Suomalaisten runojen uskonto

The author reconstructs religious ideas preserved in folk poetry, surveying beliefs about shamans, ancestor veneration and the afterlife, including realms of the dead and cemetery spirits. The study catalogs nature beings tied to land, forests and waters and lists named haltiat including a forest guardian, and examines cults of trees, crops and animals with emphasis on bear rites. It treats human spirits, the incorporation of saints and the Virgin Mary into earlier practices, notions of demons and sacred places, heroic lore, poetic name‑formation and the community’s conception of deity, using comparative-method perspectives.