# Synty
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{{Short description|Mythological, Finnic concept}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2024}}
thumb|Map showing the distribution of the Finnic languages, approximating the area where the ''synty'' tradition was found.
'''''Synty''''' ('origin, birth, aetiology', pl. ''synnyt'') is an important concept in [Finnish mythology](/source/Finnish_mythology). ''Syntysanat'' ('origin-words') or ''syntyloitsut'' ('origin-charms') provide an explanatory, mythical account of the origin of a phenomenon (such as an illness), material (such as iron), or species (such as a bear), and were an important part of traditional Finno-Karelian culture, particularly in healing rituals. Although much in the Finnish traditional charms is paralleled elsewhere, 'the role of [aetiological](/source/etiological) and [cosmogonic myths](/source/creation_myth)' in Finnic tradition 'appears exceptional in Eurasia'.[Frog, 'Shamans, Christians, and Things in Between: From Finnic-Germanic Contacts to the Conversion of Karelia', in ''Conversions: Looking for Ideological Change in the Early Middle Ages'', ed. by Leszek Słupecki and Rudolf Simek, Studia Mediaevalia Septentrionalia, 23 (Vienna: Fassbaender, 2013), pp. 53–97 (p. 62), https://www.academia.edu/4049431.] The major study remains that by [Kaarle Krohn](/source/Kaarle_Krohn), published in 1917.[Kaarle Krohn, ''Suomalaiset syntyloitsut: Vertaileva tutkimus'' [Finnish Origin-Incantations: A Comparative Study], Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuran toimituksia, 157 (Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1917); ''Magische Ursprungsrunen der Finnen'', trans. by Arno Bussenius (Kerava: Keravan Kirjapainossa, 1924).]
==Meanings of ''synty''==
The term ''synty'' is used in this article and in a range of scholarship as a genre-label, but it had a wide variety of meanings.[Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, ''Nykysuomen sanakirja'', 6 vols (Helsinki: Söderström, 1953--61), s.vv.; Erkki Itkonen et al., ''Suomen sanojen alkuperä: Etymologinen sanakirja'' (Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1992-), s.vv.] ''Synty'' transparently derives from ''syntyä'' (‘come into existence, be born’) and means ‘birth’, ‘origin’, ‘aetiology’, and so forth. Its meanings can be literal and mundane (e.g. 'birth'), but it was also used in traditional poetry with a range of more numinous meanings, varying according to region, genre, and time. Thus in [Kalevala](/source/Kalevala)ic poetry, ''synty'' can also denote the mystical power of a ''tietäjä'' (in which context it has been argued to refer to the origin of a ''[tietäjä](/source/tiet%C3%A4j%C3%A4)''’s own powers and is more or less a synonym for the more frequent term ''[luonto](/source/luonto)'', perhaps being translated as 'fundamental essence'); it can be a synonym for 'god' or 'creator' (in the singular only, often in the collocation ''suuri synty'', ‘great ''synty''’); or it can denote other divine power whose source was more abstract.[Eila Stepanova, '[https://www.academia.edu/3709480 Mythic Elements of Karelian Laments: The Case of ''Syndyzet'' and ''Spuassuzet'']', in ''Mythic Discourses: Studies in Uralic Traditions'', ed. by Frog, Anna-Leena –, and Eila Stepanova, Studia Fennica Folkloristica, 20 (Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjasuuden Seura, 2012), pp. 257-87.][Anna-Leena Siikala, ''Mythic Images and Shamanism: A Perspective on Kalevala Poetry'', FF Communication, 280 (Helsinki: Suomen Tiedakatemia, 2002).]{{rp|255-56}}
The term ''synty'' is used with varying degrees of specificity to denote poems within a wider body of [Finnic incantations](/source/Finnic_incantations), a poem within which might also be referred to as a 'formulas', ''luku'' ('passage'), ''sanat'' ('words'), or ''virsi'' ('verse').[Matti Haavio, ''Suomalainen mytologia'' (Porvoo: WSOY, 1967); cf. Lotte Tarkka, 'Interpretation at a distance (Review): Thomas A. DuBois, ''Finnish Folk Poetry and the Kalevala''. New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1995. 328 pp.', ''Folklore Fellows Network'', 15 (April 1998), 22-28, http://www.folklorefellows.fi/?page_id=776.] More recent work, however, has suggested that, though often combined with other incantations, the ''synty'' element is in these cases usually central rather than preliminary, and not so much a diagnosis as a cure; their primary context of use seems instead to have been healing physical (as opposed to metaphysical) injuries and wounds where there was no illness agent (such as a witch) to conjure.[Matti Sarmela, 'Karhu ihmisen ympäristössä', ''Kalevalaseuran vuosikirja'', 71 (1991), 209–50, http://www.kolumbus.fi/matti.sarmela/karhu.pdf.]
