Finnic incantations: History and Key Facts

Finnic incantations or charms (Finnish: loitsut, singular loitsu) are a body of traditional literature in the Finnic languages whose purpose was to effect magical change on the world. They were most often used to ward off diseases and injuries and to ensure economic prosperity in farming, hunting, fishing and cattle-raising, though spells were used in various social situations and everyday tasks. Such incantations were in widespread use from the first extensive documentation of Finnic-language cultures around the late eighteenth century through to the advance of modernisation in the early twentieth; one marker of this popularity is that more than 30,000 verse spells were collected from Finland and Karelia and published in the series Suomen kansan vanhat runot.

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