Otso
Finnish · numen · mythic · Recorded classification
A CASE WHERE THE PROGRAMME'S USUAL REJECTION DOES NOT APPLY. Five named horses were rejected in lanes 13 to 17 and two hounds in lanes 18 and 19, because they were animals identified by a name and an owner. This is the opposite: the bear is the being whose name may not be said, who is descended from the sky, who is given a funeral and whose skull is kept so that he can come back. He is not somebody's bear. The record says in as many words that he is the spirit of all bears rather than one of them.
Domains
- the forest
Relations
- born of: HongatarIn-batch. Deliberately a relation and NOT parentIds: a descent edge would make the bear a demigod by the tier computation, which is not what the sources say.Reference treatment: Hongatar or Hongas is known as the mother of the bear, and the peijaiset chant is a dialogue between the killed bear and the primordial Mother of the Bear, called Hongotar. (secondary)
Sources
- Otso is the sacred bear of Finnish tradition, king of the forest, addressed by by-names because his true name was taboo, and given a funeral rite after killing so that he could be reborn.: Reference treatments of Otso, of Hongatar, and of the Finnish bear cult. (secondary)