“The Finnish Book of the Dead: Gods, Spirits and Creatures of the Underworld in Finnish Mythology and Folklore” by Tiina Porthan

"First ever illustrated guide to Tuonela, the land of the dead in Finnish mythology.

An art book and a compact, easy-to-read introduction to the Finnish underworld, built around Tero Porthan's artworks with Tiina Porthan's texts explaining the background of the pictures in old poems. The paperback edition contains over 70 artworks. The Kindle e-book edition contains 37 artworks.

Discover who is who in the Finnish underworld: gods and goddesses of death, rulers of graves, grim reapers, guardian spirits, corpse brides, gods of pain and disease. Read about a journey of a living shaman into the underworld.

Learn about the restless dead who walk the roads and haunt houses as nightmares, ghosts or flames. Find out how ancient Finns raised the dead and returned them to the graves, expelled them from the house and cured diseases sent by the dead.

Read about the animal guardians of the underworld and how these iron dogs, horses, bears, wolves, eagles and other creatures are summoned to our world.

The book contains poem and spell excerpts both from the Kalevala and the Ancient Poems of the Finns collection, many of them for the first time translated from Finnish into English.

Tero Porthan is a Finnish artist illustrating the magical world of Finnish mythology with its creatures and beings, inspired by ancient poems and songs. Tero's art has been shown in international exhibitions (Paris, Milan) and published in several art books and magazines.

Tiina Porthan, Master of Arts, is a published author who blogs on Finnish mythology and collaborates with illustrator Tero Porthan to make Finnish mythology known worldwide.

This book is for anyone interested in Finnish and northern mythology and folklore, as well as for art lovers, particularly lovers of dark art."