Ilmatar, the virgin spirit of the air, carried Väinämöinen in her womb for seven hundred and thirty years while floating on the primordial waters. He was born already old and wise, with no father.
Ilmatar shaped the world's features — headlands from her knees, sea depths from her footprints — while carrying Väinämöinen. Mother and son are bound to the act of creation itself in Finnish cosmogony.
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