| Names: | Lintujen koto 
Lintukoto   
Lintukotola |
|---|
Lintukoto, "Bird Home", is a concept in folklore but not runosongs. It refers to the place in south or southwest where migratory birds go to spend winter. The word has also been used as a synonym for "southwest".
Lintukoto is typically described as an island in the furthest south or southwest where it is always summer and warm. During winter, it is so packed with birds that one can't see the Sun. The island is also inhabitated by dwarves so small that two of them could fit to lie down at the bottom of a barrel, or seven at the bottom of a tub, or they can fight beneath a sleigh, or you can put one in your pocket. They eat birds and their eggs and fight against large birds, especially cranes. The latter part is a belief that is common in Medieval folklore around Europe, coming form Greek mythology.
In 1789, Christfrid Ganander called the land of the dwarves Urjanmaa, meaning Ethiopia, but this name seems to simply be a corruption of Turjanmaa, which of course means the Underworld in the furthest north. According to some information, Lintukoto is at the southern end of the Milky Way (called Linnunrata "Path of Birds") at the edge of the sky. This is why only dwarves can live there: the dome of the sky is so low there that nobody else would fit, being too long. The dwarf women lifted their spinning wheels onto the sky during nighttime. Belief of birds going to the edge of the world and even outside the dome of the sky during winter is a belief also common among many Siberian peoples. The Sámi, too, think birds go to the southern land ath the edge of the sky, inhabited by dwarves, called Bárbmu or Bárbmoriika. The inhabitants are known as lintukotolaiset "people of the bird home", taivaanääreläiset "people of the edge of the sky", or ääreläiset "people of the edge" in Finnish.
| Lintukoto, variants | From lintu "bird" and koto "home". |
|---|---|
| -la, -lä | Denotes a place. |