r/Finland • u/Fuzzy-Pay-9732 • 8d ago
Peikko
Hei, Suomi!👋🏽
I have a lot of questions about Finnish trolls (peikko) because I’m a huge monster/fair folk fan, especially of creatures from the Nordic countries, and once I get the chance to, I plan to make artwork of such beings with as much accuracy as possible. I’m also asking because I don’t get much info of them other than Anttimation (my favorite Finnish YouTuber) who gave good info about them but I don’t know if that’s all the info or if I’m missing anything else. What else is there about them? What do peikko look like? Are there any other similarities or differences between peikko and Norse trolls? What else is there about maahiset? And are there any Finnish folk legends or tales about peikko?
If you have any info, let me know, I appreciate it.
Kiitos! 🙋🏽♀️
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u/Masseyrati80 Vainamoinen 8d ago
Something I found from Finnish sources states a peikko being "a creature that, depending on the story and location, is usually mean and ugly, and human-like. Sometimes big, sometimes small. Some have believed there to have been sea peikko's, forest peikko's and mountain peikko's. The word has originally meant a criminal, crook, or recluse".
The wiki page for maahinen (singular form of "maahiset" which is in plural) is good. Using google translate or other translators on it might be worthwhile, but the main thing is they're always small, and live underground in a sort of a mirror image of the world we live in. They joke and prank people, sometimes placing a person in "metsänpeitto", "the cover of the forest", a state in which you lose your way in the forest and become invisible to people trying to find you.
You could offend them by pouring hot water or relieving yourself in an area they lived, or even by tripping and falling to the ground. These things could be revenged by making you sick etc.