion is more oriented towards practical, everyday issues
than the ‘life hereafter’ of official Christianity,71 people easily resorted to the
unofficial option in this kind of situation, where justice in the afterlife was
not seen as a satisfactory immediate sentence that would actually force the
70
Stark 2006, 180–186, 194–195, 233–239.
71
See e.g. Ilkka Pyysiäinen, ’Folk Religion and Theological Correctness’, Temenos 39–40 (2003–2004),
151–165, at 156–157.
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evildoer to stop the harmful action. One interesting question is how the
church and churchyard as holy places of the official religion combined with
inappropriate practices of revenge or even witchcraft. A holy place in
Christianity was also perceived as a powerful place in folk religion, but the
otherworldly power of the church used in the miniature coffin practices did
not come from God.
In the light of the folklore evidence and scholarly studies on väki
beliefs it seems obvious that the otherworldly agency used in the church and
churchyard came from the deceased: the väki of the dead. The ‘devils’
mentioned in the example above could also refer to this väki instead of actual
demons.72 In the context of folk religion, the notion of väki refers to both an
impersonal otherworldly power and to otherworldly beings. Many different
entities were believed to possess väki in the Finnish-Karelian folk religion:
for example the forest, water, earth, fire, rock, metal, and the dead. These
different types of väki were different in strength and could be manipulated
against each other in magical practices.73 For example the väki of water has
sometimes been declared the oldest and strongest one, especially the kind
found in rapids,74 but this is not consistent since folk religion lacks dogmatic
rules.75
One example where both the relationship with the official (Orthodox)
religion and the different potency of the types of väki are discussed was
recorded at Pistojärvi in Dvina Karelia in the late nineteenth century:
If a hunter’s gun has been bewitched so that it does not kill prey, a
squirrel should be caught by any means, and the gun should be
smeared with its blood. The squirrel is then skinned without using a
knife and a coffin is made of a lone alder-tree. The squirrel is put in
the coffin and buried in the churchyard like a corpse, while reciting
prayers as a priest, but not the Priestly Blessing or the Lord’s Prayer
from the part ‘but deliver us from evil’ onwards. Then the witch will
die, and no one can heal him/her. But if the witch is unbaptized, so
that a priest has not blessed him/her, then this will not work. In this
case the coffin should be drowned in rapids; the water väki will find
72
Kaarina Koski, Kuoleman voimat: Kirkonväki suomalaisessa uskomusperinteessä, Finnish Literature
Society: Helsinki 2011, 132–134.
73
On väki see e.g. Kaarle Krohn, Suomalaisten runojen uskonto, (Suomen suvun uskonnot I), Finnish
Literature Society: Helsinki 1915, 65–146; Touko Issakainen, ‘“Tulenväki on kaikkein väkevin, se kun
polttaa niin kovasti”. Kansanuskon väki-kategorian uudelleenarviointia’, Sananjalka 44 (2002), 110–127;
Koski 2003; 2008; 2011; Stark 2006, 258–262.
74
Krohn 1915, 93.
75
See Issakainen 2002 for critique against the scholarly use of the väki-concept. This is mainly connected
with the fact that väki not only refers to otherworldly agency, but also has “profane” meanings. In this
study the ambiguity of the emic meanings of the word causes no problems: The discussion is connected
with the wider discussion on defining abstract terms mentioned above (cf. e.g. Hukantaival in press).
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him/her, and there is no escape. If the coffin is put in the rapids so that
it can be removed, the punishment can be reversed if the witch comes
forward to confess, but only the one that put the coffin there can heal
him/her.76
In this account it is clear that the informant was aware of a tension between
the ritual and the official religion. Certain key parts of Christian prayers
were not suitable to be used in this connection, and the notion of a need to
use stronger power if the offender was unbaptized is very interesting. Dvina
Karelia was still a peripheral area with loose ecclesiastical organization and
few churches in the late nineteenth century,77 and thus the alternative that
not all people were baptized was possible, though hardly common.
