Work-Repair Words and Wrath-Removal Words of the Charm-Singer

From Lönnrot's Collection of Ancient Finnish Charm Songs

The Työnsä korjaussanoja — Work-Repair Words — are the tietäjä's emergency protocol. When a spell has gone wrong, when magic intended to heal has instead caused harm, the charm-singer does not panic. He addresses the offending force as a parent addresses a wayward child: "Come back. Know what you have done. Repair it — or I will tell your mother." The threat is not violence but shame. The spirit or curse is treated as a young person who has acted foolishly and whose elder will be grieved. This is meta-magic: magic applied to magic itself.

The second part of this section, the Vihotussanoja — Wrath-Removal Words — dissolves anger that has been loosed into the world. Whether magical or human, wrath is addressed as a substance that can be cast into brushwood, sunk into the bottomless sea, melted like salt in water, or driven to the sunless shores of dark Pohjola. The longest charms build cascading geographies of banishment — from the bright grassland to the frost-mound, from the burning whirlpool to the iron serpent's mouth, from the harsh fell to the cold north wind's domain. The final charm turns the anger back upon itself: "Eat your own wrath. Drink your own pain as wine. Let it curl into your heart and drive down into your gall."

These incantations were collected by Elias Lönnrot and published in Suomen kansan muinaisia loitsurunoja (Ancient Charm Songs of the Finnish People, Helsinki, 1880). This is the fifth file in the charm-singer sequence, following the Foundational Words, Protection Words, Evil Eye Words, and Retribution Words. Translated from the Finnish by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

Työnsä korjaussanoja — Work-Repair Words

a.

Come to know your work,
To heal your evil,
To anoint your wound,
To soothe your pain,
Before I tell your mother,
Whisper it to your elder:
Your son has done evil,
Your child has done dreadful work.
Greater is the mother's care,
Great the burden on the elder,
When healing evils,
When undoing spells —
When the son does wrong,
When the child ruins foolishly.

b.

If you are a heart-eater,
Or a lung-twister,
Or a liver-crusher,
A side-shifter,
A brow-borer,
A tooth-scatterer,
A jaw-stretcher,
A shoulder-blade slider —
Come here to feel shame,
To repair your work,
Or I will tell your mother,
Give your father notice;
Much work has the mother
Treading the son's paths,
Gathering up his traces,
Anointing the wounds.

c.

Come here, hurry yourself
To be shamed by your work,
To smell your wounds,
To lick your hurts
With your honeyed lips,
With your honeyed tongue!
Take the pains in your mouth,
Let them sink beneath your teeth,
Into your jawbone's hollow,
The wounds into your own belly.
After you have done evil's mischief,
After you have wrought evil work —
Evil to you, evil to me,
Evil to us both.
If you have done evil,
Do better when you heal:
It is better for yourself,
Easier for your spirit.

Vihotussanoja — Wrath-Removal Words

a.

Away the furies of wrath,
Pure blessing in their place.
When I have spoken with my mouth,
When I have sighed with my breath —
Let hatreds roll into water,
Let evils sink into earth,
As a stone into the wave,
As iron drives into the billow!

Take your anger away from here,
Carry your bitterness elsewhere.

b.

Cast your anger into the brushwood,
Your bitterness into the aspens,
Into the bright grassland,
Among the withered stubble,
Or dig into the heath,
Into the earth beneath the tussock,
Among the windfall timber,
Into the frost-mound's heart!
You shall find no place there.
Cast your anger yonder,
Push your ruin yonder,
Let your harm sink yonder
Into Turja's hard rapids,
Into the burning whirlpool,
To go cooling itself
In the bottomless sea,
Into the iron serpent's mouth,
Into the sea-worm's maw!
You shall find no place there.
Roll your anger yonder,
Drive your fury yonder
To the peak of the harsh fell,
To the edge of the stout cliff,
For the wind to batter,
For the cold air to carry,
For the north wind to chase
Into dark Pohjola,
To the sunless shores!

c.

May your anger melt
As salt melted in the sea.

