The Maiden of Finland ( fi, Suomi-neito, sv, Finlands mö) is the

national personification A national personification is an anthropomorphic personification of a state or the people(s) it inhabits. It may appear in political cartoons and propaganda. Some early personifications in the Western world tended to be national manifestations ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

Personification

She is a barefoot young woman in her mid-twenties with blonde hair, blue eyes, wearing a blue and white

national costume A folk costume (also regional costume, national costume, traditional garment, or traditional regalia) expresses an identity through costume, which is usually associated with a geographic area or a period of time in history. It can also indicat ...

or a white dress. She was originally called Aura after the Aura River in

Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...

. As a symbol, the Finnish Maiden has been used since the 19th century when she was pictured as a woman wearing a turreted crown, and then developing as Finland gained a national consciousness and independence. She was depicted in poetry and fine arts.

Zachris Topelius Zachris Topelius (, ; 14 January 181812 March 1898) was a Finnish author, poet, journalist, historian, and rector of the University of Helsinki who wrote novels related to Finnish history. Given name Zacharias is his baptismal name, and this ...

and

Walter Runeberg Walter Magnus Runeberg (29 December 1838 – 23 December 1920) was a Finnish neo-classical sculptor. He was the son of Finnish national epic poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg. Biography Runeberg was born in Porvoo as the eldest son of J. L. Runeberg ...

were important in establishing the Finnish Maiden as a symbol. Like the

Mother Svea Mother Svea or ''Mother Swea'' (Swedish: ''Moder Svea'') is the female personification of Sweden and a patriotic emblem of the Swedish nation. Background Mother Svea is normally depicted as a powerful female warrior, valkyrie or shieldmaid ...

of neighbouring

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, the Finnish maiden was, at first, a mature woman, but gradually became younger. Suomineito

Mapping issues

The Maiden of Finland can also refer to the

shape A shape or figure is a graphics, graphical representation of an object or its external boundary, outline, or external Surface (mathematics), surface, as opposed to other properties such as color, Surface texture, texture, or material type. A pl ...

of Finland on a map. It's imagined as a female form which has one hand raised (and another, before the Moscow Armistice of 1944), a head, and a skirt. The metaphor is so commonly used that the northwestern area around

Enontekiö Enontekiö (; sme, Eanodat ; sv, Enontekis; smn, Iänudâh; sms, Jeänõk) is a municipality in the Finnish part of Lapland with approx. inhabitants. It is situated in the outermost northwest of the country and occupies a large and very spars ...

is known as the "arm" (''Käsivarsi'') even in official contexts.Map of Käsivarsi
Forest authority

References

External links

473 - A Map of One Arm Waving: Suomi-Neito
Strange Maps bigthink.com
Finlandia by Jean Sibelius- thisisFINLAND
National personifications National symbols of Finland Fictional Finnish people {{Culture-stub