As a quite typical example, this account can also be used as a basis for
a closer analysis of the logic behind these counter-magic practices: The
hunter’s gun was bewitched, and while doing this the witch has inevitably
formed a sympathetic link with the target. This link is transferred to the
squirrel by smearing its blood on the gun (contagion). Now the squirrel
represents the witch. When the squirrel is buried, the action affects the
witch; what happens to the image of the witch also happen to him/her
(imitation). Up to here it seems that the ritual works fairly mechanically
without the help of assisting beings or powers. However, the notion that the
ritual will not work on an unbaptized villain reveals that some ‘tamed’
power that was not potent enough was used. Instead of the almighty power
of God the power used here might be that of baptized dead buried in the
churchyard. In any case, since these Christian elements were perceived as
ineffective against an unbaptized witch, the ‘older’ power of the rapids was
needed to find the witch through the sympathetic link between him/her and
his/her magic. Ultimately, this väki delivered the punishment, so technically
this ritual was not only about sending back the same evil energy used by the
witch.
When a similar ritual was used to bewitch someone, the same logic
was basically present. Now something associated with the target was used
to transform the animal to represent the victim, who was then harmed by
burying it. The idea becomes slightly more obscure when the ritual was used
to bewitch something that was not a person, but still the idea was to bury a
piece of the target in order to cause the effect of death/inoperativeness in the
represented whole. Also in these cases the väki of the burial place may have
76
SKMT I, 282; translated by the current author. Note: The Finnish personal pronoun does not
differentiate between the sexes.
77
See e.g. Nina Lavonen & Aleksandra Stepanova, ‘Kansanusko ja ortodoksisuus Karjalan tasavallassa’,
in T. Laitila & T. Saarinen (eds), Uskonto ja identiteetti: Suomalais-ugrilaisten kokemuksia ja vaiheita
Venäjällä ja Neuvostoliitossa, Finnish Literature Society: Helsinki 1999, 29–41; Stark 2002, 34–39.
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been used as the power that caused the effect. Generally, the frog and fish
were connected with the water väki while the squirrel belonged to the sphere
of forest väki, and thus the choice of animal may also have been of
significance in the ritual.78 Interestingly, the cases where a bird thief was
punished show that a sympathetic link was also believed to form between
the thief and the stolen bird, whose leftover feathers could be used to harm
the thief.
The old texts of U. T. Sirelius and Ilmari Manninen explain that the
alder puppet in its miniature coffin kept in the National Museum belonged
to the sphere of healing magic. They claim, without any reference
information, that a healer transferred the disease to the wooden figure, and
when this figure was buried in the churchyard the disease also died, and
thus the patient was healed. 79 In fact, healing magic involving an alder
puppet made from a stick and red yarn or textile (but not buried in a coffin)
has been recorded in witchcraft and superstition trials in Liminka in 1678
and in Paltamo in 1748. However, these cases do not confirm the notion of
burying the disease. In the Liminka case the healer had divined that the
sickness originated in the forest, and the alder puppet was bound in the
forest in a similar fashion as when the forest was forced to release the
enchanted cattle in the folklore account mentioned above. Evidently the
wooden figure represented the forest väki in this case. The Paltamo case is
more unclear, but also here the figure was taken to the forest so that the
patient could be released from his agony.80
One of the folklore accounts of frog coffins also describes healing
magic. This account, recorded in Kuopio in the 1930s, depicts a healing ritual
for epilepsy. The first part of this ritual takes place at a house, where the
patient is treated while sitting on a threshold, the second part consist of
preparing and concealing the frog coffin in the foundation of the church
(with a piece of the patient’s undergarments used as a burial shroud for the
frog), and in the third part the patient is treated in the churchyard. 81 Though
not explicitly stated in this account, it is possible that the healer suspected
that the disease was caused by witchcraft. Epilepsy was one of the
conditions easily suspected to have been the effect of sorcery.82
One question arising from this discussion is how old these practices
may be. Presently, the evidence does not reach further back in time than
possibly the late seventeenth century. It is nonetheless plausible that these
78
See also Issakainen 2012, 143–145 about the use of frogs and pikes in Finnish folk magic.
