The Uralic peoples:


(The Finno-Ugrians and Samoyedes)


History: the word "Uralic" at the top of this page may be a bit confusing because this page is actually about the many different peoples that descended from the Uralians but naming all of them separately would result in a very long title so I have decided to use the name of their common ancestor, the Germanic peoples mainly interacted with the Finno-Ugric group (Finns, Estonians, Hungarians, Saami, etc.) so I will mainly focus on this group but I have also decided to give some information about the other peoples of indirect Uralic origin because it offers a more cohesive image.
The Proto-Uralians were originally a group of Asian hunter/gatherers that originated from somewhere near the Ural mountains (hence the name), they may have been descendants of peoples from eastern Asia who migrated westwards but this is still a topic for debate so I will not go further into that.
The Proto-Uralians were nomads who roamed the tundras of Europe and Asia hunting for reindeer, eventually they disappeared from history but traces of them can still be found in the cold northern regions of Europe and Asia that are inhabited by Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic peoples, although this peoples have different identities and origins they all have inherited many cultural and linguistical aspects of the ancient Uralians.
Because the exact origins of most Uralic peoples is rather mysterious it is difficult to get a clear image of them and their earliest history, the Germanic peoples mainly interacted with the Finno-Ugric branch so I shall focus a bit more on them on this page, below is some more information about the largest members of the Finno-Ugric group:

  • The Finns (who call themselves Suomalaiset) and Estonians (who call themselves Eesti) were first described by Tacitus who mentioned them as a Germanic tribe, although they had many similarities with their Germanic neighbours in Scandinavia their language was a Finno-Ugric one, their culture, mythology, and religion are equally mysterious and contain both Indo-European (Germanic) and Uralic (Finno-Ugric) influences.
  • The Hungarians (who call themselves Magyar) also speak a Finno-Ugric language but their culture is hardly related to that of the Finns and Estonians and is more a mixture of various other cultures, the Hungarian language belongs to the Ugric group and may have been brough there by Hunnic mercenaries from the Ural region in Russia, there are also Hungarian speaking minorities in Rumania and other neighbouring countries.
  • The Saami are called "Lapps" or "Laplanders" in most Germanic languages but they prefer to be called "Saami", "Sami" or "Saamelat", which are the names they use for themselves, the names Saami, Suomalaiset (Finns), and Samoyedes are related and probably derived from an ancient common Uralic root word, all names simply mean "humans".
    The Saami territories are divided between Russia and the Scandinavian countries but they are politically represented in all of those countries by elected parliaments, these are located in Karasjok (Norway), Kiruna (Sweden), Inari (Finland), and Russia.
    The Saami are the smallest people of Europe (average 1.50m/4.9feet) and they live from farming, fishing, and especially reindeerbreeding, they are probably the oldest inhabitants of northern Scandinavia and have preserved many cultural aspects of the Uralians, even today their way of life has changed little and although they make use of modern inventions they still live according to the traditions of their ancestors, something that is in my opinion not a lack of civilization but a sign of civilization.

    Saami in traditional clothing Culture: the fact that the Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic peoples have inherited many things from the Uralians does not mean that this peoples are all the same, actually the only thing they have in common is that some parts of their culture (and especially their language) can be traced back to a Proto-Uralic origin but most of this peoples differ from eachother like day and night.
    The Finns and Estonians for instance have a language that is of indirect Uralic origin but their culture and ethnicity are more related to that of the Germanic peoples, the language of the Saami is also of indirect Uralic origin but in contradiction to the Finns and Estonians their culture and ethnicity has more in common with that of the northern Asian peoples near the Ural and some aspects of their culture even have similarities with the native Americans, I once listened to Saami music and I had a hard time finding out whether it was Saami or Native American.
  • The Finno-Ugric peoples form the western branch of the Uralic languages and they inhabit Hungary, northern Scandinavia, Finland, Estonia, the Kola peninsula, Karelia, and Northwestern Russia, they can be divided into Finns (Finland), Estonians (Estonia), Ingrians (Ingermanland), Karelians (Karelia), Livonians (Courland peninsula), Veps, Votics (both near St.Petersburg), Saami (northern Scandinavia), and Permyaks, Komians, Udmurts, Marians, Mordvinians (all five near the Ural mountains in Russia).
  • The Samoyedic peoples form the eastern branch of the Uralic languages and they inhabit western Siberia, they can be divided into Nenets, Enets, Nganasans, Selkups, and Kamassians, the Yukaghirian peoples (Tundra and Kolyma) in northeastern Russia are sometimes also counted amongst them.

