Trying to identify a forest god/dess

[Lauvitra]

This is helpful, and it kind of explains why I wasn't getting strong vibes from my research on either of them (of course, I'm not ruling them out yet).

Would you happen to have any sources that you like on Hiisi as a deity? So far the information I've found lists him as an aspect (or servant?) of Lempo and very little on Hiisi proper.

 
Unless you know Finnish, unfortunately, no. Most of the info I have found regarding him have been gathered from bits and pieces. A few lines from a poem here, another there. Descriptions from a spell, a couple mentions in a story. That kind of things.

It's also not made any easier by the fact that the word "hiisi" can refer to so many different things, as I said in my previous post. One really has to dig through a lot to find anything. The oldest written mentions of the word have been referring to the sacred places and ritual sites in forests. Almost as old are hints of something personified that makes these places sacred, and that is Hiisi as a deity. More recent sources (nineteenth century onwards or so) mostly use the word to refer to certain types of spirits and beings, and illness and curses brought on by these spirits.

Some poems and stories I know of also suggest that Hiisi and Lempo may actually be the same being. Some, on the other hand, have suggested that Lempo is Hiisi's wife (and yet other sources say that Lempo is male, and some say they have nothing to do with each other, so it gets tricky...).

If you do know Finnish and are ready to do a lot of reading to find the necessary bits and pieces to put things together, there is one website that is a real treasury in that regard. The site has a huge collection of folklore, old songs and poems. You can search for and find almost anything about Finnish mythology and folklore in there - but it is entirely in Finnish, so I don't know if that would help. Actually, now that I checked it, they do have an "in English" -button, but that just says "coming soon" when I click it, and I don't know how much of the content will be translated, or when. If you want, I can give you the link just in case.

[Hrútsvinr]

Unless you know Finnish, unfortunately, no. Most of the info I have found regarding him have been gathered from bits and pieces. A few lines from a poem here, another there. Descriptions from a spell, a couple mentions in a story. That kind of things.

It's also not made any easier by the fact that the word "hiisi" can refer to so many different things, as I said in my previous post. One really has to dig through a lot to find anything. The oldest written mentions of the word have been referring to the sacred places and ritual sites in forests. Almost as old are hints of something personified that makes these places sacred, and that is Hiisi as a deity. More recent sources (nineteenth century onwards or so) mostly use the word to refer to certain types of spirits and beings, and illness and curses brought on by these spirits.

Some poems and stories I know of also suggest that Hiisi and Lempo may actually be the same being. Some, on the other hand, have suggested that Lempo is Hiisi's wife (and yet other sources say that Lempo is male, and some say they have nothing to do with each other, so it gets tricky...).

If you do know Finnish and are ready to do a lot of reading to find the necessary bits and pieces to put things together, there is one website that is a real treasury in that regard. The site has a huge collection of folklore, old songs and poems. You can search for and find almost anything about Finnish mythology and folklore in there - but it is entirely in Finnish, so I don't know if that would help. Actually, now that I checked it, they do have an "in English" -button, but that just says "coming soon" when I click it, and I don't know how much of the content will be translated, or when. If you want, I can give you the link just in case.

 
Ahh, I see. It can be so hard to piece together things from folklore; thanks for the information.

Unfortunately, most of the words I know in Finnish are swearwords, but I would love a link to that website if you could send it to me; it could point me towards other sources to look at. I have access to a university library which has a pretty good variety of resources.

[Hrútsvinr]

I've gotten this ~vibe~ around trees and forests for...pretty much my whole life, but I've been much more aware of it the past year or so. Since I get this vibe around pretty much every heavily wooded area I've been to, I think it's a deity rather than a local spirit.
...

So, I think I've narrowed it down to one of three deities: Cernunnos, Hiisi, or Veles. So far Veles seems the most likely, although he is much less associated with forests than the other deities - BUT his aspects of god of the underworld, water, and magic are really ringing true.

I'll see where this takes me.

I wanted to thank everyone for offering information and suggestions!!