More on magic in Northern Norway and on the Kven, & languages, & goddesses & witches, publ. on the 17/08/2026

The Sámi people in Northern Europe were also associated with magic, and in the past, many Sámis were unjustly put to death for practicing their spirituality. A fair portion of the Suomen kansan vanhat runot come originally from White Karelia, where the northernmost of the Karelian languages is spoken, known as “White Sea Karelian”, “North Karelian” or “Viena Karelian”, Vienankarjala. 

Historic accounts of sorcery and magic in relation to “Finns”, seem most often to relate to Arctic Europe and to the Sámi, but I personally think that this term “Finns” could well have more generally applied to speakers of the northernmost Finnic languages as well, which are White Sea Karelian and the Peräpohjalaiset murteet as they are known in Finland. The prevalence of rune poems in Northern Karelia is also one of my reasons for thinking that the associations between northernmost Europe and “magic”, also connect in some way to Finnic-speaking cultures.

The Peräpohjalaiset murteet are a “dialect” grouping which encompasses the Finnish language spoken in the northernmost parts of Finland, as well as the Kven or Kainu language in Northern Norway, the Meänkieli language in Northern Sweden, and the Lannankieli language in Northern Sweden. For how long Finnic languages have been spoken in northern Sápmi, and on the shores of the White and Barents Seas, is a matter of debate. 

Some interesting points however, are that the “Bjarmian Languages” were spoken around the White Sea during the Viking period, and, according to what I understand of what is written in Substrata Uralica: Studies on Finno-Ugrian Substrate in Northern Russian Dialects, written by Janne Saarikivi, the Bjarmian languages may have been both Samic and Finnic, which, along with the work of other writers, implies an early presence of Finnic languages in this area. I have also done other writing on this and many of these subjects. To see something I wrote in relation to Bjarmian cognates, do check out the following link: https://www.clwaideac-na-cuinne.co.uk/articles-focusing-on-etymologies-from-july-2025-onwards-pages-e1-to-e28/e1-new-interesting-etymologies-noticed-july-2025 

It is also noteworthy, that in the Kalevala, the entity and goddess Louhi, who can also I think be described as a kind of divine witch, is the ruler of Pohjola. The realm of Pohjola is said to be located “in the north”, and is derived from the word Pohja - “bottom” or “north”, and in Rune 18 of the Kalevala it is described how Väinämöinen sails “north” to the realm of Pohjola. 

This could refer to the north of the Baltic Sea, it could also refer to sailing into the Barents Sea, but Pohja being not a physical realm necessarily, is not specifically said to be in either of these seas. It is interesting however, that Pohjola is one of the Finnish “otherworlds” and is associated with Louhi - a witch goddess associated with death, and how Northern Norway is also associated with witches. It is important that I point out here that “death” was not seen as something inherently evil in many ancient cultures, and that whilst Louhi can be called a “witch goddess” and is associated with death, that does not mean she, nor knowledge of death, were in any way considered “evil” originally. 

One really fascinating bit of folklore I would like to add here concerns Domen, near Vardø (where the largest Norwegian witch trials, also in Sápmi/Kvenland). According to local folklore, the “end of the world”, and the “entrance to hell” were located close to Domen and Vardø (see sources (1) and (2)). 

Now this to me is really fascinating, because Vardø is an island, facing the Barents Sea, and is connected to witches, and Louhi was a kind of witch goddess. Vardø is said to be the “end of the world” and “entrance to hell”, whilst Louhi’s realm, Pohjola is something that might well have been misinterpreted as “hell” by Christians - and in addition, in some stories at least, Pohjola is also associated with the sea, although in the article: Dømt til ild og bål, De ble brent på bålet som hekser og trollmenn. Nå er deres historier blitt kunst, by Wenche Gerhardsen, publ. in 2011 - the “entrance to hell” is said to be located beneath the mountain of Domen. This makes me curious, and certainly these are also examples of northernmost Europe being associated with a kind of subliminal limit on the edge of our known world, which is both represented by the mythology of Pohjola and of Domen, and which seems in some way connected to the spiritual traditions and knowledge of Sámic and Finnic speakers. 

For how long the Kven language has been spoken in Northern Norway, is also a mystery, but it is noteworthy that, whether meaning Sámic or Finnic speakers, the term Kvenland in general reference to northernmost Europe has been used since Medieval times, and I personally see no reason to think that both Finnic and Sámic speakers could not have existed in this area for a very long time. The earliest mention of Kvenland is actually from an Old English adaptation of Historiae adversus paganos, by Paulus Orosius. 

