Finnish Maiden

The Maiden of Finland (Finnish: Suomi-neito, Swedish: Finlands mö) is the national personification of Finland.

Personification

She is a barefoot young woman in her mid-twenties with often braided blonde hair, blue eyes, wearing a blue and white national costume or a white dress. She was originally called Aura after the Aura River in Turku.

As a symbol, the Finnish Maiden has been used since the 19th century when she was pictured as a woman wearing a turreted crown, and then developing as Finland gained a national consciousness and independence.

Because of the historical bonds between Finland and Sweden, the Finnish Maiden has sometimes been interpreted as the daughter or younger sister of Mother Svea.

Mapping issues

The Maiden of Finland can also refer to the shape of Finland on the map. With a little imagination it looks like a female form which has one hand raised (and another before the Moscow Armistice of 1944), a head, and a skirt. The metaphor is so commonly used that the northwestern area around Enontekiö is known as the Arm (Käsivarsi) even in official contexts. Compare the dress in the painting above with the map on the right.

Bruce Dickinson

Paul Bruce Dickinson (born 7 August 1958), known professionally as Bruce Dickinson, is an English musician, airline pilot, and broadcaster. He is best known as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden.

Born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, Dickinson began his career in music fronting small pub bands in the 1970s while attending school in Sheffield and university in London. In 1979, he joined the New Wave of British Heavy Metal band Samson, with whom he gained some popularity under the stage name "Bruce Bruce" and performed on two studio records. He left Samson in 1981 to join Iron Maiden, replacing Paul Di'Anno, and debuted on their 1982 album The Number of the Beast. During his first tenure in the band, they issued a series of US and UK platinum and gold albums in the 1980s, resulting in Dickinson gaining worldwide fame, and becoming one of the most acclaimed heavy metal vocalists of all time.

Dickinson quit Iron Maiden in 1993 (being replaced by Blaze Bayley) in order to pursue his solo career, which saw him experiment with a wide variety of heavy metal and rock styles. He rejoined the band in 1999, along with guitarist Adrian Smith, with whom he has released five subsequent studio albums. Since his return to Iron Maiden, he issued one further solo record in 2005, Tyranny of Souls. His younger cousin, Rob Dickinson, is the former lead singer of British alternative rock band Catherine Wheel, while his son, Austin, fronted the metalcore band Rise to Remain.