Lally

Origin

Historical information about the life of Lally is extremely insignificant. It is assumed that he came from a well-to-do peasant family, since the Song of Death of Bishop Henrik and other folklore works speak of him as a representative of the upper classes. Moreover, the Russian writer A. P. Milyukov in his “Traveling Impressions in the North and the South” ( 1865 ) called him “the Finnish nobleman” ^[5] . In the 1150s, Lally lived on the farm (later - the estate) of Lalloyle in Köyuliyo. In the house of Lally, his wife Kerttu lived ( Fin. Kerttu - a variant of the name Gertrude), and also, according to some variants of the "Song ...", some Pentti and Olavi. This casts doubt on the claim that the bishop's killer was a Gentile, since all the names mentioned are Christian. So, Lally is a modified version of the name Lauri. On the other hand, there is an assumption that these names are of a later origin, including Lally. The variable name “Lallola” found in the song can be considered pagan ( “Lallola because of the bay, good advice from the edge of the cape” ) ^[6] .

The Killing of Heinrich Uppsala

The most common version of the legend set forth in “Songs to the Death of Bishop Henrik” is as follows. Once, Lally returned home, and his wife, Curtu, who met him, “whispered anger in her ear, stirred fury in her chest,” informing her husband that Bishop Henry was visiting their house and, leaving, did not pay for food and drink, as well as for feed for his horse. There is an assumption that Kerttu lied, in fact, the priest ordered his servant to leave (or left himself) to the mistress payment for food and horse feed, and she simply decided to provoke her husband. For this reason, the image of Kerttu in folklore is negative. She is characterized as “a worthless housewife, a harmful woman in a headscarf, a gall old woman ...” ^[7] .

Hearing his wife’s story, Lally became furious and, armed with an ax (according to another version - a sword), got on his skis and went after the bishop. Having overtaken the sleigh, in which the priest rode, on the ice-covered Lake Köyüljönärvi , Lally attacked him and beheaded, then removed the miter from his head, and from the finger cut off by him - an expensive ring ^[8] . As the legend emphasizes, he did it out of greed ^[9] .

When Lally returned home to the bishop’s miter, his wife, sitting behind a spinning wheel, asked:

Consequences and death

According to legend, as soon as the peasant tried to remove the miter from her head, she got off with her hair and skin, and in place of the finger from which Lally began to remove the ring, only the bone remained. The last legend, in particular, refutes the latter: according to it, Lally dropped the bishop's cut-off finger in the snow with the ring, and in spring, when the snow melted, he was discovered by one blind person who “felt” the glitter of gold. Raising his finger, he rubbed his eyes and received his sight. This tradition was mentioned, among others, by the famous folklorist Christfried Ganander . A.P. Milyukov, in turn, reported on another legend. On it, the ring was found by two peasants, who also sailed in the spring on a boat in the lake and saw a crow circling over the ice. Sailing closer, they accidentally saw the bishop's finger on the ice ^[10] .

One way or another, Lally's death soon followed ^[11] . If in church sources the painful removal of the miter is indicated as the immediate cause of death (as Milyukov put it, the peasant “died in torment” ^[10] ), then according to popular tradition it is generally accepted that the bishop’s killer escaped from the house and hid in the woods for some time, and then drowned (possibly drowned) in the neighboring lake Hiiirjärvi . According to one legend, on the shore of Hiiirjärvi you can find a large stone, with which Lally often sat shortly before his death. The surface of this stone, as legend has it, is constantly wet - the Finns have always identified it with the tears of a killer, which have not dried up to this day ^[12] .

The house and all the property of Lally were transferred to the bishop of Turku , and at the end of the Reformation , they became the property of the crown. According to one version, this happened in retaliation for the murder of Heinrich Uppsalski ^[13] ; according to another, it was only indirectly related to this ^[9] .

The bishop's body remaining on the lake, in accordance with his lifetime wish, was picked up by his servants and immersed in a hearse pulled by oxen. Where the oxen stopped, in Nosyainen , a burial occurred. Here was laid the first church (chapel) in Finland ^[13] .

Contradictions

The question of whether Lally actually existed and whether the murder of Heinrich Uppsalsky by him as presented in legends was still not closed. Thus, “The Song to the Death of Bishop Henrik” tells that on the day of the murder, Henry rode with one carter alone, and a number of other folklore works, as well as paintings illustrating the event, indicate that he was completely alone in the wagon. Over time, however, a hypothesis appeared among scientists that the bishop was accompanied by a whole group of people, as well as Lally - he was also with his comrades. According to supporters of the hypothesis, a skirmish occurred between them, during which Henry Uppsalsky was killed ^[7] .

