Knowing
synnyt was a characteristic branch of knowledge for traditional healers, known as
tietäjät. It was believed that knowing the origin of things made it possible to exercise control over them. Healing spells might, for example, include words like
Kyllä tunnen syntymäsi ('indeed I know your origin'). It was long thought that
synnyt were primarily recited as prefaces to
charms much like a
historiola, to make the charm itself more effective, perhaps as part of a process of diagnosis. More recent work, however, has suggested that, though often combined with other incantations, the
synty element is in these cases usually central rather than preliminary, and not so much a diagnosis as a cure; their primary context of use seems instead to have been healing physical (as opposed to metaphysical) injuries and wounds where there was no illness agent (such as a witch) to conjure. There is some debate over in what contexts
synnyt were recited and in what contexts they were sung (and whether it is meaningful to distinguish between these modes). It appears that
synnyt were recited in Western Finland by the eighteenth century but might still have been sung in the seventeenth. There is some evidence for
synnyt or similar genres being performed by pairs of singers in the manner of epic poems, but not much. The poems themselves, however, give singing a prominent role. The tradition of performing
synnyt has been compared with the North Germanic tradition of
galdr, where a clear distinction between singing and speaking may not be appropriate. ==Early evidence==