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Illustration of Kirkonväki
Original AI-made illustration based on the descriptions in the sources. Not an official design.
Fil nr. 034 av 446

Kirkonväki

Også kalt: kirkkomaanväki, kalmanväki, churchyard folk, manalaiset

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

Kjemp mot den
Først nevnt
1551
Related terms occur in Finnish sources from Mikael Agricola (1551) onward; most archive records date from the late 19th century to the 1960s
Opprinnelse
Finnish
Finland
Hva som forårsaker det
Annet
The collective dead of a churchyard, active as a crowd around the church and around any unburied corpse.
Hvordan man blir en
The dead buried in the parish churchyard.
Hvordan den beveger seg
Varierer
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.
Intelligens
Litt intelligens
Svake punkter
  • 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

Når dukket den opp første gang?

Antikken
Middelalderen
1500 til 1899
1900 til 1967
1968 til 1999
2000 til 2009
2010 til i dag
1551

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

feltnotater

Hva kildene sier

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

Ville du kommet deg unna?

Fartsklasse ut fra hvordan kildene beskriver den (varierer), ikke en måling.

Du, gående omtrent 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
Du, joggende omtrent 10 km/h (6.2 mph)
Kirkonväki omtrent 10 km/h (6.2 mph)
En spreke voksen i full sprint omtrent 24 km/h (15 mph)
En rask syklist omtrent 37 km/h (23 mph)

Kilder

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

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Samme epoke: 1500 til 1899