Lalli is an apocryphal character from Finnish history. According to the legend, he killed Bishop Henry on the ice of lake Köyliönjärvi in Finland on January 20, 1156. Legend The story begins with an expedition of one of the first Christian missionaries in Finland, Bishop Henry, during the alleged first crusade of Sweden. In midst of travelling, he and his entourage stop by a local dwelling. Only the matron of the house, Kerttu, is home. Bishop Henry asks for food and hay for the horses, but the matron refuses him. Bishop Henry and his men then forcibly take the food and hay before continuing on with their journey. After they are gone, Lalli, the husband of Kerttu, returns and hears of what has happened. When Lalli hears of the bishop ransacking his home, he becomes enraged and leaves to pursue the bishop. Lalli then catches up to the bishop on top of a frozen lake, storied to be Köyliönjärvi. At Bishop Henry's bidding his entourage flees and hides in a nearby forest. The bishop tries to calm the angered man, but Lalli strikes and kills Henry with an axe. There are numerous versions as to how Lalli then met his own gruesome fate, but in general Lalli takes the bishop's mitre to wear it pompously and cuts off the bishop's finger to snatch his valuable ring. But the mitre becomes fused to Lalli's head and when he tries to remove it, it tears his scalp off with it. When Lalli tries to remove the bishop's ring from his finger, it likewise tears his finger off. Lalli runs off to the woods, where mice or rats corner him to a tree. Lalli falls from the tree into a pond and drowns. The bishop's body parts are collected by his servants and transported with oxen towards the south. Where the oxen stopped became the site of the first church in Finland. The legend is enshrined in a famous Finnish folk poem called Henrikin surma ("The Slaying of Henry"). The poem includes such characters as a talking statue of Christ. One of the versions of the poem is found in the Kanteletar, a collection of old Finnish folk poetry. Cultural significance Lalli is a well-known figure in Finnish folklore. He has been depicted as a figure prostrated at the feet of the Bishop Henry in wooden statues. The name Lalli is not common