Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 23:17, 2 July 2021

This whole article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this whole article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Ukonvasara" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2006) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Finnish. (February 2017) Click for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Finnish article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Misplaced Pages. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Finnish Misplaced Pages article at ]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|fi|Ukon kirves}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Misplaced Pages:Translation.

Ukonvasara, or Ukonkirves, is the symbol and magical weapon of the Finnish thunder god Ukko, similar to Thor's Mjölnir. Ukonvasara means hammer of Ukko; similarly, Ukonkirves means axe of Ukko. It was said that Ukko created lightning with Ukonvasara.

Ukko's hammer was probably originally a boat-shaped stone axe. When stone tools were abandoned with the advent of metalworking, the origins of stone weapons became a mystery. Stone axes, so-called thunderstones (ukonvaaja in Finnish), were found in the ground, especially after drenching rains washed away dirt. They were believed to be weapons of Ukko, stone heads of the striking lightning. Shamans collected and held stone-axes because they were believed to hold the power to both heal and damage.

Modern Pagan Finns sometimes carry hammer or axe pendants around their necks, much like Christians sometimes wear crosses.

Etymology

According to Asko Parpola, the Sanskrit vajra- and Avestan vazra- both refer to a weapon of the Godhead, and are possibly from the Proto-Indo-European root *weg'- which means "to be(come) powerful". It is related to Proto-Finno-Uralic *vaśara, "hammer, axe", but both the Sanskrit and Finno-Ugric derivatives are likely Proto-Aryan or Proto-Indo-Aryan but not Proto-Iranian, state Parpola and Carpelan, because of its palatalized sibilant.

Unto Salo [fi] believes that Ilmari, another Finnic sky god, is the origin of Ukko, but that as Ukko Ilmari experienced very significant, although far from total, influence from the Indo-European sky god especially in the form of Thor. Others believe that Ukko's original name was Baltic Perkunas.

Perkūnas is pictured as middle-aged, armed with an axe and arrows, riding a two-wheeled chariot harnessed with goats, like Thor

See Also

• Mjolnir
• Vajra

This article relating to a European folklore is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

1. Parpola & Carpelan 2005, p. 118. sfn error: no target: CITEREFParpolaCarpelan2005 (help)
2. Asko Parpola 2015, pp. 63–66, 114. sfn error: no target: CITEREFAsko_Parpola2015 (help)
3. Douglas Q. Adams (1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Routledge. p. 112. ISBN 978-1-884964-98-5.
4. Salo, Unto (1990). Agricola's Ukko in the light of archeology. A chronological and interpretative study of ancient Finnish religion: Old Norse and Finnish religions and cultic place-names. Turku. ISBN 951-649-695-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
5. Salo, Unto (2006). Ukko: The God of Thunder of the Ancient Finns And His Indo-european Family. Inst for the Study of Man. ISBN 978-0941694940.
6. Siikala, Anna-Leena (2013). Itämerensuomalaisten mytologia. Helsinki: SKS.
7. "Gintaras Beresnevičius, Lithuanian Mythology". Crvp.org. Archived from the original on 2012-09-02. Retrieved 2012-09-03.

• Articles lacking sources from December 2006
• Finnish mythology
• Mythological weapons
• European mythology stubs