There is some debate over in what contexts ''synnyt'' were recited and in what contexts they were sung (and whether it is meaningful to distinguish between these modes). It appears that ''synnyt'' were recited in Western Finland by the eighteenth century but might still have been sung in the seventeenth. There is some evidence for ''synnyt'' or similar genres being performed by pairs of singers in the manner of epic poems, but not much. The poems themselves, however, give singing a prominent role. The tradition of performing ''[synnyt](/source/synnyt)'' has been compared with the North Germanic tradition of ''[galdr](/source/galdr)'', where a clear distinction between singing and speaking may not be appropriate.[Matti Haavio, ''Suomalainen mytologia'' (Porvoo: WSOY, 1967), pp. 367, 369; ''[Suomen kansan vanhat runot](/source/Suomen_kansan_vanhat_runot)'' vol. XI nos 1570 and 1797.][Raphael Hertzberg, ''[https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Vidskepelsen_i_Finland_på_1600_talet/aOM-AAAAYAAJ Vidskepelsen i Finland på 1600 talet: Bidrag till Finlands kulturhistoria]'' (Helsingfors: Hufvudstadsbl. Nya Tryckeri, 1889).]{{rp|61, 63}} On 30 June 1658, court records for Vaasa record an aetiological poem for a magical shot (''pistos'')[''[Suomen kansan vanhat runot](/source/Suomen_kansan_vanhat_runot)'' vol. XI no 992.][''[Suomen kansan vanhat runot](/source/Suomen_kansan_vanhat_runot)'' vol. XI nos 826, 1586, 1587, 1801.][Kihlakunnanoikeuksien renovoidut tuomiokirjat > Pohjanmaan tuomiokunnan renovoidut tuomiokirjat > Varsinaisten asioiden pöytäkirjat > Varsinaisten asioiden pöytäkirjat 1657-1658 (KO a:10) [http://digi.narc.fi/digi/view.ka?kuid=3711107 f. 609r l. 22-v l. 6] (''Raudan synty''), [http://digi.narc.fi/digi/view.ka?kuid=3711109 609v, ll. 7ff.] (''Pistoksen synty''), [http://digi.narc.fi/digi/view.ka?kuid=3711109 609v ll. 17-21] (''Tulen synty'').][Matti Haavio, ''Suomalainen mytologia'' (Porvoo: WSOY, 1967), pp. 342-43.][Henricus Gabriel Porthan, ''Dissertationis de poësi Fennica'', issued in 5 parts (Åbo: Frenckell, 1766-78), pp. 87-88; [http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fd2014-00004879 fascicule 1]; [http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fd2014-00004872 fascicule 2]; [http://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/109616 fascicule 4]; [http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fd2014-00004890 fascicule 5].]
