The article compares forest images in provincial and patriotic songs and in forest advertisements by banks and insurance companies. In songs, coniferous forests represent the primaeval nature and broadleaved forests represent culture. Coniferous forest is the real patriotic forest. Forest images in advertisements are twofold: both elevated patriotic forests and profane raw-material forests are found.
The paper is based on a lecture given in the seminar ‘The forest as a Finnish cultural entity’, held in Helsinki in 1986. The PDF includes a summary in English.