Väinämöinen
Vainamoinen (Vainanoinen, Wainamoinen) (river’s mouth?) In the Finnish epic poem The Kalevala, a culture hero, son of Luonnotar, daughter of the air, who brought about creation.
Vainamoinen was the inventor of the harp, “forger of the runes” or poems, and a great magician. In Finnish mythology the heavenly sign Orion is called the scythe of Vainamoinen; the Pleiades, the sword of Vainamoinen. Vainamoinen’s home was called Vainola.
The hero’s birth forms part of the opening (rune 1) of The Kalevala, which tells how the hero “rested in his mother’s body” for the space of 30 years as she tossed on the waves. The hero finally reached the shore, where the evil Laplander Joukahainen challenged him to a singing contest and lost, whereupon Vainamoinen plunged him into a swamp. In order to save his life, Joukahainen pledged his sister Aino in marriage to Vainamoinen. However, the girl did not want to marry an old man. Vainamoinen is always portrayed as old in The Kalevala, being called “old and steadfast.”
Joukahainen again attempted to kill Vainamoinen, but the hero escaped on an eagle, which brought him to Pohjola, the Northland, ruled by the evil mistress Louhi. She promised her daughter to Vainamoinen if he could forge the Sampo, which magically made corn, salt, and coins. However, the Maiden of Pohjola, Louhi’s daughter, set additional tasks for Vainamoinen, not all of which he could complete, and she eventually married Ilmarinen, who did forge the Sampo.
Vainamoinen is portrayed by the Finnish painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela as an old man with a white beard and rather robust or muscular body. Sibelius’s tone poem Pohjola’s Daughter portrays Vainamoinen’s wooing of the Maiden of Pohjola. Vainamoinen’s departure at the end of the epic when a new king of Karelia is crowned (the king represents Jesus Christ, and Vainamoinen symbolizes the old pagan gods), was used by Longfellow for his description of the departure of Hiawatha in his poem. Sibelius set The Song of Vaino for mixed chorus and orchestra, using rune 43, in which Vainamoinen calls on God to protect Finland “from the designs of men” and “the plots of women,” while destroying the wicked and laying low the “water wizards.”
Vaino is a shortened form of Vainamoinen and is a common name in Finland today.
SOURCE:
Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, Third Edition – Written by Anthony S. Mercatante & James R. Dow Copyright © 2009 by Anthony S. Mercatante