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Illustration of Kirkonväki
Original AI-made illustration based on the descriptions in the sources. Not an official design.
Fael Nɔma 034 wɔ 446 mu

Kirkonväki

Wɔfrɛ no bio: kirkkomaanväki, kalmanväki, churchyard folk, manalaiset
Tete nsɛm ne anansesɛmAwufoɔ a wɔnantewƐsesa1500 kɔsi 1899

Kirkonväki is the Finnish name for the dead as a body, the population of the churchyard acting together. Finnish legend gives them corporeal form, as a congregation of decaying corpses that fills the church at night and mauls any living intruder, though everyday belief treated them more as an invisible, foul-smelling force. They enforced respect for graves and proper burial and could be weaponised by cunning folk. They are the closest thing in Finnish tradition to a horde of the walking dead.1

Fa ko
Wɔdii kan kyerɛw
1551
Related terms occur in Finnish sources from Mikael Agricola (1551) onward; most archive records date from the late 19th century to the 1960s
Mfiase
Finnish
Finland
Deɛ ɛde ba
Ɛfoforɔ
The collective dead of a churchyard, active as a crowd around the church and around any unburied corpse.
Sɛnea wobɛdane bi
The dead buried in the parish churchyard.
Sɛnea ɛkeka ne ho
Ɛsesa
In legends they gather in the church at night as a solid crowd; in personal accounts they pass as a swarm of small figures in the air.
Nyansa
Nyansa kakra
Mmerɛwyɛ
  • precautions when crossing churchyard boundaries
  • leaving something behind: in one legend a man escapes by dropping his fur coat on the church threshold, and the dead tear the coat apart

Ɛberɛ bɛn na ɛdii kan puee?

Tete wiaseMfinimfini Mmerɛ1500 kɔsi 18991900 kɔsi 19671968 kɔsi 19992000 kɔsi 20092010 kɔsi ɛnnɛ1551

Related terms occur in Finnish sources from Mikael Agricola (1551) onward; most archive records date from the late 19th century to the 1960s

nhwehwɛmu nsɛm

Deɛ fibea no ka

1

The word means 'churchyard folk', but väki also carries an older sense of 'force' or 'power'1

2

In legends they look like ordinary people or like rotting corpses and skeletons1

3

A migratory legend tells of the dead holding their own Christmas service and attacking a living person who walks in1

4

They reek of death; seers can see them, others only smell them1

5

Churchyard soil, bones or splinters of grave markers could be used to 'send' them against an enemy or set them on a thief1

6

Kaarina Koski's study draws on more than 2,000 records in the Finnish Literature Society's archives, richest in Ostrobothnia1

Wobɛtumi atu mmirika aboro no?

Ahoɔhare kuo a efi sɛnea fibea kyerɛkyerɛ mu (ɛsesa), ɛnyɛ susudua.

Wo, nantew bɛyɛ 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
Wo, mmirika brɛoo bɛyɛ 10 km/h (6.2 mph)
Kirkonväki bɛyɛ 10 km/h (6.2 mph)
Ɔpanin a ne ho yɛ den a ɔtu mmirika denden bɛyɛ 24 km/h (15 mph)
Sakrekafoɔ a ɔyɛ ntɛm bɛyɛ 37 km/h (23 mph)

Fibea

  1. Kaarina Koski, 'Conceptual Analysis and Variation in Belief Tradition: A Case of Death-Related Beings', Folklore 38 (2008)

Asɛm biara a ɛwɔ krataafa yi so fi saa fibea yi mu, na yɛde yɛn ankasa nsɛm na akyerɛw. Wohunuu mfomsoɔ bi? Ka kyerɛ yɛn wɔ [email protected].

Ma dɔm no aduane. Dawurubɔ nni hɔ, trackers nni hɔ, onipa baako na ɔtua ho ka. Akyɛdeɛ ma ɛkɔ so wɔ intanɛt so.Ma akyɛdeɛ

Berɛ koro: 1500 kɔsi 1899

JiangshiChinese, 1789Zombi (Haitian)Haitian (Vodou folklore), 1750StrigoiRomanian, 1714Vampir (South Slavic)South Slavic (Serbian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Bosnian), 1725AbhartachIrish, 1870Arnold PaoleSerbian, 1732
Ma dɔm no aduaneMa akyɛdeɛ