Finnish werewolf traditions in U. T. Sirelius’s ethnographic writings

Record summary

U. T. Sirelius’s ethnographic work on Finnish material culture and popular belief offers a route into local accounts of animal transformation, protective practices and beliefs surrounding unusual human-animal identities. The lead is valuable because Finnish and Karelian traditions can be compared with Germanic werewolf narratives without assuming identical meanings. Exact passages and publication dates vary across Sirelius’s works and translations. The materials require attention to collector mediation, language, Christian reinterpretation and the difference between belief narrative and ethnographic description.