Sahalahti, Eastern Finland — August 1700
Abducted by a disk
An old man, a smith named Tiittu, is said by a local story to have disappeared shortly after a flying disk hovered over the village. His son went to search for him, and met a being he perceived as a “bear” who said he had flown off. “After Tiittu had gone to the forest, the same day villagers saw a huge disc hovering above the village. It stayed without moving for a moment, then started to fly out to the direction where Tiittu had gone to. Villagers believed that it was a mark of the end of the world. They were horrified. “For two days they stayed inside praying, singing religious songs and confessing their sins. Only in the third day they were calm enough to go back to their normal work. When Tiittu didn’t return, the villagers started to look for him. In the forest Tiittus son suddenly met a big being looking like a bear. The being started to speak in Finnish: ‘Don’t be afraid. I can tell you that you are looking for your father in vain. You saw that ‘sky ship’ like a rainbow—it took your father up to the heights, to another, better world, where lives a race much higher than your people. Your father feels good there and doesn’t miss his home.’ The bear disappeared, and they stopped looking for Tiittu. “All the people of Sahalahti were talking about the mysterious case. Then they got a new priest, who announced in the church: “This story speaks of sinful witchcraft, and it represents the imagination of drunken and mad people, so youd better forget it.”
Source: Finnish researcher, Tapani Kuningas, published this story in the Finnish magazine Vimana (No. 3-4, 1967) and later in his book Ufoja Suomen taivaalla (Kirjayhtyma, Helsinki, 1970). He claimed the story was a local tradition in Sahalahti, in East Finland. However, no confirmation for this exists except for a single letter, which is now lost. Case: W264