    Language: there is much diversity between the Uralic languages but they all have certain characteristics that allow them to be defined as such, the Uralic languages can be divided into Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic (and various subgroups of those two).
    Example of Uralic languages:

    (Universal Declaration of Human Rights article 1)
    All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

    Finnish:
    Kaikki ihmiset syntyvät vapaina ja tasavertaisina arvoltaan ja oikeuksiltaan. Heille on annettu järki ja omatunto, ja heidän on toimittava toisiaan kohtaan veljeyden hengessä.

    Estonian:
    Kõik inimesed sünnivad vabadena ja võrdsetena oma väärikuselt ja õigustelt. Neile on antud mõistus ja südametunnistus ja nende suhtumist üksteisesse peab kandma vendluse vaim.

    Hungarian:
    Minden. emberi lény szabadon születik és egyenlő méltósága és joga van. Az emberek, ésszel és lelkiismerettel bírván, egymással szemben testvéri szellemben kell hogy viseltessenenk.

    Saami:
    Buot olbmot leat riegįdan friddjan ja olmmošįrvvu ja olmmošvuoigatvuošaid dįfus dįssįsažžab, Sudhuude kea addib huervnu ha ianedivdym ha vyigjat gakget neabbydut gyunnuudeaset gyivdy vuekhakaš vuoi??ain.

    Nenets Samoyedic:
    Unfortunately I haven't been able to find the Declaration of Human Rights in Nenets but I did find this short wordlist, click here for the original text and sound files.

    vade"ln,s'
    ile"mamda vade"la
    khobtsoko
    khasava
    khasava khanėvanz' khae
    khn,nibtembas'n,s'
    yarabts'
    		 to begin to tell
    she began to tell about her life
    riddle, mystery
    man, human kind
    the man goes hunting
    to get frostbite
    epic crying song

    Religion: a typical religious characteristic of the Uralic peoples is the use of shamans, this person was (and still is in some places) a priest who performed magic, incantations, and spells to control humans, animals, spirits (like the evil Hiisi from Finnish religion), and to interact with the gods, the Finns for instance were widely known for their use of magic and after the Christianization of Scandinavia the kings had to forbid their subjects to visit the popular Finnish magicians, the really important Finnish shamans also had the right to use a drum and invoke spirits.
    The people also used magical chants to get help from good spirits, in Finland there are still some of those left and the Saami in northern Scandinavia know a type of song named "joik", in a joik the Saami reflect their mood in a rithmic and melodious way, so for instance when they don't feel well the joik sounds sad and when they're happy the joik sounds happy too.
    Animals were treated in a very respectful way and the ancient Finns always gave prayers and offerings to the forestgod Tapio before they killed one of his animals, after the killing the hunter asked the animal for forgiveness and invited its spirit to join the next celebrations of his tribe, the Saami had a similar custom and they always asked their god Leib-Olmai for permission to kill a bear, in America there are various Native American (in some countries also called "Indian") tribes who ask permission from their gods too before they go hunting, many of them even thank the animal for its meat after killing it and some even cry for the animal, because of these (any many other) similarities some scholars believe that it may be possible that the Native Americans and Uralic peoples have common origins somewhere way back in history.
    The Nenets (a Samoyedic people in Russia) also knew shamans and even today their religion is a mixture of Eastern Orthodox Christianity and their native shamanistic religion, during the Communist period it was forbidden for the Nenets to practice their religion but these days many Nenets are returning to their old religion again.
    Holy places are also known amongst the Uralian people, in Siberia holy places in nature are marked with moose antlers decorated with offerings and the Saami in Lapland place hallowed stones called "seiteh" on mountain tops and near lakes and rivers.

    The Finns have probably also inherited many aspects of the old Uralic tradition but their religion also contained many Indo-European aspects, they also have beautiful poems about heroes like Leminkainen ("lover"), who is wise, musical, and fond of women, one day he killed the swans of Tuoni (the god of death) and he was ripped to pieces by the sons of Tuoni, but his mother was a magician and she collected the pieces and brought him back to life.
    Another Finnish hero is Vainamoinen, who is very wise and posesses a large amount of magical powers, he is also the warrior of the Kalevala ("Fatherland of the Heroes") where the Finnish mythology book is named after, Vainamoinen once met a beautiful girl and he was allowed to marry her when he would obtain the Sampo (a magical talisman), but he decided to leave this task to his friend Ilmarinen who accomplished it and married the girl, but his new bride was murdered and the Sampo was stolen, after that the hero Leminkainen came and united Vainamoinen and Ilmarinen in their search for the missing Sampo, when they finally found it back it was destroyed by the father of the murdered bride but Vainamoinen was able to retreive some parts and restored some of the power of the Sampo, after that he left on a copper ship on an endless journey.
    The Estonian religion was closely related to that of the Finns and their mythological book is called Kalevapoeg, it tells about a hero named Kalev who founded Estonia, when he was killed his wife Linda wanted to build him a grave and she started piling up big stones in the city of Tallinna (Tallin), when she rolled the last stone towards the grave she broke down crying and was too overwhelmed to finish her husband's grave, her tears formed lake Ulemiste and the last stone of the grave still lies at the shore of the lake, at that same spot the Estonians have raised a statue for Linda.