Doctor of Philosophy , Professor of European History at the University of Helsinki Laura Kolbe in one of the interviews, she spoke about her colleague, Tuomas Heikkila who, in preparation for the 850th anniversary of the Finnish church, wrote a scientific work dedicated to the personality of Heinrich Uppsalsky. Heikkila concluded that the bishop, like Lally, did not exist in reality ^{[14] [15]} :

“He [Heikkil] worked a lot in the archives of the Vatican and found out that ... no Bishop Henrik existed at all. And when he tried to convey this fact to the Finns living in the province, where according to legend Lally was born, he was met “with hostility”, because people did not want to admit it. History shows us that myths are what people rely on, which helps them maintain balance and balance. ”

In church legends about Heinrich Uppsala, the name Lally is not mentioned, but a number of medieval sources mention the so-called “Lally nativity scene”. According to legend, the bishop’s murderer was “some dashing man” whom Henry wanted to call to order according to church tradition, but he lost his mind and attacked the bishop ^[7] .

The history of the Finnish community of Köyuliyo is closely connected with the name of Lally. The event that once happened on its territory is reminiscent of the miter and ax depicted on the coat of arms of the community, as well as the monument to Lally, installed in Kepol . It was created by sculptor Aimo Tukiainen and opened in 1989 ^[13] . The murder of the bishop was also devoted to a number of works of art, such as paintings by Karl Anders Ekman and Albert Edelfelt . Finnish writer Eino Leino dedicated his play of the same name to Lally, completed in 1907 .

In church art, the image of Lally first appeared on the sarcophagus of the bishop he killed, commissioned in the 1410s . In the first half of the 15th century , during the time of Bishop Magnus Olai Tavast , the tradition of the image of St. Henry trampling on Lally has been strengthened. In addition, according to legend, a wonderful ring that healed a blind man was stamped on the seal of the Turku Cathedral Cathedral ^[9] .

In folklore, where Lally is mentioned, one can find his characteristic: “Lally is the worst of the Gentiles, / the most fierce of Judah, / he killed the holy man, / Bishop Mr. Heinariki” ^[2] . A number of such works were included by Elias Lönnrot in the collection of Finnish folk runes Kanteletar . The Finnish folklorist Christfried Ganander , who lived in the second half of the 18th century , reports that during this period Finnish nannies sang a song to the children with the words: “Did Lally take off his cap somewhere with a dashing helmet?” (The last two words meant Miter Heinrich Uppsalski) ^{[ 2]} .

In 2004, the national Finnish broadcasting company YLE, in order to determine by universal suffrage the greatest people in Finnish history , organized a competition called Great Finns . The name of Lally was included in the initial list of 99 candidates prepared by experts (it was possible to vote both for candidates from the list and for those who were not on this list). Lally took 14th place, ahead of such world-famous Finns as Tove Jansson , Paavo Nurmi or Alvar Aalto ^{[4] [16]} . In the same 2004, in Helsinki, the Finnish Literature Society published in Russian a collection of “ One Hundred Great Finns ”; Among the biographies of prominent figures of Finland included in it was the biography of Lally ^{[3] [17]} .

In addition, the Finnish Viking metal band Moonsorrow wrote the song Koylionjarven Jaalla (on the ice of Lake Köyülö), dedicated to the murder of the bishop. Lally in the song is represented by a positive character, and the bishop is represented by a man who, with his death, suppressed the cry of freedom of the Finns.

• Palola A.-P., Mäkeli-Alitalo A. One Hundred Great Finns. Kaleidoscope of biographies: Lally = 100 suomalaista pienoiselämäkertaa venäjäksi / Ed. Timo Vihavainen; per. with finnish. I.M.Solomeshcha. - Helsinki: Finnish lit. , 2004. - S. 312-314. - 781 s. - ISBN 951-746-522-X .
• DuBois, Thomas Andrew. Sanctity in the North: saints, lives, and cults in Medieval Scandinavia . - Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008. - P. 73-75. - 399 p.
• Milyukov A.P. Travel impressions in the north and south . - SPb. : Publishing House of M.O. Wolf , 1865 .-- 496 p.

• Piispa Henrikin surma (“Song to the Death of Bishop Henrik”, original text in Finnish) (Fin.) . agricola.utu.fi. Date of treatment September 8, 2011. Archived February 1, 2012.
• Biography of Lally on the site of the Koyuliyo community (fin.) (Inaccessible link) . koylio.fi. Date of treatment September 8, 2011. Archived February 1, 2012.
• Biography of Lally on the website of the project “Great Finns” (Fin.) . yle.fi. Date of treatment September 8, 2011. Archived February 1, 2012.