Volume 8 Number 4 Article 14

12-15-1982

A Jungian Reading of The Kalevala 500-1300? Finnish Shamanism ~ The Patriarchal Senex Figure Part II: The Archetypal Shaman/Hero

Bettina Knapp City University of New York

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Recommended Citation Knapp, Bettina (1982) "A Jungian Reading of The Kalevala 500-1300? Finnish Shamanism ~ The Patriarchal Senex Figure Part II: The Archetypal Shaman/Hero," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 8 : No. 4 , Article 14. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol8/iss4/14

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Abstract Jungian interpretation of the Kalevala, focusing on the character of Väinämöinen and his role as Shaman. Part 2 analyzes Väinämöinen’s transformation of the land, the felling of the oak, the confrontation with Joukahainen, and the death of Aino.

Additional Keywords Heroes in The Kalevala; Jungian analysis of The Kalevala; The Kalevala—Characters—Väinämöinen; The Kalevala—Jungian analysis; Shamanism in The Kalevala; Sarah Beach

This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol8/iss4/14 MYTHLORE 30: Winter 1982 page 33

A Jungian R eading of The K A LE V A LA 500-1300?

F innish Sham anism ~ The Patriarchal Senex F igure Part II: The Archetypal Shaman/Hero

Bettina Knapp

Having crossed the "threshold" from unconscious exis­ w ithin the psyche. Only when such harmony reigns can Vaina­ tence in his m other's womb to the differentiated world, moinen or any other creative a rtist succeed in arousing Vainamoinen is in a position to fu lfill his calling. As wonderment and dazzling the world w ith his powers. future archetypal shaman/hero he now stands for an awakening consciousness that brings new values and experiences to the A future culture hero, Vainamoinen understands the need personality. The world of light has replaced the long years for ego-consciousness. As such he realized that the oak tree of darkness, an indication of the ego's giant impulse toward in question must be cut down—a paradigm of the necessity to life and activityj libido (psychic energy) cascading forth, shear and shape the prim al forces w ithin him self. To evalu­ erupting into existence. Energy is no longer closeted, it is ate his earthly situation, therefore, is of the utmost urgen­ being expended externally, helping him form, shape, and cy. He looks at a world resonating with infinite sonorities, determ ine a world existence. redolent with incredible growth. Although he feels attuned to universal forces, he was "wise" and understood that what­ Vainamoinen faces a "treeless" land on earth. Such a ever obliterates consciousness must be eradicated. The oak scene im plies ste rility , loneliness, isolation, that in no has to be felled so that insight, gnosis and clarity of way answers his needs nor fu lfills his longings. In tune vision can develop. Only when he can look outside him self with nature, because of his affinity with the elements of air and see the vast expanse before him, w ill he be able to ob­ and water previously described, he knows how to use its pow­ jectify his situation, thus develop his own identity and dis­ ers to his advantage. He already understands the myriad cover his own potentials, like the hierophant who must sounds he hears, incom prehensible to those who have been experience the ordeal of initiatio n in order to evolve to severed from the wonders of the so-called inanim ate world. the next stage of being, so Vainamoinen must test the extent Vainamoinen feels connected to the outer external sphere as of his powers, his capacities to think and to feel. he does to his inner domain, Confident in his ab ilities and capacities to fend off destructive encounters, such as des­ Psychologically speaking, the cutting down of the oak pair, he acts overtly in coming to terms with his difficul­ would be an intensely m eaningful experience to a medieval t i e s . Finn or Lapp. To allow the tree to blot out the sun would seem a dangerous omen: a p r e lu d e t o t h e disappearance o f Vainamoinen's firs t task is to transform the barren that flam ing light, an idea that would strike terror in the scene into fertile land; psychologically to discover the heart of those who inhabit the far north. Should darkness talents that exist unused w ithin the inner being, to discover take over, ev il would grow unchecked throughout the land. and develop his potential. He calls upon Samsa ("S pirit of W izards with th eir superior powers would be able to annihi­ A rable"), a helpful agent, a creative factor to fu lfill his late humankind, p itilessly , and unm ercifully, Coldness needs. A tiny lad, sim ilar to the dwarfs in the Icelandic would envelop the earth; water would congeal, k illin g the Eddas. Samsa may be looked upon psychologically, as a sudden fish , robbing human beings of their sustenance. Solitude impulse or intuition, an unconscious force that leaps into would fill the cold lunar light on earth; im personally s till or fa lls into consciousness when needed (an E infal1), an as­ stars would cast their eerie shadows upon a dead planet. pect or expression of a larger idea/form .12 Such sp irits or dwarfs lik e those described in the Nibelungenlied