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Spirits and presences
It has always been believed that Lapland is inhabited by gnomes, goblins, enchanters, demons, ghosts, and other beings. They lived lives like people but underground. Sometimes these characters were described as fiendish, but generally they were kind and helped people.
For the Sámi, idols, distinct natural formations and double-bottomedunderworld lakes were the spirit dwelling place and place of worship.
Idols carved from silver pine logs were erected by good fishing spots as gratitude for a good catch and to assure new catches. These fish idols can still be spotted on the shores of northern lakes.
According to Sámi fables, the underworld people were also known as Gufittars, who herded their reindeer and lived just as theSámi, only below ground. The gateway to the underworld could be found near a large juniperbush, the Gufittar rosebush.
The tale tells that the underworld people were the children of Eve, who she hid from God as she had no time to wash them all. When God approached Eve and asked if these were all her children, Eve admitted they were, then God said that what is hidden from God's eyes is also hidden from people's eyes. And so live our distant ancestors in the underworld.
Witches, usually male, were able to put themselves into a deep trance and to change human form into any animal form, or they were capable of being in a trance while their spirit travelled over land and shore, while their bodies stayed put. They were feared, yet also respected as they helped people with their magic.
Enchanters warned people of approaching dangers, or walked ahead of folk into a house so that the hosts would not have to be startled by occasional visitors.
Old trees also have their own spirits and they give strenght and revive when leaning against them and they also warn of danger.
"Once when two lumberjacks were travelling to the logging site, they stopped to rest for the night after the long day's trek, lit a fire and laid down by an old dead standing silver pine. After lying for some while, one of the men woke with a startle when he heard a whisper. He pricked his ears and heard someone say that they had to leave. The lumberjack shook his friends who had not heard a thing, but together they stopped to listen to the dark night. The voice was heard once more, telling them to leave The men quikly realised it would be better to leave and they gathered their things and started to move away. Again a voice was heard: "the old one has to lie down", and at the same instance, the large silver pine fell and landed right where the men had earlier been sleeping."
Nätti Jussi
If there were a large number of lumberjacks, there were also quite a few characters at the logging sites. Perhaps the most famous and legendary lumberjack was Nätti Jussi (Nätti = pretty), who despite his name was not a very handsome man, in fact quite the opposite. Nätti had a crooked leg, so when you saw his trail in the snow, you had no idea if he had been coming or going. Already at the age of ten Nätti Jussi worked at the logging site with his father, just as other lumberjacks did, leaving for the logging sites as a child working as long hours as they possibly could, and somteimes even longer. Nätti Jussi worked around the logging sites of Lapland in the beginning of the twentieth century when the great forest work began and experienced the good old days of lumberjack culture right up to its demise in the end of the 1950s. There doesn't seem to be an instnace where Nätti hadn't been, and survived. He was quick-witted storyteller listened to willingly by many a lumberjack.
"Once upon a time, Nätti Jussi was in Pohjanhovi where a wealthy gentleman was openly boasting that he was so rich that he could by the whole Finland if he wished. Nätti was quick to spurt out that the gentleman could not possibly buy Finland as Nätti said he refused to sell it."
Altough the tales claim Nätti was quite the ladies' man, he still didn't manage to find himself a life companion but lived alone through to the early 1960s when he left for that great logging site in the sky.
Huttu-Ukko
Huttu-Ukko is a wise man, guardian spirit, witch, according to tales lives by the Pyhä Fell and still oversees and protects his area. Without first appeasing Huttu-Ukko, it will not necessarily be possible to introduce all the world's mod cons to the Pyhä region.
"For instance, when back in the 1960s a television mast was built on the Pyhä Fell, the villagees warned the contactor that the mast will not be able to be erected without first paying off Huttu-Ukko by throwing the bribe into the lake. Well, the builders didn't believe all that rubbish and continued working. Once the mast had been completed, it didn't stay up for very long, falling on its side. It took a couple of failed attempts before the stubborn builders believed they had to bribe Huttu-Ukko, and there the mast still stands today. The villagers may have also thrown bribes into the lake to appease Huttu-Ukko."
Writers from Rovaniemi
Rovaniemi is birthpalce of many famaous Finnish writers. The atmosphere of the city has inspired them to works all the better from each others. Below you see a poem of Jorma Etto, former inhabitant of Rovaniemi. It tells about Finnish people.
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The Finn
"A Finn is the one
who answers when not asked
asks when not answered,
does not answer when asked,
the one who loses tha way,
yells on the shore,
and on the opposite shore
yells another of the same kind:
the forest clangs, echoes,
the pines hum.
There comes a Finn and groans,
is here and groans,
goes there and groans,
is as in the sauna and groans,
when the other one
throws water on the stove.
That kind of a Finn
always has a partner,
he is never alone,
and that partner is a Finn.
And nothing separates a Finn
from a Finn, nothing except
the death and the police."
Jorma Etto
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Highlights of a legendary Arctic hotel
When completed in 1936, Hotel Pohjanhovi designed by architects Märta and Paul Blomsted – was the Arctic Circle’s most refined hotel. Built in the functionalist style, the hotel had a kitchen powered by electricity and 36 rooms where guests could wash their hands and face with warm water. The most expensive rooms had a private bathroom. Below the main lobby there was a large area with dormitory accommodation for 50 people that was popular among trekkers. Hotel Pohjanhovi was run by the predecessor of the present Finnish Travel Association.
The hotel elevator was a wonder, the only one in Lapland, and people came even from Utsjoki in the far north to marvel at it. The restaurants, where heads of state and loggers would rub shoulders, bustled with activity; live music increased the attraction. The outer balcony of one hotel restaurant, the ‘Mediterranean Breeze’, was crowded with people in summer. The cream of society came to Hotel Pohjanhovi on Sundays, more ordinary folk on Saturdays. The hotel’s golden age was in the 1940s, when even Field Marshal Mannerheim and his party would spend time there.
The hotel sustained damage first in the Winter War and then again in the Lapland War, in
October 1944. Repair work was started immediately in the one-story wing and basement,
which hadn’t been destroyed. The restaurant Hovinpohja was opened the following year. The decision to build a new hotel was made in 1945 and the cornerstone was laid in October. In the next few years Hotel Pohjanhovi entertained many well-known figures. Eleanor Roosevelt, Armi and Gil Hilario, Urho Kekkonen, Leonid Brezhnev and Josip Broz Tito all enjoyed Pohjanhovi’s delicacies and ambiance. The hotel was expand with the addition of a new section in 1972-73 and Rantasipi Oy leased the hotel in 1977.
With the hotel’s increased capacity and enhancement of culinary services through the longer opening hours of the restaurants, the Pohjanhovi again became the focal point of activities in the North. The Arctic Lapland Rally, Lapland’s annual samba carnival, the Ounasvaara winter sports competitions and the Reindeer Parliament (the annual meeting of the Reindeer Herders’ Association) brought people to the hotel from near and far.
To meet the demands of the time, Hotel Pohjanhovi was renovated at the start of the
new millennium. Today the hotel encompasses a restaurant seating 500, a night club for dance lovers, two lively music bars and a cosy lobby bar. A genuine Northern legend has kept up with the times, proud of its glorious past.
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