Finnish Maiden

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The Maiden of Finland (Finnish: Suomi-neito) is the national personification of Finland, much as Marianne in France, Britannia in the United Kingdom, Deutscher Michel in Germany and Columbia, Uncle Sam or Lady Liberty for the United States.

1 Personification
2 Mapping issues
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Personification

She is a barefoot young woman in her mid-twenties with often braided blonde hair, blue eyes, wearing a blue and white national costume or a white dress. She was originally called Aura after the Aura River in Turku (Åbo).

As a symbol, the Finnish Maiden has been used since the 18th Century when she was pictured as a woman wearing a turreted crown, and then developing as Finland gained a national consciousness and independence.

In the famous painting Hyökkäys by Eetu Isto, the Finnish maiden is being attacked by the Russian eagle, which is tearing away the law book.

Poetically, the maiden Aura has been linked to her foster mother, Mother Svea, the personification of Sweden.

[edit] Mapping issues

The Maiden of Finland can also refer to the shape of Finland on the map. With a little imagination it looks like a female form which has one hand raised (and another before the Moscow Armistice of 1944), a head, and a skirt. The metaphor is so commonly used that the northwestern area around Enontekiö is known as the Arm (Käsivarsi) even in official contexts.

[edit] See also

Related subjects

National personification

[edit] References

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