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Illustration of Kodukäija
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Kodukäija

Wɔfrɛ no bio: kodukäijad, home-wanderer, Estonian revenant
Tete nsɛm ne anansesɛmAwufoɔ a wɔnantewƐsesaOwuo bɔne anaa ayie a ɛnkɔɔ yie1500 kɔsi 1899

The kodukäija is the restless dead of Estonian folk belief, a deceased person who returns to the farm outside the sanctioned autumn 'time of souls'. It ranges from a worried parent checking on children to a hostile corpse that wrestles travellers by moonlight and kills livestock. Estonian funerals carried a whole apparatus against it, from sweeping away the mourners' footprints to burying the body face down. It is the Baltic-Finnic counterpart of the Scandinavian gjenganger and the German Wiedergänger, and it remained a living belief into the 20th century.12

Fa ko
Wɔdii kan kyerɛw
1860
Systematic records begin with Jakob Hurt's folklore collection (1860-1906); the belief itself is older
Mfiase
Estonian
Estonia
Deɛ ɛde ba
Owuo bɔne anaa ayie a ɛnkɔɔ yie
Folklorist Eha Viluoja traces most returns to a flaw in the passage out of life: a violent or lonely death, a botched or missing funeral, or the dead person's last wishes being ignored.
Sɛnea wobɛdane bi
Spiteful people, suspected witches, misers, the murdered, and anyone buried carelessly or mourned too hard were expected to 'walk home'.
Sɛnea ɛkeka ne ho
Ɛsesa
Usually walks, with a normal or a bobbing gait, in its own likeness or grave clothes; it can also come as a dog, cat or other animal, or as a moving haystack, sack or whirlwind.
Nyansa
Nyansa kakra
Mmerɛwyɛ
  • wolves, which were held to be as deadly to it as lightning
  • a beating with a rowan or juniper stick or a nine-knotted whip
  • a silver bullet or quicksilver
  • crosses, knives, salt or flax seed at thresholds and gates
  • binding or crippling the corpse, or burying it face down
  • a cock's crow, which halts it for the night

Ɛberɛ bɛn na ɛdii kan puee?

Systematic records begin with Jakob Hurt's folklore collection (1860-1906); the belief itself is older

nhwehwɛmu nsɛm

Deɛ fibea no ka

1

The name means 'home-walker': a dead person who comes home at the wrong time12

2

It is cold to the touch and can pinch, strike, scratch or try to strangle12

3

It lets cattle loose, rumbles in the loft and imitates the sounds of work12

4

Dogs with spots over the eyes ('four-eyed' dogs) can see it12

5

The Estonian Folklore Archives hold about 3,600 records of it, seven times more than for the ordinary autumn visit of ancestral souls12

6

Viluoja notes that blood-drinking, vampire-type dead are not part of the Estonian tradition12

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)
Kodukäija 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. Eha Viluoja, 'Manifestations of the Revenant in Estonian Folk Tradition', Folklore 2
  2. Eha Viluoja, 'Relations Between the Living and the Dead in Estonian Folk Religion', Folklore 4

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

Ma dɔm no aduaneMa akyɛdeɛ