Sáráhkká

Sámi goddess of birth, menstruation and the growing child (classed as deity); the most beloved of the goddesses. Sáráhkká / Sarakka, 'the cleaving woman' (sárrit 'to split' + áhkká), who dwells under the hearth. Daughter of Máttaráhkká. Honoured with cloven firewood and a birth-porridge. Secondary attestation (Læstadius, Holmberg, Rydving).

Parentage

• Máttaráhkká

Domains

• childbirth
• fertility
• hearth

Powers

• Grow the flesh of the child about its bones in the womb
• Ease the pains of labour, for which wood is cloven in two
• Govern menstruation, women's fertility and sexuality

Relations

• sibling: Juoksáhkká
• sibling: Uksáhkká

Sources

• L. L. Læstadius, Fragments of Lappish Mythology (ms. 1838–1845; ed. Pentikäinen, trans. Vähämäki, 2002)
• U. Holmberg (Harva), Finno-Ugric Mythology (The Mythology of All Races IV), 1927
• H. Rydving, The End of Drum-Time: Religious Change among the Lule Saami, 1670s–1740s (1993)