May your evil sink
As sand sank into water,
May your affliction wilt
As wax wilted in fire,
May your bitterness vanish
As dew on the heath
From the skin of a poor babe,
From the hide of one woman-made!
Tar is soft in the making,
Grease when melted on the skillet,
Softer still your anger,
Smokier even than that!
So your anger melts
As butter in the melting,
Summer-milk in the milking,
Or a winter ice-hole!

d.

May your anger melt,
May your hostility change
To the melting of soft butter,
To the sweetness of milk!
Softer is God's mercy,
More gracious the Creator's grace.
Honey-mead flows from your mouth,
Nectar boils from your tongue
Upon your evil doings,
Upon your crooked creations!
Draw the love-leaf over,
Slide the golden lily,
That there be no week of wrath,
Nor long bitterness!

e.

Eat your own anger yourself,
Your own evils into your mouth,
Strange spells into your throat,
Pains into your gullet;
Drink your anger as wine,
Your own pains as ale,
Your bitterness as sour water,
Your evil spells as milk,
Go, mind-bitterness,
As egg-butter your sorrows.
Through your bony jawbones,
Through your bitter teeth,
Through the dry throat-pipe,
Through the root of your tongue
Into your golden bowels,
Into your copper belly,
Into your yellow lungs,
Into your sweet liver —
Curl up into your heart,
Drive down into your gall.

Colophon

These incantations are from Elias Lönnrot's Suomen kansan muinaisia loitsurunoja (Ancient Charm Songs of the Finnish People), published by the Finnish Literary Society (SKS) in Helsinki, 1880, as Volume 62 of the SKS Toimituksia series. The Työnsä korjaussanoja occupy lines 2835–2908 and the Vihotussanoja lines 2916–3083 of the digitized text.

The Työnsä korjaussanoja represent one of the rarest categories in Finnish shamanic literature: charms for repairing the charm-singer's own failed magic. They reveal an ethical framework within Finnish folk magic — the expectation that magical harm, even if unintentional, must be acknowledged and healed. The personification of the errant spell as a wayward child whose mother will be ashamed suggests a cosmology in which all magical forces have origins and obligations.

The Vihotussanoja — wrath-removal charms — are among the most poetically developed incantations in the collection, building cascading geographies of banishment from the local landscape (brushwood, aspens, tussocks) through cosmic geography (Turja's rapids, the iron serpent, dark Pohjola) to the final, devastating reversal: the anger consumed by its own maker.

Translated from the Finnish by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. No existing English translation of these specific incantations was consulted or is known to exist. This is a first English translation.

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

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Source Text

Työnsä korjaussanoja.

Tule työsi tuntemahan,
Pahasi parantamahan,
Kipeäsi voitamahan,
Vaivasi valelemahan,
Ennen kun sanon emolle,
Virkan vierin vanhemmalle:
Poikasi teki pahoa.
Lapsesi tihua työtä.
Enemp' on emolla huolta,
10 Vaiva suuri vanhemmalla,
Pahoja parantaessa,
Tammottaissa taikioita.
Kun poika pahoin tekevi,
Lapsi tuhmin turmelevi.

Jos olet syämen syöjä,
Tahi keuhkon kierteliä.
Tahi maksojen maruja,
Sivuloien siirteliä.
Kulmien kolottelia.
Hammasten hajottelia.
Leukojen levitteliä,
Lapaluien luistelia.
Käy tänne häpeämähän,
10 Töitäsi parantamahan,
Tahikka sanon emolle.
Isällesi ilmi annan;
Äijä on emolla työtä
Pojan teitä polkiessa,
Jälkilöitä korjatessa.
Kipeitä voiellessa.

Tule tänne, jou'utaite
Töitäsi häpeämähän.
Haavojasi haistamahan,
Kipeäsi nuolemahan.
Metisillä huulillasi.
Metisellä kielelläsi!
Ota suuhusi kipeät.
Haiku alle hammastesi,
Leuku leukapielihisi,
10 Vammat vatsahan omahan.
Pahan pillan tehtyäsi,
Pahan työn suettuasi.
Pahan sulle, pahan mulle,
Pahan meille kummallenki.
Jos olet pahoa tehnyt,
Teet paremmin, kun parannat,
Hyvempi on itsellesi,
Helpompi on hengellesi.