are said To fe ll the oak in an area where shamanism/animism are to live beneath the earth or in h ills and to possess childish alive and active is also no easy m atter. Trees are believed characteristics. Sampsa fits this definitions he is small to be inhabited by living spirits and if a tree is not and young; he is human, but incom pletely developed. On the properly cut the wood sp irit may be injured and retribution other hand, dwarfs are known to be industrious and active in w ill follow : 'the w o o d spirit, might refuse to b u r .: i n th e whatever their specialties. Samsa sows a crop of trees for earth or more serious evils may await the perpetrator of Vainamoinen (pines towans, willows, junipers) th at grow such a crime. But to fell a tree a l s o h a s p o s i t i v e im p l ic a ­ densely and quickly. tions. Vainamoinen would be able to fashion a drum from its trunk. Brums are extrem ely im portant to shamans. When they Forests become thick and lush. One oak in particular pound, strike, beat, ro ll out certain rhythmic sequences, grows to such a height that its branches hide the sun. Vain­ the sound waves energize them, help them sta rt on th eir mys­ amoinen "reflects" and "ponders" (p. 9). To perm it the tical flig h t to "the Center of the World" or fly through the creative urge to run w ild, unchecked, which is what such air in rapidly paced gyrations. As the sonorities am plify, overgrowth im plies, is to invite chaos. Such a way would dim inish, and filte r through the atmosphere in whole or par­ allow creative im pulses (the dwarf factor) glimmers, in­ tia l tones, the shaman feels him self empowered to seek out sights, sparks—but never a completed or w ell thought-out and contact helpful sp irits while, at the same tim e, immobi­ work to innundate the world. To perm it th is condition to lizing evil demons. Both the tree and the drum ieonographi- pursue its course, is to invite darkness, the irrational and cally exem plify the shaman's ecstatic sojourn when he opens undifferentiated vision—to encapsulate the universe. . It him self up to the cosmic experience.13 Significant, too, is would pave the way for regression, a return to the darkness the fact that the shaman's drum is comparable to the wester­ of the womb. Vainamoinen has spent too many long years in n er's sword in medieval tim es: given a name, it is thereby the nigredo phase of existence to allow such a situation to endowed with a personality and a legend. Wood is also used prevail. Sight not blindness, is what he wished. C larity to make bows and arrows which are used not only for hunting of vision (consciousness), brings order, orientation, and but also in the fashioning of musical instrum ents. A bow is meaning. W ithout these factors Vainamoinen's existence can w hittled from a tree, then tied from end to end with the gut never attain universal/etem al stature. Never can he ful­ of an anim al, thus is the "singing bow" made. With a single f ill his destiny as shaman/poet if he allows darkness to string, Siberian shamans play for long periods of tim e, the prevail; such penumbra would find him groping about, stumb­ monochord sounds encouraging them to slip into a trance or ling in dank, bleak, m ephitic realm s. Greatness is achieved arousing their sp irit sufficiently to begin a spirit/dance. when experiencing a hieros gamps: a felicitous relationship Although sounds em anating from the singing bow seem to focus between the inner and outer domain—the sun/moon principle on but a single note, its m ultiple tonal shadings lend such MYTHLORE 30: Winter 1982 page 34 variety that a whole set of emotional values emerges with renovatio to come into being. the sound.14 Flames of fire consume the oak tree as it is being S till Vainamoinen "ponders" and "reflects" (p. 9). He felled, a blaze comparable to the "devouring fire" experi­ attem pts to assess the situation logically, to put his enced by Isaiah when God brought into existence the creative thoughts in order. For him, felling the oak is like cutting Word (30:27). A rainbow becomes visible after the tree has off his own lim b. He knows that for a iife to gain dimen­ fallen, again symbolic of the link between the terrestrial sion, for a creative work—the poem/song—to take on an exis­ and celestial—a welcoming sign from the world at large. The tence of its own, deletions of segments, interludes, and rainbow 's arched beauty spreads feelings of relatedness and images, are salutary to strengthen the personality as well comfort throughout the cold and fog-enclosed surroundings. as the work of art as a whole. The sense of isolation that permeates the heavily forested northern region vanishes, replaced by melodious color tones S till Vainamoinen hesitates. He speaks out his turm oil: chanting their vibrations and sonorities in emanations "Maiden mother, you who bore me, Nature sp irit, my upbringer!" ranging from highly pitched to velvety low tones—in keeping (p. 9). Once again in his agony he calls forth a helping with the v ital energy centers so crucial in the cutting sp irit: ”A man comes up from the sea" at this moment; "a ceremony and so im portant in fostering a clim ate conducive to person rose from the waves"—from his unconscious. Like the creative