    Description of the gods: Because of the diversity within the Uralic peoples they do not have a common pantheon of gods, therefor I have decided to describe the gods of the Saami, the Finns, the Estonians, and the Samoyedes to give an idea of their characteristics.

    Saami gods:
  • Madder-Akka is the mothergodess, she is married to Madder-Atcha and together they are the creators of humanity; Madder-Akka created the body and Madder-Atcha created the soul, they have many similarities with the Finnish Akki and Ukko and may be related to them.
    They also had three daughters; Sarakka, who supported women during labour, Juksakka, who made boys by changing the originally feminine gender of the babies, and Uksakka, who protected the interests of the newly born children.
  • Leib-Olmai ("aldertree-man") is the god of bears, the Saami sometimes held bearfeasts in his honour and during those feasts the hunters smeared their faces with an extract of alderbark, a hunter who wanted to kill a bear had to pray to Leib-Olmai to ask his permission.
  • Kied Kie Jumbel is the god of stone and hunting, his nickname is "Lord of the Herds" and the Swedish name of this Saami god is Storjunka ("Great Lord"), offerings were made to him in the form of reindeers and this practice even continued to the 17th century.

    Finnish gods:
  • Ukko, also called Jumala or Mader-Atcha, is the husband of Akka and the leader of the other gods, he is also a god of the sky, clouds, rain, and thunder.
    Jumala and Ukko may have been separate gods who merged together into a new god though another theory states that Ukko eventually replaced Jumala again, Jumala has many similarities with the Indo-European thundergods and the oak was also dedicated to him.
  • Akka, also called Maa-Emoinen, Maan-Eno, Ravdna, Roonikka, Mader-Akka, or Rauni, is the wife of Ukko (the thunder), she is the mothergodess and the godess of harvest, fertility, female sexuality, and earth magic, she was also associated with forests, thunder, and childbirth.
  • Ilmatar, also known as Luonnotar, is the daughter of nature and the air (her father Ilma is the god of air) and the mother of water, she is the creatress of the world.
    According to the Finnish creation myth there was once an empty void like the Germanic Ginnungagap, The forces of nature and the sky (probably in the form of a nature godess and the airgod Ilma) created Luonnotar who was all alone in the void, after some time she gave birth to water and created an enormous sea where she floated in, suddenly a bird appeared and it started building a nest on her knee, by accident Luonnotar disturbed the nest and the eggs broke; the two eggshells became the sky and the earth, the yolks (for non-English speakers; the yellow parts of the eggs) became the sun, the eggwhite became the moon, and the smaller parts of the broken eggshells became the stars.
  • Tuoni is the god of death and the underworld, which was called a dark place called Tuonela or Manala that lay behind a river.
  • Tuonetar, also called Yambe-Akka, is the keeper of the underworld and the wife of Tuoni.
  • Loviator, also called Kipu-Tytto, is the daughter of Tuoni and Tuonetar, she is the godess of evil and diseases.
  • Tapio is the god of forests, trees, water, and forest animals, he is married to Mielikki and the father of Nyyrikki (his son) and Tuulikki (his daughter who was also a windspirit), he carries a cloak made of moss and a fur hat, he also likes to tickle humans to death.
  • Mielikki is a forest godess who is married to Tapio and the mother of Nyyrikki and Tuulikki, she is the patron godess of forest animals (especially bears) and hunting and is also associated with archery and grain.
  • Pellervoinen is the god of trees, plants, fields, harvest, and fertility.
  • Atho, also known as Ahti, is the god of water and the sea, he is married to Vellamo.
  • Kuu is the godess of the moon, not much is known about her.
  • Paiva is the god of the sun, not much is known about him.

    Estonian gods:
  • Taara is the high god and can manifest himself in everything.
  • Uku is the god of thunder and lightning, he has a great temper but also provides rain and a good harvest.
  • Vanetooni is the god of the dead and he guides them to their last resting place.
  • Maaema and Anti are husband and wife and the gods of land and water.
  • Aio is the Estonian version of the Sandman; he brings people to sleep and each night he takes them on a journey in their dreams.
  • Vanejumi is a fertility god, he makes grain grow, flowers blossom, and lets women have children.

    Samoyedic gods:
  • Num is the Samoyedic god of the sky, not much is known about him.
  • Numitorem is the skygod of the Mansi, a Samoyedic tribe that is also called "Vogul", he is probably the same as the aforementioned Num, Numitorem is also the creator and patron god of animals.

    The Uralic peoples in Europe