615

Kummakivi is a 500.000 kg rock in Finland that has been balancing on another rock for 11.000 years (files.catbox.moe)

submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by Blaze@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/pics@lemmy.world

97 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kummakivi

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] Ultragigagigantic@lemmy.world 13 points 6 months ago

What happened 11,000 years ago?

[-] pmk@lemmy.sdf.org 46 points 6 months ago

The ice sheet covering northern europe started to melt away, and with that we got what is called "glacial erratics". Rocks had traveled from once place to another, and then settled. In Sweden we call those "giants throw", because it was assumed that the only way those big rocks could be where they are was if a giant had thrown it.

[-] lauha@lemmy.one 11 points 6 months ago

In Finland those are called siirtolohkare (moved boulder) or hiidenkivi (devil's rock)

[-] pmk@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 6 months ago

I think we have the same terminology then, we also call them "flyttblock". Is there a story behind them being called Devil's rock? It sounds very finnish to me to be honest.

[-] Dasus@lemmy.world 7 points 6 months ago

Well "hiisi" translates to "devil" but that's very much a political translation as far as such things existed back then.

Translating "Hiisi" as "the Devil" is quite a fuck-the-pagans translation.

Hiisi (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈhiːsi]; plural hiidet [ˈhiːdet]) is a term in Finnic mythologies, originally denoting sacred localities and later on various types of mythological entities

Hiisi was originally a spirit of hill forests (Abercromby 1898). In Estonian hiis (or his) means a sacred grove in trees, usually on elevated ground. In the spells ("magic songs") of the Finns the term Hiisi is often used in association with a hill or mountain, as a personage he also associated with the hills and mountains, such as the owner or ruler of the same. His name is also commonly associated with forests, and some forest animals.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiisi

I think "the Fae" would be a more accurate translation, theology-wise.