Ambiguous characters

Cunning folk in the Swedish Ostrobothnian belief narratives

Authors

• Karolina Kouvola

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37449/ennenjanyt.97588

Keywords:

cunning folk, vernacular beliefs, Ostrobothnia, folk legends, witchcraft

Abstract

This paper examines the cunning folk tradition in Swedish-speaking rural Ostrobothnia according to textual folklore material collected at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Qualitative text analysis is used as a method to survey narratives from the region. I argue that Ostrobothnian Swedish-language folk legends about cunning folk are based on established vernacular beliefs that are similar to the Western European model. Consistent with prior research, the cunning folk of the Swedish-Finnish folk legends were members of the community who were able to heal illnesses, find stolen property and practise malevolent witchcraft. The article offers new localised information about vernacular beliefs in Swedish-speaking Ostrobothnia that are often overlooked. Models of vernacular beliefs about cunning folk can be applied to source material from other Swedish-speaking regions in Finland. This article also addresses the question of whether this tradition was in decline at the turn of the 20th century. The results show that there was an established model for the cunning folk as part of local folklore.