hammarberg
13-04-2010, 11:48 PM
There's not much talk about cryptid encounters in Finland and scandinavia, not much talk, but this country is not without it's legends, stories and encounters with uneplaineble and weird creatures.
The old legends are surprisingly similar to those native Americans have, giants, trolls, shape shifting animal people etc.
There's an ages old tradition of story telling here, by singing. Christianity has almost totally killed that tradition but there's huge bunch of old singable poems from the ages past, i'm quite familiar with these cos of our band, we use those old poems as base for our lyrics.
Most usual creature legends are about huge trolls(Much like scandinavian ones.), sometimes they possess abilities to transform themselves into a bear, wolf or elk. There's also stories of other kind of giants, somewhat human, but made of stone or wood sometimes. Besides of trolls, there's lot of legends and beliefs about elves. They look like and act like Irish elves and gnomes. There's still lot of people who kind of believe to those creatures and some even claim to have seen them. People here used to believe all forests, buildings and places have their own guardian elf who must be respected and treated nicely or really shitty things could happen.
Just for example, there's many stories how somebody managed to piss of an Sauna elf and next night/day the Sauna mysteriously burned... At christmas time it was usual thing to bring food and stuff for elves, so they could have good time too and to make sure they don't get pissed off.
I have never seen one myself, but i do remember my grandparents tell me stories about people who have. In here most people tend to keep their lips sealed, when it comes to this kind of things, so it's not wonder there's not many eyewitness accounts around.
Then there's this thing called Hisi. (Hiisi on finnish, for some reason English speaking people use that with one I.) Hisi is interesting thing, the oldest and most usual meaning of the word is a 'holy place' or burial ground. Or a sacrificial site or place used to pray for gods/spirits or do some other ceremonies. Hisi is used as a name of vaiety of creatures too. Some elves were called with that name and many creatures. Sometimes it was used of guardian spirits, like Vesihiisi, =water guardian, sometimes about forest spirits etc. AND it was used as a name for amost any kind of paranormal strange creature.
Many of these legends are from Lapish people, maybe because they still live like they have ived for millenia and they still have this storytelling tradition. Lapish shamans are said to be sometimes able to shapeshift and appear to people in form of wolves, bears, or moose, fox etc. There's also stories of demonic creatures who could do the same.
This is almost exaclty like believes and stories native americans have in their tradition. For example deerman/woman is not unheard of in north here.
This is a hard topic to discuss because not many people here talk much about strange creatures. Everybody knows these legends of shapeshifting shamans and mythical trolls and Hisi and stuff but few a guts to tell anybody if they have seen one. Finnish people are quite indoctrinated to keep their mouths shut.
So, only stories about cryptids i know for sure to be more than stories are my own and my friends experoences.
Some years back at autumn(I can't remember exact date.) i was driving around our town just to kill some time.. I stopped for a smoke near huge trainstation/rail yard near a paperfactory. The place was small road, other side railroads/old rotting houses, which havent been in use for years, and other side was this meadow growing high weeds and some bushes and stuff. It was really dark there, no any lights near, it was overcast and usual pitchblack Finnish autumn night.
I stopped the car and smoked my cigarette and suddenly heard this scream/voice of something. I'm not sure where it came from, i only have the drivers window open, but it was near. I think less than 30 meters away. This scream/growl really freaked me out, it was nothing i've ever heard before it. It was a strange long scream/growl that was like woman screaming, cat being painfully killed and a big dog growling at the same time. It lasted for approx 10 seconds before getting silent. As you all guessed i didn't stay to check what it was. I drove away as fast as i could.
Later i talked about this with my good friend and interestingly he had a similar experience, which besides of that scream involved some big animal, he said he got a feeling it was some sort of big cat. He was at their portch havong a smoke and heard this thing scream right outside the portch, he went then to check what made the noice, he heard something big walk just few meters away at the yard, but he didn't see a thing. He told me he stared right where the noice came from but this thing was totally invisible. Next day he checked for tracks and found big animal paw tracks, he didn't know what animal made them, they were BIG and definately not human. Moslty reminded him of wolf/big cat tracks.
Anyway this creature first screamed/growled, then walked past the portch and vanished...
He has also seen a big black cat once, he told me ot looked like a panther, but bigger an was partially invisible. It just popped out of nowhere in the middle of a small meadow, walked to a small patch of trees/bushes and then vanished. I know the place and there's no way animal that big could just pop out to the meadow and vanish wihtout a trace. Not in that spot. And he said it was transparent. Didn't make any voices that time.
His encounteres with these things both happened in an area which is kind of paranormal hotspot in out town. I've witnessed a UFO there, so have many other people and some kind of hauntings. Voices of children in forests at strange times of day coming and going without a trace. Many people have heard them, went to look for the kids making noices and never found anybody.
This is a strange town, i've witnessed many ufo's here, and there's unusual many haunted locations/houses here. + few places where occult/satanic rituals have taken plac and few 'holy places,' Energyhigh areas, both positive and negative.