79
Sirelius 1906, 35; Manninen 1933, 243.
80
Kuusi 1985, 39–44.
81
Helsinki, FLS FA, Kuopio. Koponen, Juho. KRK 103:92. 1935–36.
82
See M. Hako ed., Kansanomainen lääkintätietous, (Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuran toimituksia 229:
4), Finnish Literature Society: Helsinki 2000, 19.
MIRATOR 16:1/2015 215
customs existed in some form also earlier. Since the form of this ritual
follows conventional burial practices, this aspect must be considered when
considering its age. Nevertheless, similar practices have been known in
ancient Assyrian and Greece contexts. Especially the Assyrian rituals that
have survived in ancient texts, as discussed by Lorenzo Verderame, are
quite strikingly similar in essence to the nineteenth-century Finnish-Karelian
examples despite the considerable age difference. If a witch was unknown,
figurines were moulded from clay or wax to represent the witch and then
burned or bound to send back the evil force to its source; and a mouse is
elaborately buried with all relevant funeral rites as counter-magic against
sorcery. 83 The Ancient Greek examples are four miniature lead coffins
containing lead figurines found in a graveyard in Athens dating from c. 400
BC, apparently made to attack enemies named on the objects.84 However, the
question of whether this similarity is due to common roots of the practices or
simply universal cognitive traits85 is beyond the limits of this paper.
Most of the found miniature coffins and all related folklore records
belong to the Eastern Finnish and Karelian cultures. They are dated chiefly
to the nineteenth century. The coffins from Turku and Bringetofta differ
from the pattern due to their location, slightly earlier date, and the material
of the coffins, being of pine instead of alder connected to most other cases.
However, also aspen and birch have occurred, and perhaps the choice of
material was wider than indicated by the folklore accounts. The evidence is
too scarce to form a convincing hypothesis, but it is possible that the Turku
and Bringetofta coffins belonged to a western variant of the custom; one that
had already completely disappeared by the late nineteenth century when the
collection of folklore material intensified. Additional finds would be needed
to address this question adequately.
It is difficult to know if the numerous frog coffins found especially in
Kuopio and Tuusniemi in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century
were an exceptional phenomenon, or if the intensity of the practice had
simply remained secret earlier. However, it seems that something had
caused the practice to surge in the area. Since the coffins have been reported
to contain pieces of fishing equipment, it can be suspected that there was an
extensive problem with the fishing waters in the lakes at the time. The
problem might have been suspected to result from the witchcraft of envious
neighbours; or at least it triggered a need to increase individual fishermen’s
83
Lorenzo Verderame, ‘Means of Substitution - The Use of Figurines, Animals, and Human Beings as
Substitutes in Assyrian Rituals’, in C. Ambos & L. Verderame (eds), Approaching Rituals in Ancient
Cultures (Rivista Studi Orientali Supplemento 86), Fabrizio Serra editore: Rome 2013, 301–323.
84
John G. Gager ed., Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World, Oxford University Press:
Oxford 1992, 15–17, 127–129.
85
See Sørensen 2007 on universal cognitive aspects of magic.
MIRATOR 16:1/2015 216
fortune by sabotaging the equipment of others. This is another issue that
requires further investigation in future studies.
Conclusions
The phenomenon of the magic miniature coffins is complex and dynamic,
and many aspects of these practices exceed the limits of this paper. For
example, questions about the choice of buried animal are left for future
discussion. The folklore accounts show that the most common reason for
performing this ritual was when misfortune was suspected to have been
caused by sorcery. In these cases, the ritual was aimed to counteract the evil
influence and to punish the witch. However, the same practice could also be
used to cause any victim suffering. In this paper, the basic logic of
sympathetic magic present in these rituals is revealed as: 1) an animal is
transformed to represent a witch or victim by the means of contagion or pars
pro toto; 2) the effect is transferred to the witch/victim according to the laws
of imitative magic when the animal is buried; 3) the aid of the otherworldly
agency of the burial place is used to give power to the effect.