''Synty'' next makes a significant appearance as a genre term in [Christianus Erici Lencqvist's](/source/Christianus_Erici_Lencqvist) dissertation ''De superstitione veterum Fennorum theoretica et practica'', published in 1782.[Matti Haavio, ''Suomalainen mytologia'' (Porvoo: WSOY, 1967), pp. 342-43.] Discussing the mythical figure [Kaleva](/source/Kalevi_(mythology)), Lencqvist mentioned Kaleva's sword, and noted that one mention of that appears ‘in his versibus ... quibus ortus serpentis mythice exponitur (Kärmen syndy)’ ('in these verses ... in which the origin of the serpent is mythically expounded (''Kärmen synty'')'), quoting the following lines with his Latin translation:[Christianus Erici Lencqvist, ''[http://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/109676 Specimen academicum de superstitione veterum fennorum theoretica et practica]'', 2 vols (Åbo: Frenckell, 1782), I 27 n. u.]
{| style="border: 0px;"
|''Mist’ on kieli keitolaisen?''
''Miekasta Kalewan pojan,'' h. e.
|Unde lingua coquinarii? (Serpentis, qui venenum in ore gignat et quasi coquat?)
E gladio Calevæ filii (h. e. formidolosissimo?).
|-
|''Whence is Keitolainen’s[''Keitolainen'' is the name of a demon, but is misunderstood by Lencquist as having something to do with the verb ''keittää'' 'to cook'.] tongue?''
''From the sword of Kaleva’s boy,'' i. e.
|Whence the tongue of cooking-boy? (Of the serpent, who produces venom in its mouth and, as it were, cooks it?)
From the sword of Kaleva's son (i. e. ‘from the most terrifying sword’?)
|}
Soon after, [Cristfried Ganander](/source/Cristfried_Ganander) included an entry for ''synnyt'' in his ''Mythologia fennica'', defining them thus: ‘Synnyt, Archæologier öfver elden, ormen, sten, alla trän; läses öfver skador och sår af vidskeplige' (‘''Synnyt'': ancient histories of fire, the snake, stone, all trees; spoken over injuries and wounds by the superstitious').[Christfrid Ganander, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=MDVKAAAAYAAJ Mythologia fennica], eller förklaring öfver de nomina propria deastrorum, idolorum, locorum, virorum, &c. eller afgudar och afgudinnor, forntidens märkelige personar, offer och offer-ställen, gamla sedvänjor, jätter, trol, skogs- sjö och bergs-rån m. m. Som förekomma i de äldre finska troll-runor, synnyt, sanat, sadut, arwotuxet &c. samt än brukas och nämnas i dagligt tal; til deras tjenst, som vela is grund förstå det finska språket, och hafva smak för finska historien och poëin, af gamla runor samlad och uttydd'' (Åbo: Frenckell, 1789), p. 88.]
== Example ==
thumb|''The Birth of Iron'', {{ill|Joseph Alanen|fi}}, 1910–1912
The most widely attested subject for ''synnyt'', according to the ''[Suomen kansan vanhat runot](/source/Suomen_kansan_vanhat_runot)'', is the origin of iron. One example of such a ''synty'', as edited by Lönnrot and translated by Abercromby, is:[''Suomen kansan muinaisia loitsurunoja'', ed. by Elias Lönnrot (Helsinki: Suomen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1880), pp. 317-18 (no. 32b), http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48751; John Abercromby, ''The Pre- and Proto-historic Finns, Both Eastern and Western: With the Magic Songs of the West Finns'', Grimm Library, 9-10, 2 vols (London: Nutt, 1898), pp. 351-52 [https://archive.org/details/cu31924078305897 vol. 1], [https://archive.org/details/preandprotohisto00aber vol. 1], [https://archive.org/details/cu31924071194728 vol. 2], [https://archive.org/details/preandprotohisto02aber vol. 2].]
{| class="wikitable"
|
Kyllä tieän rauan synnyn,
Arvoan alun teräksen:
Toisin ennen tuulet tuuli,
Toisin ennen säät sävisi,
Maata kuokki koivun latvat,
Peltoja petäjän kerkät.
