Warning
Contains spoilers for The Winter Spirits, The Mist Children & The Night River
One of the major inspirations for the story was my own experience of living in the Arctic for several winters, and many descriptions are taken directly from this. Tuomas is named after Thomas Hibbs: my late younger brother who was miscarried. The Winter Spirits was written in 2017, to coincide with the year he should have turned 18. The Trilogy itself was released in 2020 to coincide with his 21st.
The catalyst for the story was the Finnish legend of the northern lights, which says that they are made by a magical fox sweeping the snow with its tail. This provides the modern Finnish word for the lights: revontulet, which literally means fox fires. A similar legend can be found among the Chipewyan Dene, who likened the aurora to the sparks produced when caribou fur is stroked. Various Native American and Inuit peoples traditionally believed that the lights contained the spirits of their ancestors dancing through the sky. The Sami believed that the lights demanded respect, and whistling could draw them closer, to the point of potentially being struck by them. To create the culture of the Northlands, I took inspiration from the various indigenous groups who inhabit the Arctic; namely the Sami, Inuit and Nenets. The people in the Trilogy, however, are not meant to represent any of these. The Northlands' imprecise location is hinted at through the varied mixture of character and place names, which stem from Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish and Icelandic.
Einfjall loosely means "lone mountain" in Icelandic: a reference to the single large mountain behind the village. Poro is the Finnish word for reindeer. Akerfjorden loosely means "fjord by the field" in Norwegian, in reference to the relatively flat area of woodland nearby. The Mustafjord, as mentioned in the story, means "black water/fjord" in Finnish/Norwegian. The Nordjarvi means "north lake" in Norwegian/Finnish. The three summer islands are named after real places in Sapmi (the Sami homeland; Lapland): Ardni is the Inari Sami name for Inari Municipality in Finland; Anaar is the Northern Sami name for Arnoya Island in Norway; and Hetta is a village near Enontekio in Finland.
The painted drums are loosely inspired by traditional Sami drums used by the noaidi, or shaman. These oval drums are traditionally decorated with an array of powerful symbols, with the sun in the centre, and are struck with a hammer made from reindeer antler. The drums of the Northlands, by contrast, are rounded and feature the Great Bear Spirit at their centre. The reverence of the Great Bear Spirit is taken from the bear worship found in many North Eurasian ethnic groups, including the Sami, Nivkh and Finnish pagans.
Lumi's name is the Finnish word for snow, and is also one of my own nicknames. Although her character is very different from me, her relationship with Tuomas is a homage to myself and Thomas Hibbs. The Earth Spirits and the World Below are very loosely inspired by the Gufihtar: a mythical people from Sami mythology, who were said to take the form of beautiful maidens and possess herds of pure white reindeer. Their underground world, Saivo, would always be the inverse of the world on the surface. In Norway, this world was believed to be underneath the mountains, while in Finland, it was said to be reached via double-bottomed lakes connected by a small hole; the latter description matches the entrance at the Northern Edge of the World.
Taika is the Finnish word for magic, as it is in the Northlands. The three Worlds are a major feature of shamanism from all over the globe, of which the human world is considered only the middle. Similarly, the shamanistic practices of many indigenous peoples place emphasis on Spirits being everywhere and in everything, as all matter is considered to possess its own unique energy and form.
The World Above and World Below are based upon the Upper and Lower Worlds of shamanistic practise. The Lower World is a place of earth and animal spirits with similarities to the physical world, but lacking any kind of man-made contraptions or architecture; while the Upper World is said to be a more formless domain where higher beings such as gods and angels can be found. The tree which connects the three Worlds is most commonly associated with Yggdrasil in Norse mythology, but a similar motif is found in several religions and mythologies from all over the globe. These include Native American and Indo-European beliefs, Finnish paganism, Baltic mythology and Slavic mythology.
The shrines are inspired by sieidis: abnormal natural features in a landscape which were traditionally sacred for the Sami noaidi. Offerings were frequently left at them for the local spirits of each family or clan. One of the marks of a mage is an item of clothing made from white reindeer fur. Due to their rarity, this animal is considered sacred in traditional Sami culture.
