Mythic Images and Shamanism

This work analyses the shamanistic images and metaphors encountered in the oral poetry of the Baltic Finns and at the same time examines the action of the ecstatic tietäjäs and the seers who fell into a trance. It thus reveals the images and metaphors and their variations associated with the shaman's skills, the topography and inhabitants of the other world and the shaman's journey there. Anna-Leena Siikala traces mythic images in the light of Old Norse poetry and sagas, the myths of Antiquity and the Middle East, medieval visions, Siberian and Sami shamanism, archaeology and linguistic developments.