Väinämöinen

Väinämöinen is the heidmaist chairacter in Finnish meethologie as weil as the Finnish naitional epic, Kalevala. He is aften descrived as a wyce auld man wi a pouersome, weirdly voice.

Väinämöinen in non-Kalevalan fowklair

Ane o the first screivers in the Finnish leid, Michael Agricola, scrieved a list o auld Tavastian gods in 1551, in whilk the name o Väinämöinen kythes. He wes, in monie tales, the heidmaist figure in the bith or makkin o the yird. There twa-thrie versions o the yird-makkin meeth, bot they seem tae involve burds' eigs bein uised tae mak the warld.

Väinämöinen in Kalevala

In Kalevala, Väinämöinen kythes as a muckle less godlike chiel, bein mair a shaman, or spaeman. Maist o the stories in Kalevala ar anent Väinämöinen, maistle in his search fer a guidwife, whilk at the end o aa the stories he still ne'er finnds. This search fer a guidwife brings his fowk, the fowk o Kalevala intil conrack wi the fowk o Pohjola, whilk is at first friensome, bot later comes nesty.

Forbye bein a wyce-chiel, Väinämöinen is a lilter o unco pouer an aw. In ae poem he kills a muchle pike, an uises its chowk-banes tae mak a kantele, a Finnish stringed instument a tait like a zither.

The last poem o Kalevala sees Väinämöinen leave the warld. In it a woman cryed Marjatta gets impregnatit frae a berry she ate an gies birth tae a son, whilk is an allusion tae Mary an Jesus (In Finnish Maria means Mary an marja means berry). Whan Väinämöinen orders the killin o the lad, the lad stairts tae speak an wytes Väinämöinen fer his sins an ill walin; the bairn is then baptised king o Karelia. Väinämöinen lilts a capper boat intae existence an sails awa, leavin ahent his kantele as a seembol o the gift o muisic tae his fowk, hechtin tae retour at sum tyme.. Maist scholars ar greed that this poem represents the kythin o Christianity in Finland - the bairn is a representation o Jesus, an Väinämöinen's quattin the land is a seembol for the fadin o the native pagan releegions. There ithir fowktales sib tae this ane, sic as that o King Arthur.

In Popular Cultur

Fowk metal baund Ensiferum is amang a wheen o fowk metal baunds wha haes baised sum o their wark on Kalevala, sic as their sangs Old Man an Little Dreamer whilk ar anent Väinämöinen.

Sum fowk threap that Gandalf in JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit an The Lord of the Rings wes in pairt baised on Väinämöinen.

There is a Finnish comic-beuk cryed Väinämöisen paluu (Sco: The Retour o Väinämöinen) whilk is anent Väinämöinen retourin frae his thousan yeir awa an his humorous adventures an comments on life in modren Finland.

A Finnish battleship uisit in the Seicond Warld Weir wes cryed Väinämöinen. It survived the weir, bot wes scrapped in 1968.

See Forbye

• Kalevala
• Ilmarinen