Tradition: Swedish Mythology
Alternative Names: Finn the Giant, Finn and the Minster of Lund, Finn Jätten
Category: Giant
The Myth
Finn was a giant who, according to a Swedish legend, helped build the great Romanesque minster of Lund in southern Sweden. When Saint Lawrence arrived in Lund to preach the Gospel, he wished to construct a church but lacked the means to do so. A giant appeared and offered to build it for him, demanding only that the saint discover his name before the church was completed. If Saint Lawrence failed, the giant would claim either the sun, the moon, or the saint’s eyes. The saint accepted the bargain, and construction began.
The church rose rapidly, but as the building neared completion, Saint Lawrence grew increasingly anxious. He did not know the giant’s name and feared losing his eyes. One day, while resting on a hill outside the town, he heard a child crying inside the hill. A woman sang to the child that its father, Finn, would return the following day, bringing the sun and moon from the sky as toys—or taking Saint Lawrence’s eyes instead. At last, the saint had discovered the giant’s name.
Saint Lawrence hurried back to the minster, where Finn was sitting on the roof, preparing to place the final stone. Just as the giant was about to finish the building, the saint called out his name and warned him to take care with the stone. Enraged that his plan had been thwarted, Finn flung the stone away, declared that the church would never be completed, and disappeared. According to the legend, something has always remained unfinished or missing from the minster ever since.
Another version of the story claims that Finn and his wife rushed into the crypt in their fury, each seizing a column in an attempt to destroy the church. They were turned to stone before they could carry out their plan and can supposedly still be seen beside the columns they had grasped. The legend thus explains both the minster’s supposedly unfinished state and the mysterious stone figures associated with its crypt.
Sources
Stroebe, Clara, ed. The Swedish Fairy Book. Translated by Frederick H. Martens. Illustrated by George W. Hood. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1921. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37193