Kurra
Kurra is in the Finnish epic poem The Kalevala (rune 30), companion of the hero Lemminkainen.
When Lemminkainen wooed the Maiden of Pohjola, he asked his former comrade-in arms, Kurra, to join him in an expedition against Pohjola, the Northland. However, Louhi, the evil mistress of Pohjola, sent her son Pakkanen (Jack Frost) to freeze the hero’s boat in the lake. The two heroes almost froze to death, but Lemminkainen, with his powerful charms and invocations, overpowered Jack Frost, throwing him into a fire. Lemminkainen and Kurra then walked across the ice to the shore, wandered about in the waste for a long time, and at last made their way home.
Tiera, another name for Kurra in The Kalevala, is a Finnish word for snow caked up under a horse’s hoof or on a person’s shoe.
SOURCE:
Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, Third Edition – Written by Anthony S. Mercatante & James R. Dow– Copyright © 2009 by Anthony S. Mercatante