act. Sampsa, the dwarf, this new E infall. is only "as ta ll as a man's thumb," and emerges into concretion when Vainamoinen Now that the sun shines anew and the earth is warmed and was overwhelmed with feelings of desperation. S cintillae. befriended by it, Vainamoinen decides it is time to sow bar­ glimmers of ideas, im pulses, undeveloped or unformed in the ley and oats. But first the land must be cleared if the main, can work effectively as catalyzing agents to trigger earth is to yield its riches; its mood must be just right for activity w ithin the conscious sphere. What is noteworthy the seed ceremony. So, prior to the planting of this vital also, about this dwarf is the fact that "on his shoulders was food, the terrain must be cleansed, filtered , prepared in a copper helmet, copper boots on his feet" (p. 9). such a way that ordered and w illed insem ination may come to pass. Another cutting ritu al is in order. All the trees That th is new helping force which leaped into conscious­ must be felled, Vainamoinen reasons, he w ill leave only one ness is compared to a finger again calls a digit into play. birch standing, to be used by the eagle to build its nest. The finger, which Vainamoinen had used so aggressively and Out of gratitude, the eagle neables Vainamoinen to clear the effectively to break out of the birth canal, is now being land. It "struck fire, caused flame to flash" (p. 12). With identified with the dwarf that would fe ll the oak. _ The fin ­ the help of the wind, the forest was reduced to ash—the pur­ ger would thus be used to sever, cut, rip , and tear* a life est of all states. force whose roots were buried deeply within the earth: a parallel image to Vainamoinen's first liberation from con­ The eagle, able to fly directly above the clouds and striction. That this dwarf wears copper is m etaphorically into the sun without being blinded, is identified with the in keeping with the period dramatized in The kalevala. Metal masculine solar sp irit: gnosis, resulting in the conscious was believed by prim itive peoples to have been heavensent. act. It is this factor that Vainamoinen has put to use—a It was therefore, considered to be a link between the celes­ sense of awareness—when he decided to clear the forest and tia l and the terrestrial spheres. Copper, which is known to create arable fields. In so doing, Vainamoinen has dealt a have been used in toolm aking as far back as 3100 B.C.15 also blow at the dark state of identification with the collective was believed to have m edicinal value. It cleansed "foul world; in so doing, he is asserting his own identity, deep­ ulcers" and protected against cholera. In addition to these ening his own understanding of him self, his worth, and his virtures, this m alleable, ductile, and relatively soft future as an individual in the new society coming into being. m etallic element was considered endowed with other miraculous qualities: when the crude ore is heated, it gives off certain Vainamoinen now sows the seeds, scattering them every­ fumes that can turn the sm elter's hair green. To the -scien­ w h e re a s f a r a s t h e e y e can see. Never neglecting t h e tis t, this reveals the presence of some invisible force or religious ritu al that accompanies such a creative act, the substance, but to prim itive peoples, it means the presence of moment of insem ination is solemn, awe inspiring, Vainamoinen a deity or sp irit.1° That the dwarf who Vainamoinen called chants the "Sower's Charm", invoking the "Woman living under upon to help fe ll the tree wore copper on his head and feet, the earth," the Great Mother, the "old ruler of the soil, created an energetic clim ate favorable for the numinosum - m istress of the earth" (p. 12). He beseeches the Great Earth When a blazing sun shone upon the dw arf's copper accouter­ Mother to make the land fe rtile , to perm it h is planting to ments, a dazzling image came into being, not unlike what burgeon. Ukko, "the heavenly father," is also invoked to Jakob Boehme experienced when the sun‘s rays blazed on a tin furnish the proper ingredients, to balance sp irit and soul plate—and a t th at very moment opened him to enlightenm ent, in nature to that each w ill work in harmony with the other, to a mystic revelation.17 bringing prosperity throughout the land and to its people, who have now come into being. Suddenly Vainamoinen's attention is drawn elsew here. When he ndxt looks back a t the dwarf, th is "oddest" person has grown into a giant, his head alm ost touching the clouds. The Shadow Archetype: Psychologically, th is titan ic force of nature—this superman —im plies that what was originally experienced merely as a The Ordeal of Wisdom momentary* im pulse emerging from the unconscious, has assumed the intensity of a creative drive, has been energized by an inner light, thus expanding its size and powers. Representa­ The terrain has been cleared; the seeds planted. Vaina­ tive of bran rather than brain, this vestige of an archaic moinen has laid the groundwork for his future development as heritage symbolizes the gigantic effo rt made by Vainamoinen runic bard and shaman. Comparable to the creative process to build his new world, his individuality. For the creative in