Ruohtta

Sámi god of disease and death, the horseback-rider (classed as deity). Ruohtta / Ruto / Rota; his realm is Rotaimo, the lowest underworld. He alone of the Sámi gods rides a horse (the feared, foreign Norse animal); horses were sacrificed to him to carry off disease. Distinct from the death-goddess Jábmeáhkká (sami_jabmeahkka), who keeps the ordinary dead: Ruohtta governs the lowest realm of the unrighteous. Secondary attestation (Holmberg, Friis, Læstadius). Kinless in the sources — see SOLITARY flag.

Domains

• disease
• death underworld

Powers

• Spread disease and death, riding among people on his horse
• Rule the lowest underworld, Rotaimo, of the unrighteous dead

Sources

• Ruohtta (Ruto / Rota) is the Sámi god and personification of disease and death, who rides on horseback — uniquely among Sámi powers — spreading sickness, and rules the lowest underworld Rotaimo, where the unrighteous dead receive a new body and remain forever; in healing rites a horse was sacrificed to him and the sickness driven into the animal.: U. Holmberg (Harva), Finno-Ugric Mythology (The Mythology of All Races IV), 1927 (secondary); J. A. Friis, Lappisk Mythologi (1871): Rota / Ruto, the disease-god and the underworld Rotaimo (secondary); L. L. Læstadius, Fragments of Lappish Mythology (ms. 1838–1845; ed. Pentikäinen, 2002) (secondary)