Vihotussanoja.

Pois vihojen vimmaukset,
Puhas siunaus sijahan.
Minun suin puheltuani.
Hengin huokaeltuani;
Vihat vierköhöt vetehen,
Pahat maahan painukohon.
Niinkuin kivi lainehesen,
Rauta aaltohon ajaikse!

Vie pois vihasi tästä,
Muunne kanna karvahasi;

Visko viitahan vihasi,
Haikeasi haavistohon,
Heleähän heinikkohon,
Kulon kaltaisen sekahan,
Tahi kaiva kankahasen,
Maaperähän mättähäsen,
Tuulimurtojen sekahan,
10 Karasmättähän sisähän!
Et siellä sijoa saane,
Tuonne sie vihasi visko,
Tuonne tunge turmiosi,
Tuonne vammasi vajota.
Turjan koskehen kovahan,
Palavahan pyörtehesen,
Mennä viiletelläksensä
Pohjattomahan merehen.
Suuhun rautaisen matehen,
20 Merinauan nauttehesen!
Et siellä sijoa saane.
Tuonne vieretä vihasi,
Tuonne aja ailahasi.
Tuiman tunturin laelle.
Vaaran vankan liepehelle.
Tuulen tuljuteltavaksi.
Vilun ilman vietäväksi,
Ahavan ajeltavaksi.
Pimeähän Pohjolahan,
30 Päivättömille perille!

Sulakohot sun vihasi
Kuin suola suli meressä.

Painukohot sun pahasi
Kuin hiekka vetehen painui,
Vaipukohot vaikeasi
Kuin vaha tulessa vaipui,
Kaotkohot karvahasi
Kuin on kaste kankahalla
Ihosta imehno raukan,
10 Karvasta kavon tekemän!
Sula on terva tehtäessä,
Rasva räyvyteltäessä,
Sulemmaksi sun vihasi,
Räykeämmäksi sitäki!
Niin sulat sinun vihasi
Kuin on voi sulattaessa,
Kesämaito lypsettäissä.
Tahi talvinen avento!

Sulakohot sun vihasi,
Muuttukohot muojuesi
Voin sulan sulautehen,
Maitosen makeutehen!
Sulempi Jumalan armo,
Armo Luojan armahampi.
Sima suustasi sula'a,
Mesi keitä kieleltäsi.
Panemillesi pahoille,
10 Luomillesi kykkyröille!
Veä päälle lemmen lehti.
Kultalumme luikahuta,
Jottei viikkoa vihoa.
Eikä kauvan karvastele!

Syö itse sinun vihasi,
Suuhusi omat pahasi,
Panot kummat kulkkuhusi,
Kipeät kitusihisi;
Juovos viinana vihasi,
Olunna omat kipusi,
Hapanvennä haikeasi.
Maitona pahat panosi,
Mennä mielikarvahasi,
10 Munavoina murtehesi.
Läpi luisten leukaluusi,
Läpi haikuhammastesi,
Läpi kuivan kulkkutorven.
Kautta kielenkantimesi
Kupuhusi kultaisehen,
Vaskisehen vatsahasi,
Keltaisihin keuhkoihisi,
Makeihin maksoihisi.
Sykerrytä syömehesi,
20 Saata sappesi sisähän.

Source Colophon

Lönnrot, Elias (compiler). Suomen kansan muinaisia loitsurunoja. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura (SKS Toimituksia 62), 1880. Digitized text accessed via archive.org (identifier: suomenkansanmui00lngoog). OCR artifacts corrected where identifiable: Yaiyasi → Vaivasi, Yirkan → Virkan, Basva → Rasva, Tnulimnrtojen → Tuulimurtojen, YIHOTUSSANOJTA → Vihotussanoja.

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