entities: ENT_FINN_MIELIKKI

The core table — every entity in the database, spanning gods, angels, demons, aeons, prophets, saints, heroes, spirits, monsters, personified abstractions, cosmological realms, and ritual categories. Use category to filter by functional type (146 values: Underworld Deity, Hero, Adversarial Being, Revealer Figure, etc.). Use tradition to filter by tradition. The short_note column contains a scholarly description with source citations.

Data license: MIT · Data source: jebboone/deitydb

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entity_id canonical_name greek_name tradition entity_type category primary_domains tags cult_scope primary_period evidence_confidence review_status inclusion_basis earth_association_score chthonic_flag serpent_flag short_note entity_class
ENT_FINN_MIELIKKI Mielikki   Finnish forest goddess / patroness of bears Nature Deity forest; bears; animals; healing; hunting; woodland abundance       A           Goddess of the forest and patroness of bears in Finnish and Karelian folk religion; wife of Tapio, co-ruler of the forest realm Tapiola. Bears occupy the highest sacred status in Finnish folk religion — they are "Otava" (the Great Bear), Tapio's cattle — and Mielikki is their special protector and keeper. The bear hunt was a major ritual complex, and hunter invocations to Mielikki were essential for a successful bear kill and for the proper return of the bear's spirit to Tapiola. Kalevala Runo 14 includes an extended invocation to Mielikki to release game from her forest storehouse: "O Mielikki, forest's mistress, fair-faced mistress of the woodland" (Bosley trans., Runo 14:213). Also called Tellervo (her daughter) and Luonnotar in some variants. Mielikki's name is connected to the Finnish word mieluinen ("pleasant, beloved"). Her healing aspects relate to the bear's fat, used as medicine. Pentikäinen (1999) pp. 145-158. deity

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