Hillervo
Hillervo is a water-related haltija known from one runic song collected by Christfried Ganander, identified as the Mother of Otters. According to Martti Haavio's theory, she was originally the Mother of Polecats, but was reutilized in otter hunting spells after polecats disappeared from Finland. Some researchers have suggested she may be the same goddess as Tellervo.
↻ synthesized from 2 sources
When
- First attested
- 1786 CE
- Attested period
- 1786 – 2020
- Historical notes
- First documented by Christfried Ganander in 1786; appears in only one collected runic song.
Relationships
- syncretized with
- Tellervo, Hilasatar, Saint Hilarius
- consort of
- Juoletar
Mentioned by
Sources
Source passages
“Hillervo and Juoletar are a pair of water related haltijas known from one runic song collected by Christfried Ganander. He identified Hillervo as the Mother of Otters and Juoletar as her husband”
#27238 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5
“He called Hillervo an otter goddess, the Mother of Otters. This name, Hillervo, only appears in one collected runic song, and the same song mentions Juoletar, a beautiful man and, according to Ganander, Hillervo's husband”
#27297 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5