Máttaráhkká
Sámi · deity · mythic · Recorded classification
Sámi ancestral mother-goddess of conception and birth (classed as deity). Máttaráhkká / Maderakka, 'the origin-mother' (máttar 'ancestor, root' + áhkká 'goddess, old woman'). Head of the four household Áhkká; she gives the soul its body and hands the child to her daughters. The three named daughters belong to Western Sápmi; eastward Máttaráhkká alone (or merged with Sáráhkká) is found. Secondary attestation (Læstadius, Holmberg, Rydving; drum-iconography).
Children
Domains
- ancestral motherhood
- fertility and childbirth
Powers
- Receive the soul sent from the upper world and clothe it with a body
- Make women and the female animals fertile
Relations
- mother: SáráhkkáMother of Sáráhkká, the most beloved of the three daughters.Læstadius, Fragments of Lappish Mythology; Holmberg, Finno-Ugric Mythology (1927): Sarakka the daughter of Maderakka (secondary)
- mother: JuoksáhkkáMother of Juoksáhkká, the bow-woman.Holmberg, Finno-Ugric Mythology (1927); Rydving, The End of Drum-Time (1993): Juksakka one of the daughters of Maderakka (secondary)
- mother: UksáhkkáMother of Uksáhkká, the door-woman.Holmberg, Finno-Ugric Mythology (1927); Rydving, The End of Drum-Time (1993): Uksakka one of the daughters of Maderakka (secondary)
- spouse: Madder-attjeReciprocal of sami_madder_attje.spouse (alphabetical family sweep). (auto reciprocal)
Sources
- Máttaráhkká (Maderakka; Northern Sámi máttar 'ancestor, origin' + áhkká 'old woman/goddess') is the ancestral mother-goddess of Sámi religion, who dwells beneath the goahti, receives the soul from the upper world and gives the child its body; she is the mother of the three birth-goddesses Sáráhkká, Juoksáhkká and Uksáhkká. The three named daughters are a Western-Sámi development, not found in the east.: L. L. Læstadius, Fragments of Lappish Mythology (ms. 1838–1845; ed. J. Pentikäinen, trans. B. Vähämäki, 2002) (secondary); U. Holmberg (Harva), Finno-Ugric Mythology (The Mythology of All Races IV), 1927 (secondary); H. Rydving, The End of Drum-Time: Religious Change among the Lule Saami, 1670s–1740s (1993) (secondary)