Tag: joutsen

Eala explores “The Swan of Tuonela”

Tuonela – the realm of the dead – is the setting for the Kavela’s mythic hero Lemminkäinen‘s fate. Read more here about this famous Finnish tone poem by Sibelius The Swan of Tunela.

Tuonela
Tuonela. 1934 by Paul Landacre Born: Columbus, Ohio 1893 Died: Los Angeles, California 1963
wood engraving on paper sheet: 16 5/8 x 10 1/2 in. (42.2 x 26.8 cm)
Smithsonian American Art Museum Museum Purchase 1982.95.1.
“Tuonela” by americanartmuseum is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

You can read much more on this epic tale as the inspiration for Jean Sibelius, – Finland’s famous music composer – composition – the Lemminkäinen Suite – here.

The Kalevala – Finland’s national ‘story epic’ and work by artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela will be forever entwined.

“Koru-Kalevala, The Illustrated Kalevala- sketches for Väinämöinen’s visit in Tuonela D-GKM-3837.tif” by Akseli Gallen-Kallela. This file is shared by The Gallen-Kallela Museum. CC0 1.0.

You can read more about these links between ‘ancient stories’ and ‘modern times’ in an essay by Michael Hunt (2019), for the exhibition The Kalavala – In Other Words.

Elsewhere you can read more about “an alternative Kalavela” and research by Juha Pentikäinen, Professor of Modern Ethography at the University of Lapland. Juha Pentikäinen‘s research includes a focus on the deeper shamanic roots of the Kalavela’s folktales. See also here a discussion on the Kalavela’s philosophy, its story roots as ‘deep knowledge’ and links to folk healing.

Tuonela

“Tuonela is described as being at the northernmost part of the world but is sectioned apart from the world of the living by a great divide. In the divide flows the dark river of Tuonela. The river is wild, and the dead can be seen trying to swim across it. The dead must cross the river, either by a thread bridge, swimming, or taking a boat piloted by the daughter of Tuoni.[1] The river is guarded by a black swan that sings death spells.” Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuonela

The Finnish word for swan is joutsen. The word derives from jousi, the Finnish word for arrow.

tuonela
Tuonela by Jussi (CC-BY-SA-2.0) at Flickr

Celtic Swans and Children of Lir in the Cairngorm National Park

Scottish and Irish mythology – a ‘Celtic mythology’ also features swans and here is a link to the famous Finnish story The Swan of Tuonela (and also a mention of the Irish story ‘The Children of Lir‘) as told by “The Irish in Finland”.

Finally, find a storytelling link here to the Scottish links to this folktale of the swan Children of Lir that includes a link to the history of Insh Church (the chapel of the swans) as told by Scottish musician Hamish Napier. The children turned to swans – as it is told here – flew between Ireland and Scotland for nine hundred years before eventually – on being turned back to their human form – they crumble to dust. Find some more information on Insh Church at the Am Baile Highland archive collections site. The church is near Loch Insh in Badenoch, located in the Cairngorm National Park in Scotland’s highlands. Nearby to the church is Insh Marshes a national nature reserve rich with ecology and wildlife as”one of the most important wetland areas in Europe”.

Broken ice on Loch Insh, Cairngorms

Broken ice on Loch Insh, Cairngorms by Masa Sakano (CC BY-SA 2.0) at Flickr

Looking West – Looking North

The EALA project is a OER connections project based at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) and working in creative practice and arts pedagogy partnership with the University of Lapland. The EALA project was funded by the Scottish Government’s Arctic Connections Fund 2022-2023 to explore and expand Scottish and Arctic creative contexts and commons.

EalaCreative – the working group of participants – have used the symbol of the swan – jousten (finnish); eala (scots gaelic) – as a theme for our cultural, environmental and socio-ecological pedegogy focus.

In Finland the swan holds a very special symbolism for the nation and this Tuonela swan myth is explored by the EALA creative project team here.

The swan.
Image of ‘Northern Lights’ titled “The Swan” by Béatrice Karjalainen (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) at Flickr

We have looked west, south and east in our focus on looking north! This post speaks a little more to looking west and the islands of the Outer and Inner Hebrides.

Mute Swans in Flight
Mute Swans in Flight by Caroline Legg (CC-BY-2.0) at Flickr

Energy “at the margins” – powercuts! Across the islands of Scotland’s west swans (most usually Mute Swans) are often seen flying high overhead as they migrate but so too they might fly low and occasionally power would be lost (“powercut“) as they might fly into the electricity cables that hung from the wooden poles across the islands’ moorland. In Uist in the Hebrides to the west of Scotland, for example, it might occasionally happen that a “downed” swan might be found dazed and slightly disorientated in the narrow water course channels of the intricate loch and peatland bogs and the land drainage systems. Having hit the wire the swan might rest and recover in these low lying bogs and ditches.

Elsewhere across the cultural history of Scotland and other landscapes and nations the swan is a symbol of life long partnership. Images of swans paired together consumed with their ritual return nesting habitats are common across digital resources and informed our EALA logo design.

Archives and Wildlife Science

In exploring the open accessible resources available online (creative commons) for images of swans at South Uist at Loch Bee we discovered the work of Dr Mary Gillham, a wildlife scientist. An archive project offers her collection of photographs for others to view and re-use and includes many images taken in Scotland, but also in regions such as Antartica:

“Dr Mary Gillham MBE (1921 – 2013) was a pioneering naturalist and prolific wildlife author, who took an active interest in the environment for over 80 years. In 1959 Mary was a member of the first Antarctic expedition to include women scientists,” Dr Mary Gillham Archive Project

Below is just one image from Dr Gillingham’s archive – an image of Loch Bee on South Uist, Outer Hebrides. Although rather difficult to see the swans in the distance (small white dots on the dark blue water) the image offers a sense of the area’s assets low lying natural ecology of the loch, alongside its working landscape that includes crofting (cattle are seen grazing), estate management (loch fishing), and the ‘open skies’ of the islands north Atlantic ‘periphery’ situation for the nearby defence missile testing site (the”rocket range”) Range Hebrides. A view of a rusting oil drum can be seen lying in the peat moorland bog in the foreground.

Mute swans over west half of Loch Bee (Bi) South Uist
Image : Mute swans over west half of Loch Bee (Bi) South Uist, South Uist Moor. MT (Outer Hebrides Scotland). Courtesy of Dr Mary Gilliham Archive Project (CC-BY-2.0) at Flickr.