general, when the mind is cleared and no longer besieged a rtist, it indicates the presence of enormous instinctual by extraneous and unfocused tensions or wandering thoughts, power that lie s buried w ithin him and that, now tapped, can it can concentrate on the seed/idea, the germ inating process, aid in the fashioning of his life as shaman/poet. enabling it to take root, to grow, to give expression and shape to a ll the disparate elements that are to be contained Thus, the copper giant cuts the oak with his axe, pier­ in the finished work. Thus far, Vainamoinen, functioned w^ll cing through the thick bark and trunk in the same way that with logos—sharpness of thought and orderliness. Fate, how­ an intuitive idea cuts through thought patterns as it strug­ ever, frequently intervenes, breaking up the smooth-running gles fiercely to gain consciousness. A paradigm of enlight­ course of existence, disrupting logical thought patterns, enment and discernm ent, the copper giant aims his blows at halting the creative process itse lf. Fate, which the Gnos­ uneven growth, unreasoned thinking, -unformed and deformed tic s called heimarmene, may intervene and dism antle what propagation. To hide the sun—the rational principle—is to seems steady and solid. Were it not for fate, however, life allow untutored and unmanicured forces to proliferate. A could become one long period of conform ity: unbroken, un­ structureless condition must be sacrificed so that the future divided, never allowing for an Influx of fresh ideas to cata­ shaman/poet may create with discernm ent, strengthen his pult into existence. Using a parallel line of reasoning, we visionary powers, thus enabling the very sp irit and heart of may say th at when unconscious contents force their way into MYTHLORE 30: Winter 7982 page 35 the existential world, consciousness is momentarily shattered, tion is so great that she begins to weep. The tears, however, stasis fragmented. do not assuage her grief. She longs for life , for youth, for love. Her mother rem onstrates with her. There is "no reason Vainamoinen's courage, perseverance, and psychological to get gloomy", she te lls her daughter and accuses her of health are yet again to he tested. Ihte calls upon a trick­ having taken leave of her senses; not to accept Vainamoinen ster, an impish youth to arrive on the scene. He may he is unthinkable. Representing the status symbol, the bourge­ looked upon as Vainamoinen's shadow archetype. Bather than ois and settled aspects of life , the mother is the paradigm considering those characteristics in an individual that the of conform ity. She wants things to be easy for her daughter conscious personality considers negative and deems unaccep­ and herself. To invite Vainamoinen to become part of the table , in terms of the whole personality, they are rejected. fam ily is to bring honor to it. In Vainamoinen's case, he projects his shadow on the impish "scrawny Lappish lad" called Joukahainen (p. 14) who now Aino, -still bewailing her destiny, goes to walk in the a p p e a r s . woods. Dark, eerie, unconscious forces rule in this archaic domain. She senses ever more strongly that to marry "the Unthinking and rah, Joukahainen is described as forever terrib le old man": w ill bring Her only sorrow. As she wends acting on impulse. Despite his parents' warnings and admoni­ her way through the forest and down to the shore of the sea, tions, he decides to challenge Vainamoinen's wisdom and her grief grows stronger. She wades into the water as if to power, to confront the culture hero and future shaman and purify her being, to wash away the senex fig u re's presence prove that he is more learned, more intuitive, more innova­ in her mind's eye. Sorrow invades her every fiber. She tive than Vainamoinen, and that he and not his riv al should strays too far, too deeply, into the liquid realm, into its he the psychopomp—the community's leader. Envious of wavelike flow , and drowns. Vainamoinen's talents as poet and singer, he is certain that he too can "bewitch” anyone and everyone around him. Nor Aino, representing the emerging anima, the fem inine does he intend to he outdone try Vainamoinen in the realm of principle in Vainamoinen's unconscious, th at autonomous image magic. He has studied sorcery and enchantment and considers of woman, carries feeling values in his case. An em otional, him self a master of those arts. Joukahainen's brashness and tender, and deeply sensitive g irl, she represents these com­ lack of caution succeeded in clouding his vision, and block­ ponents in Vainamoinen's psyche. That she dies when con­ ing his sense of reality . Too eager to reign supreme, he is fronted with the possibility of unifying with this thinking unable to see the dangers at stake. senex figure, indicates how fragile and undeveloped these feeling values are w ithin Vainamoinen. She yearns to live Joukahainen's plan did .not have perspicacity. F irst, out her maidenhood. She harbors the illusions and dreams of he decides to battle Vainamoinen on a physical level! He so many adolescents, hoping for future idyllic love experi­ drives his sleigh into his riv a l's, hoping to smash it and ences. Her unthinking brother who helps to bring an end to its rid er. M