Hongatar

In runic song tradition bears are described as 'of the family of Hongatar,' presenting Hongatar as a maternal or progenitorial haltija of the bear. Her name derives from honka, a tall straight pine used in the peijaiset where bear skulls were lifted and hung; scholars note this links her identity to that ritual locus. In origin songs Hongatar appears among a cluster of tree- and forest-linked female haltijas (e.g., Tuometar, Katajatar, Pihlajatar) involved in the shaping or parentage of the bear, a pattern some scholars interpret as regional name-variants of a common figure.

Sources record Hongatar as imaginably ursine — she 'could be also imagined in bear-form' — and symbolically represented by the oldest skull hung on the honka (the ritual pine). No sustained anthropomorphic description or additional standardized physical traits are recorded in the cited material beyond these bear-form and skull associations.

Cited material describes Hongatar's cultural roles rather than catalogued supernatural feats: she is presented as mother/progenitor or kin-ancestor of the bear and as the special, invited guest at the peijaiset (bear funeral/feast). In origin songs she participates among other haltijas in the formation/parentage of the bear. The sources do not record explicit powers such as causing disease, possession, or detailed shapechanging beyond her association with bear-form and ritual presence.