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Ukko
Ukko (Finnish: [ˈukːo]), is a thunder and weather god in Finnish mythology, whose vital role is fertilizing fields with his thunder and rain.
Unto Salo believes that Ilmari, the Finnic sky god, is the origin of Ukko, but that as Ukko Ilmari experienced very significant, although far from total, influence from the Indo-European sky god especially in the form of Thor. Eemil Nestor Setälä also stated that Ukko can't be a very old name for a god and that the thunder god cult among Finns was of Germanic origin. According to Martti Haavio, the name Ukko was sometimes used as a common noun or generalised epithet for multiple deities instead of denoting a specific god. In 1789, Christfried Ganander wrote that the forest god Tapio was sometimes honoured with the name Ukko.
Ukko is parallel to Uku in Estonian mythology, but it is highly debated if such god was ever worshipped in Estonia. According to the Etymological Dictionary of the Finnish Language, the word was loaned into Estonian from Finnish and the first to use it in the sense of a high god was Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald in the 1830s. Kaarle Krohn believed Kreutzwald had confused the Finnish Ukon vakka and Ingrian Ukko vak, a sacrifice to Ukko, with the Estonian Tõnni vak, a sacrifice to the household spirit. There has also been a mention of sacrificial stones in Estonia called Ukko's stones. According to Oskar Loorits, Kreutzwald had copied "high god Uku" from Finnish Christfried Ganander, but the Ukko cult had many Scandinavian features which had also spread to the coasts of Virumaa, Estonia.
Ukkonen, the Finnish word for thunder, is the diminutive form of the name Ukko. Ukko is Finnish for 'male grandparent', 'grandfather', and 'old man'.
According to Matthias Castrén, Ukko as the name of a god can't be very old, or at least not the oldest, because it does not exist in a wider Finno-Ugric area apart from Finland, Estonia and, in a slightly modified form, Lapland. The mainly western word Äijä (Finnish: [ˈæi̯jæ]), which has the same meaning as the word ukko, could also be connected to a thunder god: In Uusimaa, äijä jyrittää (lit. 'old man is rumbling') has meant thunder. Salo and Uno Harva have also pointed out the Estonian terms äiä hoog 'thunder rain' and äikene 'thunder'. Thunder is also connected to a "grandfather" in Selkup, languages with a distant relation to Finnish, where thunder can be called iĺč́a totta (lit. 'grandfather is cursing'). Sometimes iĺč́a (lit. 'grandfather') is replaced with Nom (lit. 'god, sky'): numi̬t č́ari̬ (lit. 'voice of Num/sound of the sky'). Similar meaning is found from some of the names of the Sámi thunder god: Aija, Aije, or Aijeke.
In runic songs, Ukko is also given the epithet ylijumala (lit. 'High God'), which earlier writers have understood meaning Ukko's role as the supreme god and ruler of other gods. Julius Krohn emphasised that Ukko was not the leader of other gods, stating that this hierarchy had been created by Elias Lönnrot. According to Haavio, this epithet refers to Ukko's location: on high in the sky. Haavio also brought up the name Remu which appears in runic songs, suggesting it to be a loan from Slavic languages (compare to Russian and Old Slavonic grom 'thunder'). The name Tuuri appeared in Western Finland for a thunder god, loaned from Thor. Same might appear in a runic song from White Karelia.
Other names for Ukko include Pitkänen (pitkä, 'long'), Isäinen (isä, 'father'), Isoinen (iso, archaic form of the above, modern meaning 'great', 'big' or 'large'). These could be euphemisms, as Jacob Fellman wrote the Sámi didn't dare to utter the name of their thunder god when it was thundering, and the same could've been true for Finns. Forest Finns used the euphemisms ylkäinen and ylikäinen, meaning something or someone who is above. A similar meaning for the name of a thunder god exists among the Sámi as Pajonn, which might also be loaned as Pajainen in Savo.
A runic song from South Ostrobothnia mentions Pitkämöönen striking fire. In the same context, another runic song from South Ostrobothnia mentions Väinämöinen in this part, and a runic song from Kainuu mentions Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen (Ilman rinta).
