Löyly

Löyly means the steam that rises from the sauna stove or the heat of the sauna. In Finnish folklore, it also refers to the soul of the body. It was connected to the physical body and left once one took his final breath.

Löyly was thought to have strong connections to the underworld. When entering a sauna, one had to greet the löyly. Löyly could be good or bad, and good löyly was welcomed in the sauna while bad löyly was driven out with different spells.

Sanervatar (and possibly Auteretar and/or Auterinen) was a goddess or a spirit who ruled löyly.

Etymology
"Löyly" originates from Proto-Finno-Ugric *lewle, meaning "spirit" or "soul". Words of the same origin referring to soul, spirit or ghost can also be found from many other Finno-Ugric languages, such as Hungarian lélek, Northern Sámi lievla and Udmurt лул (lul). This soul is also called henki, which means "spirit" or "life". It originates from the Proto-Finnic *henki, which could possibly originate from the Proto-Uralic *čeŋke, although the latter remains unclear. If there really was such a word as *čeŋke, it was possibly related to heat-related words like ӝог (džog, “hot, drought”) in Udmurt and саӈк (saňk, “sweat”) in Northern Mansi.