Since these coffins have been discovered in churches, the relationship
between the practices and ‘official’ religion is a key element here. The place
of burial donated the otherworldly power needed to fulfil the impact of the
ritual. However, in the case of the church and churchyard this power was
not divine, but rather that of the deceased buried there. The power of the
dead has been used in numerous magical practices, since it was believed to
be a potent force that could be manipulated by a skilful magic-worker.86
Purely Christian elements are still present in the practices, since the burial
form and rites were borrowed from this sphere. This is a good example of
how the key components of the different belief systems were adopted and
shaped into a syncretic ‘folk religion’.87
Essentially, the frog coffins as counter-magic against witchcraft are a
similar phenomenon as the famous witch bottles of the British Isles and
United States. The custom is known from both finds and written documents,
and it has existed at least from the seventeenth until the nineteenth century.
In this practice the urine of a victim of witchcraft was put in a bottle
(preferably a Bellarmine jug), together with sharp pins, needles, or shards,
hair, nail-clippings, and sometimes a piece of fabric cut in a heart shape. The
86
See e.g. Jari Eilola & Piia Einonen, ‘Peukalot silkkirievussa: Ruumis ja ruumiinjäsenet noituudessa ja
taikuudessa’, in J. Eilola ed., Makaaberi ruumis: Mielikuvia kuolemasta ja kehosta, Finnish Literature
Society: Helsinki 2009, 185–240; Emmi Tittonen, ‘“Nouse ylös vanha väki, lastujen perään!”
Hautausmaiden taikuus 1700-luvun lopulla’, J@rgonia (14/2008), 1–19,
https://jyx.jyu.fi/dspace/handle/123456789/20072 (last consulted 13.3.2014); Koski 2011.
87
Cf. Stark 2002, 30.
MIRATOR 16:1/2015 217
plugged bottle was heated on a fire and then buried, often upside-down.
The aim of this practice was also to harm the witch through the sympathetic
link between him/her and the victim. 88 This concluding observation
illustrates the significance of counter-witchcraft practices in Early Modern
Europe and beyond.
Sonja Hukantaival, MA
Archaeology
School of History, Culture and Arts Studies
University of Turku
sonja.hukantaival[at]utu.fi
88
Ralph Merrifield, The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic, New Amsterdam Books: New York 1987,
163–183; Brian Hoggard, ‘The Archaeology of Counter-Witchcraft and Popular Magic’, in O. Davies &
W. de Blécourt (eds), Beyond the Witch Trials: Witchcraft and Magic in Enlightenment Europe,
Manchester University Press: Manchester 2004, 167–186; M. Chris Manning, Homemade Magic:
Concealed Deposits in Architectural Contexts in the Eastern United States, unpublished MA Thesis, Ball
State University, Muncie, IN 2012, 94–140.
MIRATOR 16:1/2015 218
Appendix 1. The miniature magic coffins in folklore. The lower case letter in
front of the location refers to the tradition-areas based on historical
provinces: e) Central Finland, f) Southern Savo, g) Northern Savo, i) Ladoga
Karelia, j) North Karelia, l) North Ostrobothnia, m) Kainuu, n) Lapland/Far
Bothnia, p) Dvina Karelia.89 Recent merging of municipalities has not been
marked. Abbreviations: SKMT - Suomen Kansan Muinaisia Taikoja, SKVR -
Suomen Kansan Vanhoja Runoja, FLS FA - Finnish Literature Society, Folklore
Archives.
Appendix 1. Miniature Magic coffins in folklore
Location Object Context Meaning Reference
(East- Alder-coffin: In the forest Counter-magic SKMT I, no. 104.
