The mythology of Finland is a commonly applied description of the folklore of Finnish paganism, of which a modern revival is practiced by a small percentage of the Finnish people. It has many features shared with Estonian and other Sami mythologies, but also shares some similarities with neighbouring Baltic, Slavic and, to a lesser extent, Norse mythologies.
Finnish mythology survived within an oral tradition of mythical poem-singing and folklore well into the 19th century.
Of the animals, the most sacred was the bear, whose real name was never uttered out loud, lest his kind be unfavorable to the hunting. The bear ("karhu" in Finnish) was seen as the embodiment of the forefathers, and for this reason it was called by many circumlocutions: mesikämmen ("mead-paw"), otso ("browed one"), kontio ("dweller of the land"), metsän kultaomena ("the golden apple of the forest") but isn't considered a true god.
Good additional sources of literature about Finnish mythology are The Kalevala, while the Kalevipoeg can provide more information about neighbouring Estonian folklore which shares a common origin and background.
Finnish Mythology provides examples of:
- God of the Dead: Finnish folklore contains a trio of death deities. The married couple Tuoni and Tuonetar are respectively the personification of death and the queen of the underworld (Tuonela). Their blind daughter Loviatar is a goddess of disease.
- Plaguemaster: Kipu-tyttö, the goddess of disease.
- Shock and Awe: Ukko/Perkele is the pantheon's God of Thunder who shares the same proto Indo-European roots with many other examples on the trope's page, like Zeus and Thor.
- Top God: Ukko ylijumala, a weather god who may have been influenced by Perkunas of the neighboring Baltic tribes.