Tuuli silloin kuusi vuotta,
Seurui seitsemän keseä,
Tuuli taittoi tammen latvat,
Rutaisi ruhevat raiat,
Maasta mättähän mäkäisi,
Tuopa myöstihe merelle,
Siitä saari siunautui
Meren selvälle selälle,
Saarelle salo sorea,
Salohon sileä nurmi,
Siihen kasvoi kaksi neittä,
Koko kolme morsianta.
Niinpä neiet astunevi
Niitylle nimettömälle,
Istuivat itähän rinnoin,
Etelähän päin elivät,
Lypsit maalle maitoansa,
Niitylle nitusiansa.
Läksi maiot vieremähän,
Vieri soita, vieri maita,
Vieri auhtoja ahoja,
Vieri suolle mättähäsen,
Metisehen mättähäsen,
Kultaisehen turpehesen.
Siitä syntyi rauta raukka,
Siitä syntyi ja sikesi,
Suon sisällä, maan navalla,
Maalla keskikorkealla,
Kasvoi rautaiset orahat,
Miehen peukalon pituiset.
Vaka vanha Väinämöinen,
Tietäjä ijän ikuinen,
Oli teitensä käviä,
Matkojensa mitteliä,
Löysi rautaiset orahat,
Teräksiset touvon taimet,
Katselevi, kääntelevi,
Sanan virkkoi, noin nimesi:
‘Mitkä nää on toukojansa,
Ja kutka orahiansa?
Jotain noistaki tulisi,
Luona taitavan takojan.’
Kokosi ne knottihinsa,
Kantavi sepon kätehen;
Tuop’ on seppo Ilmarinen
Etsivi pajan sijoa,
Löysi maata pikkuruisen,
Notkoa ani vähäisen,
Johon painoi palkehensa,
Johon ahjonsa asetti,
Vaan ei kasva rauta raukka,
Sukeu suku teräksen,
Pajassa ovettomassa,
Ahjolla tulettomalla;
Puita puuttui pauan seppä,
Tulta rautojen takoja.
Saapi puita, tuopi tulta,
Vaan ei vielä rauta synny,
Kun ei liene lietsojata,
Palkehella painajata.
Otti orjan lietsomahan,
Palkkalaisen painamahan,
Katsoi ahjonsa alusta,
Lietsimensä liepehiä,
Jopa syntyi rauan synty,
Sikesi suku teräksen.
|
Full well I know the iron's genesis,
I remember the origin of steel.
Of old the winds blew otherwise,
of old storms whistled otherwise,
the head of a birch tore up the ground,
the young shoots of a fir the fields.
Then it blew six years,
seven summers it inflicted harm,
the wind broke off the heads of oaks,
smashed branching [v. huge] sallow trees,
knocked a hillock from the ground
and conveyed it to the sea;
an isle was formed by spells from it
on the clear and open sea
on the island was a lovely wood,
in the wood meadow smooth,
on this two girls grew up,
a triplet of brides.
Well, the three maidens walked
along to a meadow without a name,
sat down with their breasts to the east,
with their heads to the south,
milked their milk upon the ground,
their paps upon the mead.
The milk began to flow,
flowed over swamps, flowed over lands,
flowed over sandy fields run wild,
flowed to a hillock on a swamp,
to a honeyed knoll,
into golden turf.
Hence did poor iron originate,
then it was born and was produced,
in a swamp, on an earthy knoll,
on ground of medium height
iron sprouts grew up
as high as the thumb of a man.
Trusty old Väinämöinen,
the soothsayer old as time,
was wending his way,
was pursuing his course;
he found the iron sprouts
the growing shoots of steel,
he looked about, turned round,
uttered a speech and thus he spoke:--
What sort of growing corn is this
and what these sprouting shoots?
Something would result from them
at a skilful hammerer's.'
Into his pouch he gathered them,
to a smith's hands he carried them.
