Jan 20
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On this apocryphal day in 1156, freeholder Lalli killed English crusader Bishop Henry with an axe on the ice of Lake
Köyliönjärvi in Finland.
The story tells that when Lalli returned home one day, his wife informed him that the bishop recently visited their house,
but lied, saying that he had departed without paying for his food, drink, or fodder. When Lalli heard of this, he became enraged
and left to pursue the bishop. At Bishop Henry's bidding, his entourage fled and hid in a nearby forest while Lalli decapitated the
Bishop with an axe.
The legend is enshrined in a
famous Finnish folk poem called
Henrikin Surma ("The Slaying
of Henry"). The details of the poem
follow a pattern typical to the era's
folktales. Lalli took the bishop's hat
from his decapitated head and cut off
the bishop's finger to take his ring. The
hat became fused to Lalli's head and
when he tried to remove it, it tore his
scalp off with it. When Lalli tried to
remove the bishop's ring from his
finger, it likewise tore his finger off.
Afterward, Lalli drowned in Lake
Köyliönjärvi. Per the bishop's last wish,
his body parts were collected by his
servants and transported with oxen.
Where the oxen stopped became the
site of the first church in Finland.
Lalli is a well-known figure in Finnish
folklore. In fact, on the television
series Suuret Suomalaiset, the
Finnish version of Greatest Britons,
Lalli was elected as the 14th greatest
Finn - this despite the fact that both
Lalli and Bishop Henry are considered
fictional characters.
More recently, Lalli has been seen
as representing a positive rebellion
against oppressive authority. He is
a hero for many present day pagans,
since his story reflects the battle be-
tween the earlier pagan Finnish beliefs
and Christianity. A statue to Lalli (above)
was erected at Köyliö in 1989.
Источник: http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=4389&start=915
