Aino

Aino (peerless, splendid) In the Finnish epic poem The Kalevala (runes 3–5), a Lapp maiden who was to marry the culture hero Vainamoinen but was drowned instead. To ransom his life, her brother, the evil Joukahainen, offered Aino to Vainamoinen as a wife. The parents of the girl were happy about the match, but she was not because Vainamoinen was an old man. After Aino met Vainamoinen in the forest while gathering birch shoots for brooms, she was even more determined not to marry. Her mother, however, bribed her with gifts. Aino, dressed in her wedding garments, then wandered out into the fields, wishing she were dead. Stealing down to the river bank, she laid aside her garments and ornaments and swam to a neighboring rock. No sooner did she sit on the rock than it toppled, drowning her. The animals sent a message of Aino’s death, by way of the hare, to her mother, who lamented her daughter’s death, saying that mothers should not force their “unwilling daughters” to take bridegrooms “that they love not.” Vainamoinen then went fishing for Aino in the rivers. He caught a fish, which he was about to kill when he discovered it was Aino. Not giving up his quest, he asked her to become his wife, but she refused. The sad fate of Aino inspired the Finnish composer and conductor Robert Kajanus to compose his Aino Symphony in 1885 for chorus and orchestra. The Finnish painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela portrayed the fate of Aino in a triptych.

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Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, Third Edition – Written by Anthony S. Mercatante & James R. Dow– Copyright © 2009 by Anthony S. Mercatante