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Ukko
Ukko (Finnish: [ˈukːo]), is a thunder and weather god in Finnish mythology, whose vital role is fertilizing fields with his thunder and rain.
Unto Salo believes that Ilmari, the Finnic sky god, is the origin of Ukko, but that as Ukko Ilmari experienced very significant, although far from total, influence from the Indo-European sky god especially in the form of Thor. Eemil Nestor Setälä also stated that Ukko can't be a very old name for a god and that the thunder god cult among Finns was of Germanic origin. According to Martti Haavio, the name Ukko was sometimes used as a common noun or generalised epithet for multiple deities instead of denoting a specific god. In 1789, Christfried Ganander wrote that the forest god Tapio was sometimes honoured with the name Ukko.
Ukko is parallel to Uku in Estonian mythology, but it is highly debated if such god was ever worshipped in Estonia. According to the Etymological Dictionary of the Finnish Language, the word was loaned into Estonian from Finnish and the first to use it in the sense of a high god was Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald in the 1830s. Kaarle Krohn believed Kreutzwald had confused the Finnish Ukon vakka and Ingrian Ukko vak, a sacrifice to Ukko, with the Estonian Tõnni vak, a sacrifice to the household spirit. There has also been a mention of sacrificial stones in Estonia called Ukko's stones. According to Oskar Loorits, Kreutzwald had copied "high god Uku" from Finnish Christfried Ganander, but the Ukko cult had many Scandinavian features which had also spread to the coasts of Virumaa, Estonia.
Ukkonen, the Finnish word for thunder, is the diminutive form of the name Ukko. Ukko is Finnish for 'male grandparent', 'grandfather', and 'old man'.
According to Matthias Castrén, Ukko as the name of a god can't be very old, or at least not the oldest, because it does not exist in a wider Finno-Ugric area apart from Finland, Estonia and, in a slightly modified form, Lapland. The mainly western word Äijä (Finnish: [ˈæi̯jæ]), which has the same meaning as the word ukko, could also be connected to a thunder god: In Uusimaa, äijä jyrittää (lit. 'old man is rumbling') has meant thunder. Salo and Uno Harva have also pointed out the Estonian terms äiä hoog 'thunder rain' and äikene 'thunder'. Thunder is also connected to a "grandfather" in Selkup, languages with a distant relation to Finnish, where thunder can be called iĺč́a totta (lit. 'grandfather is cursing'). Sometimes iĺč́a (lit. 'grandfather') is replaced with Nom (lit. 'god, sky'): numi̬t č́ari̬ (lit. 'voice of Num/sound of the sky'). Similar meaning is found from some of the names of the Sámi thunder god: Aija, Aije, or Aijeke.
In runic songs, Ukko is also given the epithet ylijumala (lit. 'High God'), which earlier writers have understood meaning Ukko's role as the supreme god and ruler of other gods. Julius Krohn emphasised that Ukko was not the leader of other gods, stating that this hierarchy had been created by Elias Lönnrot. According to Haavio, this epithet refers to Ukko's location: on high in the sky. Haavio also brought up the name Remu which appears in runic songs, suggesting it to be a loan from Slavic languages (compare to Russian and Old Slavonic grom 'thunder'). The name Tuuri appeared in Western Finland for a thunder god, loaned from Thor. Same might appear in a runic song from White Karelia.
Other names for Ukko include Pitkänen (pitkä, 'long'), Isäinen (isä, 'father'), Isoinen (iso, archaic form of the above, modern meaning 'great', 'big' or 'large'). These could be euphemisms, as Jacob Fellman wrote the Sámi didn't dare to utter the name of their thunder god when it was thundering, and the same could've been true for Finns. Forest Finns used the euphemisms ylkäinen and ylikäinen, meaning something or someone who is above. A similar meaning for the name of a thunder god exists among the Sámi as Pajonn, which might also be loaned as Pajainen in Savo.
A runic song from South Ostrobothnia mentions Pitkämöönen striking fire. In the same context, another runic song from South Ostrobothnia mentions Väinämöinen in this part, and a runic song from Kainuu mentions Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen (Ilman rinta).