iraculously Vainamoinen emerges unharmed. The her world of fantasy, forcing the dormant unformed anima to Lappish lad then suggests a singing contest between the two. emerge into the phenomenological realm , has also prepared for A magician with words, im aginative, sensitive, endowed with her demise. Unable to find a way out of the predicam ent, great clarity in his mental processes, Vainamoinen's colorful Aino/anima loses her footing and drowns in the waters of the vocalizations and liltin g harmonies emerge in haunting unconscious: her ego had been dism antled, shocked, trauma­ metered verse, clever and astute epithetsj containing many tized, and fragmented by her encounter with the senex figure, and varied striking images, apt and unusual metaphors and never again to be revitalized in th is form. sim iles. Joukahainen's song by contrast, is labored, dull, and fla t; the platitudes with which his verse is replete, are Once returned to the prim ordial w ater, A ino i s t r a n s ­ boring. Angered and embarassed by his performance, the reck­ formed into a fish . When Vainamoinen sees her swimming about less youth challenges Vainamoinen to a duel. Here, too, he in the clear lim pid water, he tries to grab her, to pull her loses to superior thinking. Vainamoinen parries each of his out, and make her his own. Each time she eludes his grasp. enemy's unguarded thrust and fin ally sends him hurtling to Remaining true to her anima nature, as an autonomous image in the ground. M aster of Magic, M aster in both Word and Deed, his unconscious, she slips through his net and floats back Vainamoinen annoyed at the affrontery of th is Lappish lad into the deep w aters where he experiences her as a. reality . turns him into a swine. With a sense of jubilation, he sings out his feelings for a ll nature to hear. His bracing words of rapture, his tonal modulations, entrance stream s, flow ers, Vainamoinen has not yet learned to relate to his anima trees, shrubs, which bend and sway to the magic strains. anymore than he has to his shadow. What Aino represents, Lakes begin to splash, the earth rocks and sways as Vainamo­ gentle, youthful sensitivity and tenderness, is foreign to inen 's superhuman powers m anifest them selves in song and his m asculine ways. Vainamoinen recognizes feeling and emo­ poetry. Only then does Joukahainen accept the fact—at tion only in poetry and music, aspects or sp lit-o ffs of the least outwardly—that he has lo st. feminine principle. He has not yet learned how to relate to a real woman. Hie magic he spun with his voice and his kan- O wise Vainamoinen, eternal sage! tele, the power evoked in his words and harmonies, held no Reverse your magic charm, revoke your enchantm ent. charm for the young g irl. He needs to learn another sort of magic—nonintellectual—that w ill allow him to experience Free me from th is predicament, get me out of this woman as flesh and blood. Music and poetry created by and situation (p. 18). with the mind exist in structured tonalities and colored resonances. These are products of art/artifice/artificial W eak-willed, unformed, he promises Vainamoinen anything and do not relate directly to life . What Vainamoinen had and everything if he w ill release him from his enchantment. offered Aino corresponds to mind and not to heart. He offers material gifts: a boat, bows, a stallion. None is Nor had Vainamoinen's shadow been integrated in his acceptable. Finally he proposes giving the hand of his psyche. Joukahainen was an embodiment of a ll those lively beautiful young sister, Aino, in marriage to the old sage. and impulsive tricksterlike elements that erupt without The g ift he offers, however, is not his to give. Joukahainen rhyme or reason into consciousness; he is also reminiscent has again yielded to his own impulse and failed to consider of a more sinister force, Loki of Nordic mythology, a Lucifer- his sister's reactions. Never does he respect the feelings ian kind of evil sp irit, crafty and double-dealing, who makes of others. He is driven by his desire far immediate gratifi­ his presence known, frequently, to disturb, irritate, but c a t io n . also to force awareness, to bring light and lucidity into the events in question. Had Vainamoinen encouraged the Loki in Vainamoinen is delighted with Joukahainen's suggestion, him, his instinctual and anthropoid side of his personality He revokes the magic sp ell and follow s the lad to his home. to participate as a functioning force in the whole psyche, it Though displeased by her son's behavior, .Joukahainen 's mother might not have appeared as a sp lit-o ff, assuming autonomy and is delighted by the prospect of Aino's forthcoming marriage power of its own. He might have transformed what was des­ to Vainamoinen. Aino, on the other hand, is unwilling to tructive into an energy-creating positive force. Joukahainen accept so old a man as her husband. To do so is to go against was to remain stunted and unformed. As a result, what he nature, youth seeks youth. She is unable, however, to con­ represented in Vainamoinen, was to emerge spasm odically, vince her mother, and the wise sage. Her sense of frustra­ hurting and bruising those with whom he came into contact. MYTHLORE 30: Winter 1982 page 36

