Fern Flower
Published on March 25, 2024

Metelilainen

  • Munkkilainen

Regions of expansion

Russia 1 Finland 1
Finland
Russian Federation

Description

A popular legend that tells about the giant people. The Metelilainen, so they were nicknamed because, moving through the forest, the giants made a lot of noise. Translated, Metelilainen means "making noise". 

Over time, the Finns and Laplanders displaced the giant people, and they were forced to leave the Karelian lands.

But even in our time, local residents find a lot of evidence that the Metelilien really once lived in these parts. This is evidenced by: strange places with piles of huge stones, huge remains, as well as plows of incredible size.

The book by the outstanding Finnish ethnographer and archaeologist Theodor Schwindt "Folk Legends of the northwestern Ladoga region, collected in the summer of 1879", published in St. Petersburg in 1880 and has long become a bibliographic rarity, also provides unique information about the "giants of the ancient land of Korel":

"On the Ladoga coast," writes T. Schwindt, "there is a legend that once upon a time huge people lived in these places, the so—called metelilainen, or Munkkilainen, who were gradually displaced from here by Laplanders and Finns."

Metelilainen in popular culture