tarinat

Tarinat is the plural form of tarina in Finnish, meaning stories or tales. The term refers to narratives of various kinds, including folktales, legends, novels, short stories, and spoken anecdotes. It is used as a broad label for any organized sequence of events told from a point of view, whether oral or written, fictional or non-fictional.

In everyday language tarinat can describe collections or individual examples of narrative work. Writers may publish tarinat in books or magazines, while teachers and parents use tarinat to explain or entertain. In literary and media contexts, tarina is a flexible concept that encompasses storytelling structures, plotlines, and character development, and it is commonly contrasted with more specialized terms such as novelli (short story) or romaani (novel).

Culturally, storytelling has a long-standing role in Finnish tradition. Folk tales and local legends have been passed down orally for generations and later compiled by folklorists. Today tarinat appear across print, radio, cinema, television, and digital media, as well as in classrooms and digital platforms, where narrative is used to convey information, values, and imagination. The word continues to be a foundational concept in discussions of literature, media, education, and creative practice in Finnish.