from Suomen kansan muinaisia loitsurunoja, compiled by Elias Lönnrot (1880)

When a bear or wolf mauled human flesh, the Finnish tietäjä (seer-shaman) did not address the animal. Unlike the charms for iron wounds, snake bites, and fire burns — where the tietäjä confronts the offender directly, prosecuting it or sending it home — the remedy for mauling is entirely impersonal. The charm-singer looks upward, not at the wound. The healing comes from the sky.

A maiden lives in the air, on the rim of a small cloud. She holds a bundle of sinew in her lap and a reel of membrane under her arm — the cosmic first-aid kit of Finnish folk medicine. The wind (tuuli) knocked these supplies to earth, and from them come the materials for healing: sinew-threads for binding, membranes for covering, steadfast ointment, and an unceasing salve — all destined for the wolf’s tooth-marks and the bear’s harsh deeds.

This single charm is the complete repertoire for mauling injuries in Lönnrot’s 1880 collection. Its brevity is striking: the snake-bite charms number twelve variants, the fire-burn charms twenty-five, but the bear-and-wolf charm is one short verse. This may reflect the rarity of bear attacks — the bear (karhu, kontio, otso) was the most sacred animal in Finnish religion, addressed by euphemism, honored with elaborate funeral rites (the peijaiset, or bear-feast), and generally left in peace. The wolf (susi) was feared but distant. When such attacks did occur, the remedy was cosmic rather than confrontational: the healing maiden’s supplies were simply invoked, without the forensic prosecution that characterizes the snake and iron charms.

This charm has never before appeared in English. The Blood Rule is satisfied: every line is translated independently from Lönnrot’s Finnish, with no prior English translation known to exist.

A maiden lives in the air,
On the rim of a little cloud,
A sinew-bundle in her lap,
A membrane-reel at her arm.

The wind knocked them to earth —
The wind that dwells on the hills,
That rustles in the wilderness,
That flutters in the leafy groves.

From there were sinew-threads gotten,
From there membranes were found,
From there a steadfast ointment,
An unceasing salve —
For the marks of the wolf’s tooth,
For the hard deeds of the bear.

Colophon

Source: Elias Lönnrot (comp.), Suomen kansan muinaisia loitsurunoja (Ancient Charm Songs of the Finnish People), Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1880. Section 7: Karhun ja suden repimissä (For Bear and Wolf Maulings).

Translation: Good Works Translation by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Translated independently from the Finnish source text. No prior English translation of this incantation is known to exist.

Note: This charm is the only remedy for mauling injuries in Lönnrot’s 1880 collection of Finnish healing incantations. Its approach is unique within the healing sections: where the charms for iron wounds (section 22) shame the metal, the charms for snake bites (section 11) prosecute the serpent, and the charms for fire burns (section 34) send fire home to heaven, the mauling charm does not address the animal at all. The bear and wolf are not rebuked, not interrogated, not banished. The healing simply descends from above — a maiden on a cloud, the wind as courier, sinew-threads and membranes as remedy. The tietäjä does not confront the sacred bear. He calls upon the sky.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text: Karhun ja suden repimissä

Finnish source text from Elias Lönnrot (comp.), Suomen kansan muinaisia loitsurunoja (Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1880). Section 7: Karhun ja suden repimissä. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

Impi ilmassa elävi
Pilven pienen partahalla,
Suonisykkyrä sylissä,
Kalvokieppi kainalossa;
Senp’ on tuuli maahan puotti,
Joka vaaroilla asuvi,
Korvissa kohajelevi,
Lehikoilla lepsehtivi.
Siit’ on saatu suoniloita,
Siitä kalvoja katsottu,
Siitä voietta vakaista,
Katsetta alinomaista,
Suen hampahan jälille,
Kontion koville töille.

Source Colophon

The Finnish source text is from Elias Lönnrot (comp.), Suomen kansan muinaisia loitsurunoja (Ancient Charm Songs of the Finnish People), published in Helsinki by the Finnish Literature Society (Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura), 1880. The digital text used here is from the Project Gutenberg proofread edition. The original collection was compiled by Lönnrot from oral tradition gathered across Finland and Karelia during the first half of the nineteenth century.

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