But those animal things? Big invisible cats sneaking at backyards here? I'd like to know more about that. :)
The old legends are surprisingly similar to those native Americans have, giants, trolls, shape shifting animal people etc.
There's an ages old tradition of story telling here, by singing. Christianity has almost totally killed that tradition but there's huge bunch of old singable poems from the ages past, i'm quite familiar with these cos of our band, we use those old poems as base for our lyrics.
Most usual creature legends are about huge trolls(Much like scandinavian ones.), sometimes they possess abilities to transform themselves into a bear, wolf or elk. There's also stories of other kind of giants, somewhat human, but made of stone or wood sometimes. Besides of trolls, there's lot of legends and beliefs about elves. They look like and act like Irish elves and gnomes. There's still lot of people who kind of believe to those creatures and some even claim to have seen them. People here used to believe all forests, buildings and places have their own guardian elf who must be respected and treated nicely or really shitty things could happen.
Just for example, there's many stories how somebody managed to piss of an Sauna elf and next night/day the Sauna mysteriously burned... At christmas time it was usual thing to bring food and stuff for elves, so they could have good time too and to make sure they don't get pissed off.
I have never seen one myself, but i do remember my grandparents tell me stories about people who have. In here most people tend to keep their lips sealed, when it comes to this kind of things, so it's not wonder there's not many eyewitness accounts around.
Then there's this thing called Hisi. (Hiisi on finnish, for some reason English speaking people use that with one I.) Hisi is interesting thing, the oldest and most usual meaning of the word is a 'holy place' or burial ground. Or a sacrificial site or place used to pray for gods/spirits or do some other ceremonies. Hisi is used as a name of vaiety of creatures too. Some elves were called with that name and many creatures. Sometimes it was used of guardian spirits, like Vesihiisi, =water guardian, sometimes about forest spirits etc. AND it was used as a name for amost any kind of paranormal strange creature.
Many of these legends are from Lapish people, maybe because they still live like they have ived for millenia and they still have this storytelling tradition. Lapish shamans are said to be sometimes able to shapeshift and appear to people in form of wolves, bears, or moose, fox etc. There's also stories of demonic creatures who could do the same.
This is almost exaclty like believes and stories native americans have in their tradition. For example deerman/woman is not unheard of in north here.
This is a hard topic to discuss because not many people here talk much about strange creatures. Everybody knows these legends of shapeshifting shamans and mythical trolls and Hisi and stuff but few a guts to tell anybody if they have seen one. Finnish people are quite indoctrinated to keep their mouths shut.
So, only stories about cryptids i know for sure to be more than stories are my own and my friends experoences.
Some years back at autumn(I can't remember exact date.) i was driving around our town just to kill some time.. I stopped for a smoke near huge trainstation/rail yard near a paperfactory. The place was small road, other side railroads/old rotting houses, which havent been in use for years, and other side was this meadow growing high weeds and some bushes and stuff. It was really dark there, no any lights near, it was overcast and usual pitchblack Finnish autumn night.
I stopped the car and smoked my cigarette and suddenly heard this scream/voice of something. I'm not sure where it came from, i only have the drivers window open, but it was near. I think less than 30 meters away. This scream/growl really freaked me out, it was nothing i've ever heard before it. It was a strange long scream/growl that was like woman screaming, cat being painfully killed and a big dog growling at the same time. It lasted for approx 10 seconds before getting silent. As you all guessed i didn't stay to check what it was. I drove away as fast as i could.
Later i talked about this with my good friend and interestingly he had a similar experience, which besides of that scream involved some big animal, he said he got a feeling it was some sort of big cat. He was at their portch havong a smoke and heard this thing scream right outside the portch, he went then to check what made the noice, he heard something big walk just few meters away at the yard, but he didn't see a thing. He told me he stared right where the noice came from but this thing was totally invisible. Next day he checked for tracks and found big animal paw tracks, he didn't know what animal made them, they were BIG and definately not human. Moslty reminded him of wolf/big cat tracks.
Anyway this creature first screamed/growled, then walked past the portch and vanished...
He has also seen a big black cat once, he told me ot looked like a panther, but bigger an was partially invisible. It just popped out of nowhere in the middle of a small meadow, walked to a small patch of trees/bushes and then vanished. I know the place and there's no way animal that big could just pop out to the meadow and vanish wihtout a trace. Not in that spot. And he said it was transparent. Didn't make any voices that time.
His encounteres with these things both happened in an area which is kind of paranormal hotspot in out town. I've witnessed a UFO there, so have many other people and some kind of hauntings. Voices of children in forests at strange times of day coming and going without a trace. Many people have heard them, went to look for the kids making noices and never found anybody.
This is a strange town, i've witnessed many ufo's here, and there's unusual many haunted locations/houses here. + few places where occult/satanic rituals have taken plac and few 'holy places,' Energyhigh areas, both positive and negative.
But those animal things? Big invisible cats sneaking at backyards here? I'd like to know more about that. :)