Maaemä

Maaemä ( Finnish) or Maaema (Estonian) is a goddess or earth itself in Finnish and Estonian mythologies. She is sometimes called the wife of Ukko but this is not certain.

In runic songs

In runic songs, the earth itself is sometimes called maaemä ("earth mother"). It is, varying by song, said that ''maaemä'' is a mother, or that there is a mother who resides in or came from ''maaemä''. ''Maaemä'' is sometimes set as the opposite of a father in the sky or Ukko: ''Ukon voima taivahasta, / maasta maan emoisen voima!'' ("Ukko's power from the sky, the power of the little earth mother from the earth!").

According to Uno Harva, when some runic songs mention that the vegetation haltija Sampsa Pellervoinen "laid with his mother", the mother in question is Maaemä.

Due to later Christian influence, earth is even called the creator mother of Jesus.

Descriptions

In 1789, Christfried Ganander wrote in '' Mythologia Fennica'' that Maan-Emonen is the wife of Ukko and someone who gave strength. Thus, he equated Maan-Emonen with Rauni, an unclear name mentioned by Mikael Agricola in 1551. It is not clear whether the name Rauni refers to Ukko himself, Ukko's wife, or a whole separate fertility-related deity based on Freyr (such as Virankannos). Ganander's statement on the marriage of Ukko and Maaemä is an assumption fully based on the fact that they were "prayed to at the same time".

If she is the same as Manteren akka mentioned in runic songs, then her equivalent would be the Sámi goddess Máttaráhkká, who helps with giving birth. Among the Sámi in Kola Peninsula, ''mändir-ähke'' means a "parent's grandmother". With this, Kaarle Krohn came to the conclusion that Manteren akka is a female ancestor buried in the ground who was primarily worshipped by women, and respecting earth as the mother of all the living is a later adaptation for the Finns.

In Estonia, there were multiple beings or terms associated with the earth: maaema ("earth mother"), maaisa ("earth father"), maajumal ("earth god"), maavaim ("earth spirit") and maahaldjas ("earth haltija", in Northern Estonia). The earth deities were honoured during celebrations such as solstices. Offerings of milk products were taken into the Midsummer bonfire to ensure good luck and harvest, saying: "Dear maajumal, accept this small amount!" (''Armas maajumal, lepi selle vähesegagi!''). Elsewhere on Midsummer, mothers with their children went around the bonfire thrice and then secretly took offerings of food to sacrifical stones and said: "Maaema, you gave it to me and now I bring it to you; accept what I've received from your hand!" (''Maaema, sa andsid mulle, nüüd toon sulle; võta vastu, mis ma sinu käest olen saanud!''). Maaema was the primary term, as earth itself was seen as the earth mother. One would not want to hit the ground or field, for "earth is our mother". Similarly, it was said that if you stabbed the ground, it was like stabbing your own mother in the chest. There are records of the Estonians of Opochetsky Uyezd giving drink offerings to the earth god by pouring it to the ground. Similar drink offerings were also given to the Estonian lightning god Pikne.

Name

She is referred to with various terms, such as ''Maaemä/Maaema/Maaemo'' ("earth mother") or ''Maan emonen'' ("little mother of earth").

Krohn connected ''maaemä'' to various other terms which appear in runic songs: ''maan emäntä'' ("mistress of earth") and ''akka manteren alainen'' ("old woman under the land"). Names he attached to her include Maatar (Kainuu), Mannutar (Karelia), Maanhutar (Savonia (historical province), Savonia), Manutar (Karelia and Savonia), and the widely known Mammotar. These figures appear in runic songs as the mother of stones and snakes. A White Karelian poem gives Manutar the synonyms Penkeretär and Kunnotar, which made Krohn wonder if she is the same as Kunotar who, according to Ganander, gave birth to Väinämöinen's father. He suggests the connection of this Kunnotar and the Swedish word ''qvinna'' ("woman").Krohn (1914:139–141).

Ganander also called her Akka ("old woman", "wife"), which parallels the name of Ukko ("old man", "husband").

Relation to Mammotar

While Krohn connected Maaemä to Mammotar, not everyone has agreed. Ganander listed Mammotar as the patroness of stones and the mother of snakes, a witch who lives underground. (In most runic songs of the origin of snakes, snakes were born out of Syöjätär's spit.) He connected "Mammelainen" to Hecate. In Haavio's opinion, Mammotar comes from Latin ''mater'' or Greek ''mḗtēr'' ("mother") and refers to the mother of demons such as Lilith. The name does sometimes appear alongside Syöjätär, other demons, and Lemmetär, and a Kainuu rune singer claimed ''maaja'' in the Maajatar version of the name means "wrath"—or at least that is a note the collector of the runic song, Julius Krohn, wrote down.

Epithets

Notes

References

*Carlyon, Richard (1981). ''A guide to the gods''. Heinemann/Quixote. .
*Ganander, Christfried (1789). ''Mythologia Fennica''. Turku.
*Guirand, Félix (1959). ''Larousse encyclopedia of mythology''. Prometheus Press.
*Haavio, Martti (1967). ''Suomalainen mytologia''. Helsinki: WSOY (original), Finnish Literature Society. .
*Harva, Uno (1948). ''Suomalaisten muinaisusko''. Helsinki: WSOY (original), Finnish Literature Society. .
*Krohn, Kaarle (1914). ''Suomalaisten runojen uskonto''. Porvoo: Finnish Literature Society.
*Paulson, Ivar (1966). ''Vana eesti rahvausk: Usundiloolisi esseid''. Stockholm: Vaba Eesti.
*Pulkkinen, Risto; Lindfors, Stina (2016). ''Suomalaisen kansanuskon sanakirja''. Gaudeamus. .

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maaema
Finnish goddesses
Earth goddesses
Estonian goddesses