Tuulikki- Finnish GodDeity"Daughter of Tapio"

Keeper of the Forest's Game

Tuulikki belonged to the divine household of Tapiola as a daughter of Tapio and Mielikki. Within the forest family, each member held a role: Tapio ruled from his hall and opened his storehouses, Mielikki led game along golden cords. Tuulikki's task was to fill the forest with game, squirrels in the branches and elk in the clearings. Runic songs call her "mother of squirrels" and "Tapio's worthy daughter."

Hunters invoked her name alongside her family's, asking her to drive game toward their snares and keep the woods from falling empty. Without her favor, a hunter might walk all day through thick forest and find nothing worth shooting.

The Bear's Mother

In bear-related incantations preserved across Eastern Finland, from Kainuu through North Karelia to White Karelia, Tuulikki is named as one of the mothers of the bear. The bear required a chain of divine permissions before it could be taken. Tapio had to release it from his storehouses. Mielikki had to lead it into the open. And Tuulikki, as one who had nurtured the creature, had to consent to let it go.

The incantations addressed each family member in turn, calling them by name to play their part. Tuulikki was asked to rise from her rest and come to where the bear slept, to drive the great animal gently from its den toward the hunter's path. Her name appears in these songs as naturally as her father's. No prayer to the forest household was complete without it.