Talk:Haltija
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In my understanding haltia is a mythical spiritual (or possibly physical) being inhabitating (and taking care of) something. That something might be a house, a forest or pretty much anything. Meanwhile haltija is a Finnish word for a possessor, user or caretaker of something (notice the similarity). It is used of people in everyday contexts. There are other similar words such as hallita (to rule over), hallitsija (a ruler (of land)), (pitää) hallussa ((to have, to keep) in possession), hallussapitäjä (one who has in possession, synonymous to haltija).
As far as I know, this is how these words are used today, but it's quite possible (link in Finnish) that in the past there has not been any difference between these words. They are pronounced in a very similar fashion.
--Lakefall 13:41, 24 Aug 2004 (UTC)
- Funny, I was going to give you a link to the very same article. I think it's kind of practical to use haltia for "Tolkienish" elves and such (as I edited into the article yesterday), and haltija for the creatures (kotitontut etc) in Scandinavian / Finnish mythology (of course, it has the other, everyday meaning of "possessor", too). In my experience, this is how these words are most commonly used.
- However, I'm not an expert in the field, or the etymology of these words, and I think it would be nice to get someone like the author of that article to write for Wikipedia on these things. --Jonik 16:44, 24 Aug 2004 (UTC)
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- How did I happen to find the article? Let's all hail Google. Anyhow, what I think my Finnish teachers said and what many others seem to think is that the mythical being is called haltia. On the other hand, if these beings did exist, I could see why they could be called haltijas of whatever they are in charge of. Of couse that would be somewhat confusing as you wouldn't know whether auton haltija (possessor of a car) is the driver or the thingy getting mad at him, if he drives too fast over speed bumps. ;-) --Lakefall 19:41, 24 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Apparently this subject has been discussed at http://13084.rapidforum.com/topic=100185996087 (in Finnish). --Lakefall 20:03, 24 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I now have been agreeing for a while (after doing some more googling) that the correct form is indeed haltija. I also wrote a stub about the subject in the Finnish Wikipedia. I do not know whether that page should be language linked with this one, as I'm not sure if haltijas are always tonttus (when the word isn't used in reference to a human being). --Lakefall 16:28, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)
