Mythology Book

162

a time, Ilmatar was preoccupied

with her creations, but after 700

years of pregnancy, she gave birth

to the first man: the fully-formed

Väinämöinen. Old and wise from

birth, the hero is usually depicted

with white hair and a beard.

The first challenge

Väinämöinen wove magic spells

with his singing. Word of this skill

traveled to Pohjola, far to the north,

where a young minstrel named

Joukahainen was consumed by

envy. He challenged Väinämöinen

to a singing match, but when he

lost, he sank into a swamp.

Panicking, he offered Väinämöinen

his sister Aino’s hand in marriage

in exchange for saving his life. But

when Joukahainen returned home

and told his sister, she drowned

herself at the idea of marrying

such an old man.

After this, Väinämöinen set out

to woo another woman: the maiden

of Pohjola, whose mother Louhi

ruled the country. Joukahainen lay

in wait with a poisoned crossbow,

intent upon avenging his sister’s

death, and shot Väinämöinen into

the sea. He was saved by Louhi,

who promised to return him to

Kalevala and give him her

daughter’s hand if he created the

Sampo, a magical artifact.

Väinämöinen offered to send the

blacksmith Ilmarinen to forge the

Sampo, and hurried home.

On his way, however, he met the

maiden herself and proposed to her.

She agreed, but said that first he

must complete a list of seemingly

impossible tasks. While carving

a wooden boat from a spindle—the

last of the tasks—Väinämöinen cut

his knee with an axe and was

unable to complete the task.

Ilmarinen’s refusal

Returning home, Väinämöinen

discovered that the smith Ilmarinen

was unwilling to travel to Pohjola to

forge the Sampo. As a result, he

summoned a stormy wind to blow

Ilmarinen there, and the smith

THE KALEVALA

made the Sampo out of white swan

feathers, the milk of greatest virtue,

a single grain of barley, and the

finest lambswool. The epic never

clearly defines the Sampo. However,

based on the description of its

purpose—to grind flour and

produce salt and gold—it is thought

to be a mill. When Louhi got the

Sampo, she shut it inside a hill of

rock and sent Ilmarinen home

without the maiden.

Raised from the dead

Meanwhile, the warrior and

adventurer Lemminkäinen set off

for Pohjola, but not before leaving a

magic comb with his mother. If he

died, the comb would supposedly

drip blood. When Lemminkäinen

arrived, he also set his sights on

the maiden of Pohjola. To win the

maiden, Louhi set him three tasks:

to catch the demon’s elk, bridle the

demon’s horse, and kill the swan of

Tuonela (the land of the dead). Alas,

Ilmarinen forges the Sampo,

by Berndt Abraham Godenhjelm

(ca. 1860). The creation of the

Sampo is just one of the tasks

Väinämöinen is set in order to

win the maiden’s hand in marriage.

Far away the news was

carried, far abroad

was spread the tidings

of the songs of

Väinämöinen, of the

wisdom of the hero.

Kalevala

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163

Väinämöinen fights Louhi, who is

transformed into a bird, to defend the

stolen Sampo. This battle is sometimes

interpreted as a metaphorical fight for

the soul of Finland.

Lemminkäinen was killed by

a herdsman, who scattered his

body parts in the river. At that

moment, the comb he left behind

dripped with blood. His mother

rushed to Pohjola and brought him

back to life by reassembling his

body, anointing it with an ointment

acquired from the gods, and

chanting magic spells.

A second contest

Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen then

competed for the hand of Louhi’s

daughter, who preferred the young

blacksmith to the wise old man.

Before he could marry the maiden,

Ilmarinen had to perform three

“impossible” tasks: ploughing a

field of vipers, hunting the bear of

Tuonela and the wolf of Manala,

and fishing the great pike from the

Tuonela River. He completed the

tasks and a wedding feast ensued.

Only Lemminkäinen was not

invited to the feast. Furious at the

snub, he decided to settle the score

by challenging Louhi’s husband to

a duel. After a singing contest and

swordfight, Lemminkäinen killed

the man and fled to an island full

of beautiful women.

Stealing the Sampo

The three heroes were reunited

much later, after Ilmarinen’s wife

was killed. Hearing of the wealth

that the Sampo had brought to

Pohjola, the men decided to sail

there to steal it. On the way, their

boat collided with a giant pike,

which Väinämöinen killed. From its

jaw, he created a kantele (a type of

harp) which only he could play; the

magic instrument had the power to

enchant all living things. Using it,

he charmed the people of Pohjola

to sleep and his companions rowed

away with the Sampo.

As the three men fled, Louhi

awoke and used her powers to send

obstacles to block their path. The

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heroes survived but the kantele

was lost in the water. Transformed

into a giant bird of prey, Louhi gave

chase to the heroes’ boat, and

during the battle, the Sampo, too,

fell from the boat. It sank to the

bottom of the sea, where it broke

into pieces. Scattered in the depths

of the sea, they produced salt, and

Louhi was left with only the lid.

In retaliation, Louhi sent nine

plagues to the people of Kalevala,

but Väinämöinen cured them. She

sent a bear to attack their cattle,

but he defeated it. Louhi then hid

the sun and the moon inside a hill,

and took the gift of fire from man.

Väinämöinen fought the people

of Pohjola but eventually asked

Ilmarinen to forge keys to the

mountain of Pohjola to release

the sun and moon. Relenting, Louhi

finally set the sun and moon free. ■

And he saw the

Sampo forming,

with its brightly

colored cover.

Kalevala

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