Finnish Maiden
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The Maiden of Finland (Finnish: Suomi-neito) is the national personification of Finland, much as Marianne in France, Britannia in the United Kingdom, Germania in Germany and Columbia, Uncle Sam or Lady Liberty for the United States.
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[edit] Personification
She is a barefoot young woman in her mid-twenties with often braided blonde hair, blue eyes, wearing a blue and white national costume or a white dress. She was originally called Aura after the Aura River in Turku (Åbo).
- As a symbol, the Finnish Maiden has been used since the 18th century when she was pictured as a woman wearing a turreted crown, and then developing as Finland gained a national consciousness and independence.
- Poetically, the maiden Aura has been linked to her foster mother, Mother Svea, the personification of Sweden.
[edit] Mapping issues
The Maiden of Finland can also refer to the shape of Finland on the map. With a little imagination it looks like a female form which has one hand raised (and another before the Moscow Armistice of 1944), a head, and a skirt. The metaphor is so commonly used that the northwestern area around Enontekiö is known as the Arm (Käsivarsi) even in official contexts.
[edit] References
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[edit] External links
Related English language explanations
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