Although Vainamoinen has defeated Joukahainen and put stone or m ill, the Sampo is the equivalent of the Holy G rail him to shame, his victory causes him hubris. So much so that in Arthurian legend, that m ystical provider of both earthly his vision becomes clouded and he wrongly believes he has rid and spiritual sustenance in this world and of eternal salva­ him self of Joukahainen forever. He neglected to take the tion in the next. In psychological term s, it connotes a uni­ revenge principle into consideration. Once he allows his tary concept that solidifies an inner experience: it reveals defenses to drop, he invites trouble. Vainamoinen has not the link existing between the ego and the Self; i t transform s yet reached the stage in his life where it is entitled to the disparate facets in a personality into an integrated serenity. Unguarded, Joukahainen, angered by his defeat, whole. The Sampo is an ideal, a panacea, the outcome of a watches Vainamoinen’s every move for the rig h t moment to projection which fills an inner need, either on a particular strike back. It happens one afternoon when Vainamoinen is or universal basis. Owing to its supernatural powers, the riding his horse through an area of stream s and lakes. Sampo—like the alchem ist’s Thilosopher's Stone—brings pros­ Joukahainen takes him with his bow and arrow and strikes his perity and happiness to whoever possesses it. enemy down. Vainamoinen fa lls into the water and is borne off by its currents into the sea. Vainamoinen agrees to Louhi's plan. He w ill send Ilm ar- inen, the sm ith, to North Farm to forge the Sampo. Only a Vainamoinen now has returned to the elem ent of w ater, m etal worker of renown can blend, mix, and heat the elem ents to the liquid and form less realm where he lived for so many in such a way as to create this nysterious and miraculous centuries of w inters and summers. In this regressus ad a l l o y . uterum. which we may interpret as a much-needed period of introversion, Vainamoinen reimmerses him self in the feminine End of Part II principle, thus undergoing a w atering down of uneven and blocked unconscious contents. His views need reworking, ex­ F o o t n o t e s pansion in preparation for the world of conflict in store for him. As he experiences the fullness and foam of the nutri­ 12. Creation Myths, p. 172. tive element, he sees an eagle in the sky. It is the same eagle that had nested in the birch tree that Vainamoinen had 13. Mircea Eliade, Shamanism, p. 171. not cut down. Now it is the eagle's turn to help Vainamoi­ nen: he bears him on his back to shore. The masculine force, 14. Bster M. Hamel, Through Music to the Self, pp. 79-80. represented by the eagle/savior figure, brought the culture hero back to consciousness once more. The combination of 15. Bertrand G ille, H istoire de la m etallurgie. p. 7. the feminine principle (w ater) and the masculine force (eagle) work together, healing the bruised body, strengthen­ 16. T. Fernie, The Occult and Curative Bowers of Precious ing the ailing psyche, restoring equilibrium and balance. Stones, pp. 423-28.

