Air and winged creatures

The air and the sky can be distinguished as being separate from each other as one of them is close to the earth and the other is further and higher, in the realm of the celestial bodies. These different sky areas are merely noticeable rather than firmly defined in Estonian folklore. We distinguish them conditionally,  as the atmosphere and space itself are distinguished. 

In the pre-Christian worldview the air, the water, and their inhabitants are closely related to other, supernatural realms while the earth is the basic “reality” - the habitat of mundane beings. Winged creatures such as birds and insects fly in the air, and also, the wind may have wings. At least this fast movement is expressed by a phrase: “like on the wings of the wind”.

Birds and insects were believed to fly between different realms as they rose high into the air toward the sky. Birds had contact with the higher world and had acquired something of a supernatural aspect due to their flying and singing skills, their disappearing during migration periods, in addition to being born from seemingly lifeless eggs. These various beliefs are manifested in the folklore of Estonians as well as of many other people.

In both international and Estonian folk religions, birds have been associated with human soul transmigration, taken for symbols of human souls or regarded as souls themselves who flew into the sky after death.  Various different mythologies contain plenty of supernatural and venerated birds as well as stories of the transformation of birds into humans and vice versa. For example, in Celtic lore, druids could sometimes be transformed into creatures with feathers who subsequently rose into the sky. The belief that a human soul arrives in a form of bird to be reborn, is quite widespread. For example, in Estonia  - and other countries -  there is a belief that the stork brings children. In Estonian folklore, particularly in the Seto tradition, there are fairy tales with songs containing motifs of a murdered girl turning into a cuckoo. In some regilaul songs, an orphan is comforted by a bird whose song sounded in her ears as her mother’s voice. In the Seto version of a regilaul “At Mother’s Grave”, a young girl without parents wants to see her mother, and the girl supposes she will come in a form of bird, butterfly or fly. (See: “Ancestral spirits.”)

Birds have influenced the figurative language of folklore immensely and they often occur in the metaphors of regilaul songs. Bird names are the most frequent, such as the ‘chicken’ synonym of a young girl. A cycle of wedding songs includes one about seeking the bride: “Bird footprints have been going from here...”  A young man is depicted in songs as a bird, primarily as a hawk or rooster. A description of an attacking hawk might describe a relationship between young people. The poetic imitations of bird sounds is a special and abundant genre. 

Northern countries, Estonia included, are abundant in insects which is an inducement for migratory birds to come here for the summer. Folklore does not tell us equally about all of the numerous species, but of those of which people are more aware, because they are either necessary and admirable, such as bees and ants, or troublesome, such as gnats and flies, or even striking - ladybirds and butterflies etc. 

This subsection includes flying insects conditionally, but there is also much folklore about parasites, which is included in the other section ”Home” (according to the logic of the website).

In the older lore, insects have a link to the soul and supernatural sphere. This is illustrated by the belief that a witch’s soul might fly around in the form of an insect while sleeping.

References: Loorits 1990; Hiiemäe 2016. 

Taive Särg