Ukonvasara, or Ukonkirves, is the symbol and magical weapon of the Finnish thunder god

Ukko (), or ( Finnish for 'male grandparent', 'grandfather', 'old man'), parallel to Uku in Estonian mythology, is the god of the sky, weather, harvest, and thunder across Finnic paganism. , the Finnish word for thunder, is the diminutive ...

, similar to

Thor Thor (from ) is a prominent list of thunder gods, god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred g ...

Mjölnir Mjölnir ( , ; from Old Norse ''Mjǫllnir'' ) is the hammer of the thunder god Thor in Norse mythology, used both as a devastating weapon and as a divine instrument to provide blessings. The hammer is attested in numerous sources, including t ...

. 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.

Shaman Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...

s collected and held stone-axes because they were believed to hold the power to both heal and damage. Followers of modern Finnish paganism sometimes carry hammer or axe pendants around their necks, much like Christians sometimes wear crosses.

Etymology

According to

Asko Parpola Asko Heikki Siegfried Parpola (born 12 July 1941, in Forssa) is a Finnish Indologist, current professor emeritus of Indology at the University of Helsinki. He specializes in the Indus Valley Civilization, specifically the study of the Indus scr ...

, the Proto-West-Uralic ''*vaśara'', originally referred to the axe or mace of the Sejma-Turbino warriors, but later, under Nordic influence, gained the meaning "hammer" from Thor's hammer. The Proto-West-Uralic ''*vaśara'', is an early

loanword A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...

from the

Proto-Indo-Aryan Proto-Indo-Aryan (sometimes Proto-Indic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Indo-Aryan languages. It is intended to reconstruct the language of the Indo-Aryans, who had migrated into the Indian subcontinent. Being descended from Proto-I ...

''*vaj’ra-'' but not from

Proto-Iranian Proto-Iranian or Proto-Iranic is the reconstructed proto-language of the Iranian languages branch of Indo-European language family and thus the ancestor of the Iranian languages such as Persian, Pashto, Sogdian, Zazaki, Ossetian, Mazandara ...

, because its palatalized

sibilant Sibilants (from 'hissing') are fricative and affricate consonants of higher amplitude and pitch, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English w ...

is not consistent with the depalatalization which occurred in Proto-Iranian. The related Sanskrit and its

Avestan Avestan ( ) is the liturgical language of Zoroastrianism. It belongs to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family and was First language, originally spoken during the Avestan period, Old ...

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...

are possibly derived from the

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...

root ''*weg'-'' which means "to be(come) powerful", state Parpola and Carpelan.

Indo-European influence

believes that

Ilmari Ilmari is a Finnish male given name. It is a short form of Ilmarinen, a mythological smith in the Kalevala. Notable people with the name include: * Ilmari Aalto (1891–1934), Finnish painter * Ilmari Auer (1879–1965), Finnish politician * Ilm ...

, 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

. Others believe that Ukko's original name was Baltic

Perkūnas Perkūnas (, , Old Prussian: ''Perkūns'', ''Perkunos'', Sudovian language, Yotvingian: ''Parkuns'', Latgalian language, Latgalian: ''Pārkiuņs'') was the common Baltic languages, Baltic List of thunder gods, god of thunder, and the second m ...

. Perkūnas is pictured as middle-aged, armed with an

axe An axe (; sometimes spelled ax in American English; American and British English spelling differences#Miscellaneous spelling differences, see spelling differences) is an implement that has been used for thousands of years to shape, split, a ...

and arrows, riding a two-wheeled chariot harnessed with

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...

s, like

. The name Thor descends from the

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic languages, Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from ...

theonym ('Thunder'). According to scholar Peter Jackson, those theonyms may have originally emerged as the result of the fossilization of an original epithet (or

epiclesis The epiclesis (also spelled epiklesis; from , ) refers to the invocation of one or several gods. In ancient Greek religion, the epiclesis was the epithet used as the surname given to a deity in religious contexts. The term was borrowed into the Ch ...

) of the Proto-Indo-European thunder-god *'' Perk^wunos''. from which Perkunas also descended from Indra is described as using the vajra to kill sinners and ignorant persons. Indra's mythology parallels

Perun In Slavic paganism, Slavic mythology, Perun () is the highest god of the Pantheon (religion), pantheon and the god of sky, thunder, lightning, storms, rain, law, war, fertility and oak trees. His other attributes were fire, mountains, wind, ir ...

Taranis Taranis (sometimes Taranus or Tanarus) is a Celtic thunder god attested in literary and epigraphic sources. The Roman poet Lucan's epic ''Pharsalia'' mentions Taranis, Esus, and Teutates as gods to whom the Gauls sacrificed humans. This rare ...

, and

, suggesting a common origin in

Proto-Indo-European mythology Proto-Indo-European mythology is the body of myths and deities associated with the Proto-Indo-Europeans, speakers of the hypothesized Proto-Indo-European language. Although the mythological motifs are not directly attested – since Proto-Ind ...

References

Sources

* * * * Finnish mythology Mythological weapons {{europe-myth-stub

Etymology

Indo-European influence

See also

References

Sources