Ostrobothnia) squirrel
(Ostrobothnia) Alder-box: In the ground Punishing thief SKMT I, no. 672.
feathers
e Hankasalmi Alder-coffin: fish By field Counter-magic SKMT III, no. 699.
e Keitele Alder-coffin: In ant-hill Counter-magic FLS FA. Keitele. Tiitinen, Martti
frog/pike 3152. 1937.
e Pihtipudas Coffin: frog In field Counter-magic SKMT III, no. 654.
e Pihtipudas Alder-coffin: frog In hearth Counter-magic SKMT III, no. 655.
e Pihtipudas Alder-coffin: frog ? Counter-magic SKMT III, no. 658.
e Pihtipudas Alder-coffin: frog By stone Counter-magic SKMT III, no. 666.
e Pihtipudas Alder-coffin: frog In churchyard Counter-magic SKMT III, no. 654 e5.
e Pihtipudas Alder-coffin: frog In rapids Counter- SKMT III, no. 487.
magic?
e Pihtipudas Alder-coffin: frog In lake Counter-magic SKMT III, no. 654 e4.
e Pihtipudas Alder-coffin: frog Where the frog Counter-magic SKMT III, no. 654 e5.
was found
e Pihtipudas Alder-coffin: frog Rapids or under Counter-magic SKMT III, no. 422.
stone
e Pihtipudas Alder-coffin: frog In lake Counter-magic SKMT III, no. 654 e1.
e Pihtipudas Alder-coffin: frog ? Counter-magic SKMT III, no. 696.
e Viitasaari Alder-coffin: frog Under cowshed Protective SKVR IX4 1570. Viitas. Moisio 8.
magic 1890.
e Viitasaari Coffin: frog Rapids Counter- SKMT III, no. 653.
magic?
e Viitasaari Alder-coffin: frog In cowshed Counter-magic SKVR IX4. 1335. Viitas. Moisio
43. 1890.
f Heinävesi Coffin: frog Church Fishing magic FLS FA. Heinävesi. Pakarinen,
Kalle. KT 79:49. 1937.
g Iisalmi Alder-coffin: Rapids Punishing thief SKMT I, no. 669 g.
feathers
g Karttula Alder-coffin: By field Counter-magic SKMT III, no. 652.
Frog, pike, egg
g Kuopio Alder-coffin: frog Church Healing magic FLS FA. Kuopio. Koponen, Juho.
KRK103:92.
89
See e.g. Sarmela 2009, 661–668.
MIRATOR 16:1/2015 219
Appendix 1. Miniature Magic coffins in folklore
Location Object Context Meaning Reference
g Maaninka Alder-coffin: frog - For divination FLS FA. Maaninka. Leinonen,
Aarne. KRK106:117.
g Nilsiä Alder-coffin: pike ? Counter-magic SKMT III, no. 642 g.
g Nilsiä Alder-coffin: Shore of rapid Punishing thief SKMT I, no. 636.
frog, feather
g Nilsiä Coffin: frog Church Malicious FLS FA. Nilsiä. Pirinen, Kalle. KRK
magic 112:14.
g Pielavesi Coffin: frog ? Protective FLS FA. Pielavesi. Partanen,
magic Anna. KT 97:13. 1938.
g Pielavesi Coffin: frog ? Malicious FLS FA. Pielavesi. Raatikainen,
magic Eelis. KRK114:53.
g Tervo Aspen-coffin: In lake Punishing thief FLS FA. Tervo. Tiitinen, Martti
frog, feathers 3145. 1937.
g Tuusniemi Alder-coffin: Church ? FLS FA. Tuusniemi. Räsänen,
frog, coin Otto. KRK118:131.
g Tuusniemi Frog-coffin, Bell tower Counter-magic FLS FA. Tuusniemi. 1916.
bedbug-coffin Lönnbohm, O. A. F. b) 2905.
g Vehmersalmi Alder-coffin: frog Churchyard /Under Malicious FLS FA. Vehmersalmi.
house magic Airaksinen, Emil. KRK 91:109.
g Vehmersalmi Alder-coffin: frog Under building ? FLS FA. Vehmersalmi. Räsänen,
Otto. KRK118:230.
i Impilahti Alder-coffin: pike In the ground Counter-magic SKMT III, no. 643.
i Ruskeala Coffin: frog Church ? FLS FA. Ruskeala, Kuolamo.
