Historian says Bishop Henry and Lalli may have been fictional characters

"No contemporary evidence found of Bishop Henry"

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By Anna Pakarinen
     
      According to Dr. Tuomas Heikkilä, a historian at the University of Helsinki, Bishop Henry and the peasant Lalli may have been fictional characters.
      By time-honoured Finnish tradition, Bishop Henry, believed to have been of English origin, was killed on the ice of Lake Köyliö. He is known as the patron saint of Finland.
      However, it would seem that there is no contemporary evidence to be found of the Bishop. Heikkilä says that it would seem most likely that the story of Bishop Henry was a common European legend.
     
According to the common belief, Bishop Henry arrived in Finland along with Sweden's King Erik in 1155 during the first Crusade into Finland.
      There have been many versions of the death of Henry. The most familiar is the Finnish-language hymn, in which the peasant Lalli killed the Bishop on the ice of Lake Köyliö after the Bishop had misbehaved in Lalli's home.
      Henry has been declared patron saint of both the Turku Cathedral and of Finland. Henry is generally also seen as the first Bishop of Turku.
     
Heikkilä says that no mention of the bishop by contemporaries is to be found in the archives of any country. The first mentions of Henry are from about 1280 in a Latin biography of saints. The first notation of the Finnish death hymn dates from the 17th century.
      "The traditions reveal a common thread, that certainly some man of the church moved around in Finland on matters of the faith, but the details are obviously a later invention. Bishop Henry cannot be seen to be a detailed historical figure, and much less so the peasant Lalli, whose story has been added to the information of the Bishop Henry legend."
      According to Heikkilä, the birth of the legend is linked with the setting up of the spiritual order of the Turku Diocese.
      Typical of the Middle Ages, the personality cult of Bishop Henry experienced a great rise. According to legend, the Bishop was buried in Nousiainen, and relics of him were moved to Turku in connection with the consecration of Turku Cathedral. Later the sacred bones were distributed around Finland - some even went to Sweden.
     
A pile of bones was found in a closet of Turku Cathedral in the 1920s by State Archaeologist Juhani Rinne. The bones were investigated by Yrjö Kajava, Professor of Pathology. Rinne and Kajava agreed that the bones were those of Bishop Henry. According to Kajava's analysis, the bones were those of a foreign man who was a member of the civilised classes. However, an analysis of the skull revealed that the person was of weak mind.
      In the nationalist fervour of the day, the roles of hero and villain in the story changed places. The murderer Lalli was made a hero of the oppressed for defending the country against foreign influence.
      Heikkilä says that the Finnish Lutheran Church has looked at the new research with interest.
      "The Church is now so distant from the medieval tradition that these kinds of things are seen to be interesting. No matter what happens, the question is primarily one of faith. Results achieved through historical and scientific methods will have no bearing on that."
      Heikkilä's study will be published at the Turku Book Fair in October at the latest.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 22.4.2005

More on this subject:
 Köyliö residents grind axe over claim that Henry and Lalli never existed
 BACKGROUND: Difference between reality and legend pondered at school

Previously in HS International Edition:
  A jubilee year for the Western Church (30.3.2005)

Links:
  Churches and Religion (Virtual Finland)

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