Metsäpirtti

The prototype for this design is a golden bracelet that may have been used as currency ? a piece of gold could be taken from the bracelet and offered as payment. The bracelet may possibly also have been a sacrificial gift or a keepsake. According to ancient monastic tradition, the bracelet once belonged to a Viking chieftain. Legend has it that the chieftain survived a shipwreck and sacrificed a golden bracelet as a token of his gratitude. The chieftain is said to have left his bracelet on the site wherehe first encountered dry land. Mere folktale or not ? nearly a thousand years later, the bracelet was nevertheless found on the shores of a lake. The bracelet is the sole finding of gold in Finland dating from the Viking era (800-1050 A.D.).