Louhi- Finnish SpiritSpirit"Mistress of Pohjola"

The Daughters and the Bride-Price

Louhi ruled Pohjola from her hall in the frozen North, a realm of darkness and powerful magic. Called Pohjan akka, Old Woman of the North, and "Louhi of the gap-toothed mouth," she commanded the forces of cold and disease with a skill no southern hero could match.

Väinämöinen first encountered her when he washed ashore in Pohjola after being shot into the sea by Joukahainen. She nursed him back to health and promised her daughter if he could forge the Sampo, a task beyond even his powers. He sent Ilmarinen instead, who successfully created the magical mill and won the daughter's hand. Louhi hosted a magnificent wedding feast, slaughtering the best ox in Pohjola and brewing great vats of beer, though she pointedly excluded Lemminkäinen, whose recklessness she distrusted.

Her daughters, the Maids of Pohjola who sat upon rainbows combing golden hair and weaving golden thread, were the prize every southern hero sought. Louhi demanded impossible tasks of each suitor: Lemminkäinen had to ski down the Elk of Hiisi and bridle the fire-breathing gelding of Hiisi before attempting the final trial, shooting the swan that glided on Tuonela's black river. He accomplished the first two but died attempting the third, and his mother had to piece him back together from the waters of the death-river. Despite all Louhi's tests and bargains, the southerners repaid her with ruin. Her elder daughter was killed by Kullervo's curse, and when her younger daughter rejected Ilmarinen's renewed proposal, the smith transformed the girl into a seagull. Louhi lost both daughters to the southerners' violence.

The Sampo and the Great Eagle

When Ilmarinen forged the Sampo, Louhi locked it within a mountain of copper, where it ground out endless flour and gold. Under her stewardship the North flourished while the South languished. The heroes of Kalevala eventually sailed north to steal it back. Väinämöinen's kantele put all of Pohjola to sleep, and the heroes pried the Sampo from its vault where its roots had grown nine fathoms deep into stone.

A crane's cry woke Louhi, and she pursued them with terrible vengeance. She sent the sea monster Iku-Turso to capsize their ship, but Väinämöinen seized the creature by its ears and forced it to swear never to attack humankind again. She raised a storm and conjured a fog so thick that Väinämöinen's kantele was swept overboard and lost to the sea. When all lesser measures failed, she summoned her full power and transformed into a giant eagle, gathering warriors upon her wings and talons to fly after the fleeing ship.

The Kalevala describes her monstrous form: one wing brushed the water while the other scraped the sky, her talons like iron rakes. She perched upon the mast and nearly capsized the vessel with her weight. In the battle, Väinämöinen struck at her with an oar and Ilmarinen attacked with a flaming brand, burning away her talons and the warriors clinging to them. She seized the Sampo in her remaining claws, but it fell into the sea and shattered upon the rocks. Only fragments washed ashore in Finland. Louhi retreated to Pohjola with nothing but the Sampo's decorated lid.

The Theft of Light

Louhi stole the sun and moon from the sky and hid them in a copper mountain within Pohjola, plunging the world into endless darkness and freezing cold. She captured fire from the hearths of Kalevala, leaving the South without warmth or light. Ukko, the sky god, struck new fire from the heavens with his flaming sword, but the spark fell into Lake Alue and was swallowed by a fish, then by a larger fish, and by a larger still. Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen wove a net of linen and flax and dragged the lake until they landed the outermost fish and cut the fire free from its belly. The freed spark burned Väinämöinen's hands and scorched the shore before it could be tamed and carried back to Kalevala's cold hearths.

Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen forged a new sun and moon of gold and silver, but these artificial luminaries refused to shine with true radiance. Only when Ilmarinen began forging great chains and fetters to imprison Louhi herself did she release the sun and moon back into the sky.

The Sender of Plagues

Louhi summoned Loviatar, the blind daughter of Tuoni, who had conceived nine monstrous children from the wind itself. These were the diseases: Pleurisy, Colic, and seven others, the last left unnamed and the worst of all. Louhi sent them upon the people of Kalevala. The sick fell by the thousands. Hearths went cold, fields lay untended, and the living lacked strength to bury the dead.

Väinämöinen heated a sauna, prepared salves of healing herbs, and sang over the afflicted, naming each disease by its origin and commanding it to return to Pohjola's mountain where pain dwells and suffering is stored.