Aikia Aikianpoika
shaman condemned for witchcraft in Finland
Aikia Aikianpoika (Finnish) or Aike Aikesson (Swedish) (1591–1671), was a Sámi Shaman (noaidi) from Kuusamo near the Finnish Lapland. He was sentenced to death for witchcraft in Kuolajärvi and accused of having caused the death by drowning of a client Tobias Mordula by a curse. The client didn't pay for his services as promised. Rumors tells that thereafter, Aikia, who was imprisoned in Kemi, was alleged to have killed himself with witchcraft in order to avoid execution of the sentence. Aikia's case is one of the most famous trials and executions for witchcraft in Finland. This took place during the Christianization of the Sámi people.
He was from Kitka in Kemi. He was active as a noaidi, and as such used a Sámi drum. He was widely rumoured to be able to cause both good and evil by use of magic, and was engaged to do so by others.
In 1670, he was paid by a farmer to give him good salmon fishing luck.
“Aikia Aikianpoika” enters the record as shaman condemned for witchcraft in Finland. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Aikia, Aikianpoika and shaman can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Aikia Aikianpoika” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.