So far, my custom Minifigure Monday characters have focused largely on Viking-inspired figs. I started my Norse themed MOCs with a Viking Ship and the beginnings of a Village. Naturally, I needed minifigs to populate the scenes. However, my goal has never been to build only Viking-themed stories. I am from Finland, and I want to include Finnish legends, lore, and mythology into my builds. This week, I have built my first character, the pagan Tietäjä.

Tietäjä translates roughly to “knower” in English. However, it is used to describe a seer, or shaman who could communicate with spirits and pagan deities, see the future, and heal. They were known to use incantations and cast spells, associating the Tietäjä with witchcraft as well. However, these shamans were not specifically witches, known as noita in Finnish. The noita was also more of a shaman than in “witch” in ancient Finland. However, history refers to them more specifically as spiritual and physical healers rather than important community members like the Tietäjä.

The pagan Tietäjä was a shaman, spiritual leader, and healer.

My Minifigure pagan Tietäjä will not live in my Viking village. Eventually, as I start to develop more forested landscape, he will live in the wilderness. He is not Viking because Finland was not a Viking nation. In fact, the Vikings thought it was bad luck to let Finns on their ships because they considered Finland to be a land of sorcerers.

I used the LEGO® Dungeons and Dragons Halfling Druid as the base for my character. The antlers on the hood, the torso printing, and the green cape are wonderful. I could not have designed a better outfit myself. However, the druid came with stumpy, unmoving legs. Those are useless, so I swapped them out with the identically coloured legs from the Series 25 Goat Herder. The pouch dangling from the belt adds to the character nicely.

I used some rarer parts.

Since the Halfling Druid has short legs, sadly he also comes with a short cape. I didn’t want to waste the cape just because of that… but I still wanted something longer. Consequently, I added a second cape underneath the druid cape. My Tietäjä lives in a cold climate, and in the wilderness. He’ll want layers to stay warm. To keep with the earthy colours of the Minifigure, and to match the style of the druid cape, I used the brown cape from Tartan Batman. He is the only LEGO® Minifigure to ever come with this style and colour of cape.

I got the head in the 2018 Toys R Us Bricktober Ninjago Collection. Presently, that is the only set to include this specific head. However, a very similar head came in three different Ninjago sets as well as a 2018 issue of the Ninjago magazine:

• 10755 – Zane’s Ninja Boat Pursuit
• 70640 – S.O.G. Headquarters
• 70643 – Temple of Resurrection
• 891835 – Sawyer Foil Pack (issue 3 of the 2018 Ninjago Magazine)

The pagan Tietäjä dealt in animism and necrolatry

I selected this particular head because of the skull face paint. The pagan Finnish belief system was built on animism and necrolatry. Animism is the belief that all living and non-living things in nature have their own spirit. So, there was a spirit of the wind, a spirit of the forest, a spirit of the bear, and so on. This lends itself to necrolatry. If everything has a spirit, so too do people. Necrolatry is the worship of the dead. Ancestors and past shamans were very important to pagan Finns. Though there is no evidence I know of suggesting the pagan Tietäjä painted their faces in this manner, I thought this particular Minifigure head symbolically represents necrolatry and the shaman’s connection to the dead well.

Since the Tietäjä was a seer and fortune teller as well, I gave him an eye atop his staff. It struck me as symbolic of seeing all. I could have used the actual eye element from the Dungeons and Dragons Gith Warlock. But, I decided to go with something less realistic. I thought it more authentic to use an element that looks drawn. A shaman would draw on their drum, or on rock. So, I imagine this staff topper as a smooth, round stone with an eye drawn on it. The element came in the Lunar New Year Lion Dance set (80104), as well as with the Lion Dance Guy BrickHeadz character.

Feathers passed down through the decades…

Finally, to represent animism, I used some feathers. The Halfling Druid already has some printed on the torso. But, I wanted a couple hanging from the staff too. These particular feathers hail from one of my childhood sets, Boulder Cliff Canyon from the 1997 Western sets. This part is no longer in production and only came in the ’90s Western theme. Feathers are used in many shamanic cultures as ritual objects. They may help the shaman connect with a spirit animal, or are used to distribute energy or magic.

Hopefully you enjoyed this little foray into Finnish pagan beliefs. As I develop my custom LEGO® world, I will share more as it relates to my builds. Let me know what you think in the comments or reach out on social media.

Until next time,

-Tom

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