Having spoken to some Kven people recently online, it seems that they are saying that the tradition of "wind-knots" in Northern Norway goes back a long way, and have made the implication that this is connected to the Kvens, although I do not think that the latter point can be confirmed, nevertheless I will chase up the sources on the point of it being attested very early there. 

Another thing of interest that I would like to briefly discuss here, is how, whilst revontulet - "fox's fires" is the general Finnish word for the aurora borealis, it seems that another term used in Pohjolan portit or the "Gates of Pohjola", the realm mentioned further up in this article. This is relevant because of Pohjola and also because of the scientific connection between the aurora borealis and the North Pole, but furthermore it leads into other interesting areas of mythology, and also speculation, because there were even some theories published about over a hundred years ago - theories about people "coming from" the North Pole, although I do not believe humans in general come from there, nor believe the theory really. I haven't even properly read the two resources I know on this, which are: Paradise Found: The Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole, by William Fairfield Warren and published in 1885; and The Arctic Home in the Vedas, written by Bal Gangadhar Tilak and published in 1903. Note that the topics in this article/blog post are different from, but connect to those discussed in the article accessible via the following web address, an article which I recently published but with separate content to that on this page: https://www.clwaideac-na-cuinne.co.uk/articles-about-the-finnish-language-its-dialects-f1-to-f22/f7-syntysanat-ja-syntyloitsut-and-the-wind-knot-sorcery-etc-publ-on-the-15-08-2026 . 

I would also like to discuss how in many respects, Louhi can be described as a "witch goddess" in my opinion, and she also shares several traits with for example the witches known in Western Scottish folklore, including her ability to transform into birds. Some might I think argue that goddesses and witches are different things, and yes in terms of our classical Indo-European literature, aspects of them are described in such a way to give the impression that they always are separate things, but in the folk traditions and spiritual beliefs of some areas, the two are less distinguished. This does not mean that a goddess is always a witch, nor that a witch is always a goddess, but I do believe that many "witches" as they were known transgressed the lines of both of these things. Similarly in many tales about dragons, serpents, wyrms, a person can become a serpent according to many mythological traditions, but not all serpents were originally people. 

The idea that a person can be a god or goddess is something that comes up as an aspect of the human psyche and ego, whether it be in the form of someone feeling that they embody a god or goddess, or in their own unique way become one; or if in the sense of a man, or men, being devotional to woman as their goddess, on emotional and erotic levels, but also on the level of consensually enacting the dynamic of power that gods and goddesses are said to have over humans, and through transferring the concept of "offerings to a deity" (e.g., fruit), to the concept of offering energy and devotion to a woman. 

These things are not inherently bad, but they can easily become abused when people "embody" their own mythology and creative expression in these ways - when not using their empathy actively.

In a sense, becoming a witch can, but does not always, correspond to a similar kind of creative expression and expression of an inner mythology to that which incorporates the inner goddess or deity, or spirits. This does not mean however that people can gain power through this in the same way that our historic accounts of witches and witch-goddesses suggest; that is a thing of the former mythological time or dream-time - well, normally. 

Humans are all different, and I think that whilst a lot of people might want to think of themselves as being a god or a goddess, very few of them are able to, and very few are meant to, embody these things. I certainly do not chose to. But some people do, and I find that interesting, so long as it isn't done in a way that says "I am important and people have to do exactly as I think". That's wrong. But some people do embody it, the ones who I think do it successfully are the people who truly understand the difference between embodying a deity, force, spiritual or mythological identity, and actually being those things in an authoritative sense that assumes power over said force. Maybe goddesses and gods can have experiences as humans, but that doesn't mean that the human aspect is truly directing nor the source of that deity or energy, or identity. We can control ourselves and our actions but we can't command whole archetypes as if they are ours to own - not in an egotistical sense that isn't based on kindness and love. 

I hope that this article was an interesting read, thanks for reading!

References:

(3): Seventeenth-Century Witchcraft Trials in Scotland and Northern Norway, by Willumsen, Liv Helene, publ. at University of Edinburgh in 2008

(4): Statens rolle i trolldomsprosessene i Danmark og Norge på 1500- og 1600-tallet, by Alm, Ellen Janette, publ. in 2000 at UiT.