321 Australasian Psychiatry • Vol 19, No 4 • August 2011 SUICIDE Suicide in Old Norse and Finnish folk stories Saxby Pridmore, Jamshid Ahmadi and Zainab Abd Majeed Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the folk stories of Norway, Iceland and Finland with a view to discovering accounts of suicide as an escape option from intolerable predicaments, and to compare any such accounts with material from Southern Europe. Method: The Poetic Edda (Norway/Iceland) and The Kalevala (Finland) were examined for accounts of suicide, and evidence regarding the influence of these texts and individual accounts was collected. Results: The Poetic Edda provided one account and The Kalevala three accounts of suicide performed as a means of escaping intolerable situations. Both the Poetic Edda and The Kalevala are in public awareness and have influenced the politics and culture of their respective regions. The individual suicides have been depicted in literature, music and the visual arts, from the distant past to the present time. Conclusion: Suicide as a means of escape from intolerable predicaments has been public knowledge in these regions for a millennium. This is consistent with findings from Southern Europe and substantiates that intolerable predicaments may lead to suicide. Key words: culture, folklore, suicide. W e have argued that suicide may occur in response to intolerable situations (predicaments), 1 that Greco-Roman mythic and heroic history provides numerous examples, 2 that this response is a feature of current Western culture, 3 that this response option has been transmitted from ancient to present times, and that this transmission is apparent in literature, music and the visual arts. 4 We were interested to determine whether accounts of suicide as escape from predicaments could be located in the ancient texts of another, separate geo- graphical region (Northern Europe). And if so, we were interested to deter- mine the cultural impact of these texts and the place of these stories in current respective populations. The findings might substantiate the notions that suicide is an escape option and that culture is a determinant. We chose to examine the ancient texts of Norway/Iceland (the Poetic Edda) and Finland ( The Kalevala). The Poetic Edda is the most extensive primary source of Norse mythology and Germanic heroic legend. It was composed about or before the tenth century by an unknown number of unknown authors. A 1996 translation is inexpensively available from Oxford World’s Classics. 5 The Kalevala is an epic poem compiled from Finnish folk lore. It also concerns events from ancient times up to about the tenth century and was also composed by unknown authors. A serviceable 1888 translation is available, free of charge, on the web. 6 METHOD Available, authentic versions of the Poetic Edda 5 and The Kalevala 6 were examined for examples of suicide; evidence was obtained regarding the doi: 10.3109/10398562.2011.603331  2011 The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists Saxby Pridmore Professor of Psychiatry, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. Jamshid Ahmadi Professor of Psychiatry, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran. Zainab Abd Majeed Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry, International Medical University, Seremban, Malaysia. Correspondence: Saxby Pridmore, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 27, GPO, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia. Email: S.Pridmore@utas.edu.au Australas Psychiatry Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by University of Tasmania on 08/31/11 For personal use only.