Uhtuo

Uhtuo, also known as Uhtua, lies beside Middle Kuyto in the lake country of White Karelia. Its position on the waterways of the Kem basin made it a place where people met and traded. During the Great Northern War Swedish or Finnish forces burned the village in 1712, leaving it deserted for years. In the early nineteenth century collectors recorded local rune songs, a rich oral tradition that later supplied material for the Finnish epic Kalevala.