The smith Ilmarinen
sought a place for his forge,
found a tiny bit of ground,
a very tiny dell
where he put his bellows up,
where he set up his forge,
but wretched iron is not produced (F. grows not)
and steel does not originate
in a smithy without a door,
in a forge without a fire;
the blacksmith had lack of wood,
the forger in iron—of fire.
He got some wood and fire he fetched,
but still iron is not made (F. born)
unless there be a bellowsman,
a man to press the bellows down.
He took a servant to blow,
a hireling to press them down,
he looked underneath the forge,
along the bellows' outer edge,
iron was already made (F. born)
and steel produced.
|}
==Topics of recorded ''synnyt''==
The ''[Suomen kansan vanhat runot](/source/Suomen_kansan_vanhat_runot)'' editions list around 131 topics for ''synty'' texts, 114 of them categorised as ''syntyloitsut'' ('''synty''-charms'), in a total of around 6900 individual records.[Frans Aleksi Hästesko, ''Länsisuomalainen loitsurunous'' (Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 1918).][Tuukka Karlsson, '[http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-51-7801-5 "Come here, you are needed": Registers in Viena Karelian Communicative Incantations]' (PhD thesis, Helsinki University, 2022).]{{rp|26}} The ten most popular subjects among the ''synnyt'' categorised in the ''SKVR'' as incantations (''loitsut'') are, in declining order, ''rauta'' ('iron', 862 examples), ''käärme'' ('snake', 714), ''tuli'' ('fire', 690), ''niukahdus'' ('sprain', 539), ''käärmeen purema'' ('snakebite', 290), ''pistos'' ('stabbing pain', 260), ''puu'' ('tree', 219), ''koi'' ('cancer', 180), ''voide'' ('ointment', 175), ''ähky'' ('colic', 137), ''riisi'' ('rickets', 135), ''läävämato'' (literally 'cowshed-snake', 125), and ''löyly'' ('sauna steam', 108).[Thomas A. Dubois, ''Finnish Folk Poetry and the ‘Kalevala’'', New Perspectives in Folklore, 1/Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, 1895 (New York: Garland, 1995), pp. 184-201.] and the serpent in Runo XXVI.[Alaric Hall, 'On the Origins of Things: Finnic Syntyloitsut and Cultural Constructions of the Material World', in ''[https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/346783 Pre-Print Papers of the 18th International Saga Conference: Sagas and the Circum-Baltic Arena, Helsinki and Tallinn, 7th-14th August 2022]'', ed. by Frog, Joonas Ahola, Jesse Barber and Karolina Kouvola (Helsinki: Folklore Studies, Department of Cultures, University of Helsinki, 2022), pp. 118-22.]{{rp|119}}
==Editions and translations==
The first substantial, scholarly collection of ''synty'' poems was ''Suomen kansan muinaisia loitsurunoja'', ed. by [Elias Lönnrot](/source/Elias_L%C3%B6nnrot) (Helsinki: Suomen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1880), http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48751. A very large part of this was translated into English by [John Abercromby](/source/John_Abercromby%2C_5th_Baron_Abercromby), ''The pre- and proto-historic Finns, both Eastern and Western: with the magic songs of the west Finns'', Grimm Library, 9-10, 2 vols (London: Nutt, 1898), [https://archive.org/details/cu31924078305897 vol. 1], [https://archive.org/details/preandprotohisto00aber vol. 1], [https://archive.org/details/cu31924071194728 vol. 2], [https://archive.org/details/preandprotohisto02aber vol. 2]. Lönnrot adapted his sources extensively, however, such that this edition should be viewed, like the ''Kalevala'', more as a literary work by Lönnrot than as a direct representation of oral traditions.[[http://skvr.fi SVRK online.]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
Category:Finnish literature
Category:Scandinavian folklore
Category:Kalevala
Category:Finnish mythology
Category:Literary genres
Category:Karelian-Finnish folklore
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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Synty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synty) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synty?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.