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Illustration of Kodukäija
Original AI-made illustration based on the descriptions in the sources. Not an official design.
Ifayile No. 054 kwa-446

Kodukäija

Ikwabizwa ngokuba: kodukäijad, home-wanderer, Estonian revenant
Iintsomi zemveli namabali amanduloIvuswe ekufeniIyahlukaUkufa okubi okanye ukungcwatywa kakubi1500 ukuya ku-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

Yiphose edabini
Yabhalwa okokuqala
1860
Systematic records begin with Jakob Hurt's folklore collection (1860-1906); the belief itself is older
Imvelaphi
Estonian
IEstonia
Oko kuyibangelayo
Ukufa okubi okanye ukungcwatywa kakubi
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.
Indlela umntu aba yiyo ngayo
Spiteful people, suspected witches, misers, the murdered, and anyone buried carelessly or mourned too hard were expected to 'walk home'.
Indlela ehamba ngayo
Iyahluka
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.
Ubukrelekrele
Ubukrelekrele obuthile
Iindawo ezibuthathaka
  • 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

Yavela nini okokuqala?

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

amanqaku ophando

Oko kuthethwa yimithombo

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

Ungayigqitha ngokubaleka?

Udidi lwesantya ngokwendlela imithombo eyichaza ngayo (iyahluka), asingomlinganiselo.

Wena, uhamba malunga ne-5 km/h (3.1 mph)
Wena, ujoga malunga ne-10 km/h (6.2 mph)
Kodukäija malunga ne-10 km/h (6.2 mph)
Umntu omdala osempilweni ebaleka ngamandla malunga ne-24 km/h (15 mph)
Umkhweli webhayisikile okhawulezayo malunga ne-37 km/h (23 mph)

Yondla umkhosi. Akukho zintengiso, akukho zilandeli, ihlawulelwa ngumntu omnye. Ithiphu iyigcina ikwi-intanethi.Shiya ithiphu

Ixesha elinye: 1500 ukuya ku-1899

Yondla umkhosiShiya ithiphu