Mielikki

I couldn't sleep last night, so I was at my computer, looking for ways to distract myself. I went on to the best website, ever, Wikipedia, and looked up Mielikki. Nothing too surprising, there. I chose that name, a long time ago, from an epic Finnish poem called The Kalevala. It was an oral poem handed down throughout the millenia, and someone finally got smart enough to put it into print. I have read it. It took me a long time, but I read it. Mielikki is the goddess of the forest in the poem. I liked that, because I love trees and forests and all that go with it. So Wiki had that down pretty well. They also had references to Dungeons and Dragons, where mielikki is a character. OK, I knew that, too.
Then, because I still couldn't sleep, I googled Mielikki. Oh, merciful heavens. There were over 40 pages, just in English! I laughed at some, because they were from my blog. One freaked me out, because there is another person blogging out there as mielikki, her name rhymes VERY closely with mine, and she is, for all intents and purposes, a witch. A follower of Wicca. Ok, I understand why she would pick the forest goddess, too.
There were multiple mentions of "The Church of Mielikki", or, followers of Mielikki and Tapio (her husband.) There are some dogs, Russian Borzoi's named Mielikki as well. There is even some girl writing a book about three of the Kalevala "gods" and a modern day woman who lives in Alaska. Of course, Mielikki is her goddess of choice.
It was interesting, to say the least, how many people had connections to my chosen name. I didn't pick it for any wiccan purposes. Some of the wiccans scare me, depending on their habits. I surely didn't pick it after some dogs. I just liked the name, and what she represented. Apparantly, I am not alone in that!