Holmberg, U. b)601. 1909.
j Juuka Alder-coffin: Churchyard Malicious SKMT III, no. 568.
sprouts magic
j Juuka Alder-coffin: frog In water Counter-magic SKMT III, no. 662.
j Juuka Alder-container: Field Counter-magic SKMT III, no. 657.
frog
j Kaavi Alder-coffin: frog Road or path Counter-magic SKMT III, no. 654 j2.
j Kaavi Alder-coffin: River Punishing thief SKMT I, no. 636 j.
frog, feathers
j Kaavi Alder-coffin: frog Under stone Counter-magic SKMT III, 660 j1.
j Kaavi Alder-coffin: Churchyard Malicious SKMT III, no. 565 j.
frog, grain magic
j Kaavi Alder-coffin: pike Road ? SKMT III, no. 643 j.
j Pielisjärvi Alder-coffin: frog ? Counter-magic SKMT III, no. 654 j1.
l Kärsämäki Alder-coffin: frog ? Counter-magic SKVR XII2 7503. Kärsämäki.
Keränen, E. 106. 1883.
l Merijärvi Alder-coffin: frog In stream Malicious FLS FA. Merijärvi. Schroderus,
magic Martti. KT 202:35. 1936.
l Muhos Alder-coffin: frog Field Counter-magic SKMT III, no. 661 l.
l Piippola Alder-coffin: Ant-hill Punishing thief SKMT I, p. 234 (636 l); SKVR XII2
frog, feathers 7902. Piippola. Krohn 1098.
1884.
l Pulkkila Alder-coffin: frog Field? Counter-magic SKMT III, no. 656.
l Pyhäjärvi Alder-coffin: frog In stream Counter-magic SKMT III, no. 697; SKVR XII2
MIRATOR 16:1/2015 220
Appendix 1. Miniature Magic coffins in folklore
Location Object Context Meaning Reference
7508. Pyhäjärvi. Krohn 14779 b.
1885.
l Pyhäjärvi Coffin: frog Churchyard Counter-magic SKMT III, no. 667.
l Reisjärvi Alder-container: ’buried’ Counter-magic SKMT III, no. 665.
frog
m Kuhmo Alder-coffin: In sheephouse Keeps sheep SKMT IV,1, no. VI 374.
sheep hoof on pastures
m Kuusamo Alder-coffin: red In lake Counter-magic SKMT III, no. 659 m1.
yarn
m Puolanka Alder-coffin: pike Field Counter-magic SKMT III, no. 143.
n Koutajärvi Alder-coffin: Churchyard Malicious SKMT IV,2, no. XIV 352.
headdress, milk magic
p Jyskyjärvi Alder-coffin: Churchyard Counter-magic SKMT IV,2, no. XIV 234.
foetus
p Pistojärvi Alder-coffin: Churchyard, rapids Counter-magic SKMT I, no. 282.
squirrel
p Pistojärvi Alder-coffin: Ant-hill Counter-magic SKMT I. no. 106.
blood
p Pistojärvi Alder-coffin: In forest Counter-magic SKMT I, no. 105.
prey
p Pistojärvi Alder-coffin: In forest Malicious SKMT I, no. 100.
knife magic
p Teeriniemi Alder-coffin: By pastures Keeps horse on SKMT IV,1, no. VI 391.
village horse hoof pastures
p Uhtua Alder-coffin: soil Where the sun Counter-magic SKMT II, no. 349.
never shines [sic]