The eagle carries Vainamoinen to Louhi, the m istress of 17. Creation Myths. p. 56. North Farm—a cold and icy region in Finland—where he is w ell treated. Yet, despite Louhi's kindness, Vainamoinen longs for home. He feels uprooted, alienated, nor can he fathom his own reactions: "I hardly know even m yself," he For Smooth Reading says (p. 40). Why should he feel so strange and out of place Please note the tw o-digit number to the right of your at North Farm? Joukahainen’s arrow had pierced so deeply, name on your mailing label. This is the expiration number his drowning had caused him such traum a, that the shock waves for your subscription. Your can insure that your copies of were s till potent factors, s till disrupting the course of his Mythlore will keep coming smoothly without interruption, existence. He needs to reconnect with his roots, to experi­ and save the Society tim e and expense in avoiding the send­ ence the sustenance of unfam iliar landscape, trees, mountains, ing of renewal notices: renew before your current sub­ and lakes he knew so w ell. scription expires. One easy way to avoid the yearly chore of sending in your renewal is to renew for two years a t a Louhi promises she w ill assist in Vainamoinen1s home­ tim e. Please keep the Society informed when changing ward journey and w ill also give him her daughter in m arriage, your address, so ther e will be no delay or confusion in if he w ill provide her with a Saapo. A magical grinding getting your copies to you as soon as possible.

Lúthien and Beren