Aarnivalkeat – are spots where an eternal flame associated with Will o’ the wisps burns (Virvatulet in Finnish). They are claimed to mark the places where faerie gold or a other treasure is buried. Although clearly folklore, the claim has been made that the Outokumpu (“weird hill”) coppermine — the largest coppermine in Europe at its time — was discovered due to some light phenomena or another.
Etiäinen – a human-like spirit that goes ahead of you in your life. If you meet this spirit you can see things that aren’t yet happened to you or to someone else. The word etiäinen is a commonly used in other parts of Finland and is a part of everyday vocabulary meaning a sign or an omen.
Ihtiriekko or liekkiö (“flamey”) – a ghost of a bastard child. Ihtiriekko is a bastard child that has been killed by child’s mother and after that buried outside of the graveyard becouse the child is not accepted by the church or sosiety. Baby can’t go to heaven and becomes a ghost. This ghost could make terrible noise until somebody dugs up his/her body and buries it in graveyard. Such ghost people call Ihtiriekko. Ghosts could also be quiet, but she/he might be seen as a flame in forest, like will o’ the wisp. Such ghost people call Liekkiö.
Itse (“self”) – a part of the soul that is not attached to other parts of the soul. Itse is described to be your a look-a-like even if it can be separate from your body and it can go ahead of you like etiäinen. You can also loose your itse and then you’ll become sick and depressed. The dead ones are maybe taken your itse to Tuonela (Underworld). It was also believed that alcoholism can take your itse away because under the influence of alcohol you’re not yourself.
Sielulintu (“soulbird”) – means the home of your soul. It is believed that when a new baby is born, the bird brings a soul to him/her. And when a person dies the bird comes to take a soul away. Sieluluntu also means a wooden bird that people kept besides of themselves when sleeping so that the bird can look after your soul when you sleep.
Tuonela – is a realm of the dead or the Underworld. Tuonela is best known for its appearance in the Finnish national epic Kalevala. In Kalevala Väinämöinen, a shamanistic hero, travels to Tuonela to seek the knowledge of the dead. On the journey he meets a girl, Tuonen piika (Death’s maid), who takes him over the river of Tuoni.
Am I the only person who thought this was really fucking funny
A lot of the really funny moments in Lord of the Rings come from Tolkien playing with language like this, where we have relatively formal, archaic, “high” language responded to with informal, modern, “low” language.
another hilarious example:
my absolute favorite example of tolkien switching registers in this way is
MisbehavingMaiar: Tumblr Archive 