Lilja's name is Icelandic and Finnish for lily. Even though lilies do not naturally grow in Arctic environments, I chose this name due to the flower's symbolism of both love and deep mourning. Tuomas and Paavo's parents, Erik and Veera, are named after my paternal grandparents in a Nordic form.
Though The Winter Spirits was first written in 2017, I rewrote the passages regarding Tuomas's frostbite a few years later, after suffering a mild case of it myself in Finland. Sisu's name comes from the Finnish word sisu, which is often used by Finns as a description of their national character. It is a concept of determination, hardiness, tenacity and bravery; often in situations where the odds are not in one's favour.
A draugr (Old Norse) is an undead creature which appears in the legends of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. They are described in the ancient Icelandic Sagas and Norse mythology as possessing superhuman strength, the ability to shapeshift and control the weather, and to enter the dreams of the living, among other powers. In more recent folklore (where they are called draugs in modern Sweden, Norway and Denmark), they are said to be the souls of sailors who died by drowning. The name draugar, used in The Mist Children, is the modern Icelandic spelling. The coming of the draugars, as well as the connection between Tuomas and Lumi, is foreshadowed in the cave paintings of the World Below. Similarly, Aki's abduction is foreshadowed by a painting on Lilja's original drum.
The reindeer migration is based on the real traditional actions of the Sami people, who have accompanied the herds across Arctic Scandinavia for thousands of years Tuomas's connection to the Great Mage and to flame is very loosely inspired by the Greek hero Prometheus, who defied the will of the gods to bring fire to the people.
The Moon and Sun Spirits are both inspired by respective Sami goddesses. The Moon is based loosely on Mano, who was traditionally seen as an unpredictable and dangerous female deity. The Sun Spirit is based on Beaivi, who was viewed as the mother of humankind and healer of the sick. The trolls are based on creatures from Scandinavian and Sami mythology. Trolls were traditionally seen as dangerous to humans, and upon exposure to sunlight, would turn to stone. This was used to explain the humanoid appearances of several landmarks in Scandinavia, and similarly in the Northlands, boulders and rock-forms are seen as petrified trolls. The details of the knives is taken from the stallo: giant yet stupid villains which are rife throughout traditional Sami stories.
The Moon and Sun Spirits are both inspired by respective Sami goddesses. The Moon is based loosely on Mano, who was traditionally seen as an unpredictable and dangerous female deity. The Sun Spirit is based on Beaivi, who was viewed as the mother of humankind and healer of the sick. The Night River is inspired by the River of Tuoni from traditional Finnish paganism. It was said to be reached by crossing a desert and then a river with the help of a ferryman; and was a place where both good and bad people wandered as shadows, since after death, their fate was regarded the same. It is most famously featured in the national epic Kalevala, where the river itself is filled with the weapons of men and needles of women, just as is seen in the novel. In the 19th song of the Kalevala, the shamanistic hero Vainamoinen travels across the River of Tuoni with the female ferryman, but barely manages to escape the realm of the dead, leading him to curse anyone who tries to enter it while still alive.
The Spirit of Death is inspired by the Sami deity Ruohtta, who was viewed as a god of sickness and therefore death. His realm was Rotaimo, the Land of the Dead, and it was believed that people who lived outside the natural order of the world were delivered to him under the earth. He was also depicted as riding on horseback, which is contrary to traditional Sami practise and may serve as a link between Ruohtta and the Vikings, who preferred the horse as their transportation. Although no such connection exists in the Northlands, the Spirit of Death is nevertheless known by the title Horse-Riding One. The cover artworks for the trilogy feature the three central characters in key locations: Lumi in the tundra, Lilja on Lake Nordjarvi, and Tuomas on the Mustafjord. The artwork for each book becomes gradually more 'enclosed' to symbolise the growing responsibilities and burdens Tuomas faces as the story progresses. In addition, although a small detail, the symbols on Lilja and Tuomas's drums are completely book accurate.
In the earliest drafts of the Trilogy, Paavo was Tuomas's cousin rather than his brother; Lumi was not the sole Spirit of the Lights but instead one of several fox entities; Lilja was named Gerda in homage to the heroine of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen; Tuomas, Elin and Mihka were twelve years old rather than fifteen; and Tuomas's initial encounter with Lumi was when she saved him after he fell through an ice-fishing hole. |