Volume 9 Number 1 Article 11

4-15-1982

A Jungian Reading of the Kalevala 500–1300?: Finnish Shamanism—The Patriarchal Senex Figure [Part 3: The Anima Archetype]

Bettina Knapp Hunter College, NY

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Recommended Citation Knapp, Bettina (1982) "A Jungian Reading of the Kalevala 500–1300?: Finnish Shamanism—The Patriarchal Senex Figure [Part 3: The Anima Archetype]," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 9 : No. 1 , Article 11. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol9/iss1/11

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Abstract Jungian interpretation of the Kalevala, focusing on the character of Väinämöinen and his role as Shaman. Part 1 gives an introduction to the Kalevala and to shamanism, then analyzes the creation myth in the Kalevala. Part 2 analyzes Väinämöinen’s transformation of the land, the felling of the oak, the confrontation with Joukahainen, and the death of Aino. The third part discusses Väinämöinen’s “second encounter with the anima figure in the being of Louki’s daughter.” The conclusion is a Jungian analysis of Väinämöinen’s “night-sea journey” to the Abode of the Dead; his journey within the body of the giant Antero Vipunen; and his fashioning of an “instrument of eternal joy,” the kantele.

Additional Keywords Anima in The Kalevala; Jungian analysis of The Kalevala; The Kalevala—Jungian analysis

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/vol9/iss1/11 MYTHLORE 31: Spring 1982 page 35

A Jungian Reading of The KALEVALA 500-1300?

Finnish Sham anism ~ The Patriarchal Senex Figure Part III: The Anima Archetype Bettina Knapp

Vainamoinen departs from north Farm with joy in his Psychologically the Old Man represents age-old wisdom. heart. On his way, he spies Louhi's daughter. Dressed in He may be identified as the spiritual embodiment of a shaman the Finnish traditional costume, she sparkles with beauty long since dead, noted for his extraordinary insight and and vibrancy in the crystal-clear air. He is so taken by powers. Just as Sampsa and the Copper Man emerged into con­ her that quite unpremeditatingly asks her to become his sciousness when the need arose, so the Old Man emerges as a wife. She agrees, but only if he will first fu lfill certain vestige from the primordial past. Similar to the patriar­ conditions, such as fashioning a boat without touching it. chal figures in a community—a priest, doctor, rabbi—the Old Man stands for the manna personality, that force exis­ Tests and d ifficu lties have from time immemorial been ting in the collective unconscious that arises to conscious­ one of the ways to gain access to one's own true love. In ness in moments of deep stress. Hie Old Man is a warning the days of chivalry, knights had fought to win their lady's principle. He puts Vainamoinen on guard as to the dangers favor. Although Valnamoinen's compliance with the young involved in dealing impulsively with impulses and rash ways demands on the surface is not overly strange, a wise indi­ —anima and shadow types when these forces are not under­ vidual would have considered the circumstances and the im­ stood and integrad within the psyche. pact of the test involved. He allowed his instinct rather than reason to prevail and ignores the fact that he has Vainamoinen, however, fa ils to look within, to assess little or no understanding of the feminine principle: his his deeds, feelings, and thoughts. He projects them on feelings have only reached the germination stage; they are outer forces, namely a host of evil spirits whom he blames s till only clusters of undeveloped impulses. The schism for his accident. It was the wizard H iisi, Valnamoinen de­ existing between his inferior feeling function and his dom­ clares, that made the handle of the axe shake: the magician inant thinking characteristics has not been breached. He Lempo, that turned its sharp blade toward his knee; Patha yields to the. Joukahainen in him—his shadow—and w ill have that misdirected the stroke and caused the wound.. These to pay dearly for his rash act. negative spirits succeeded in gaining power over him simply because Vainamoinen neglects to understand the role they played in his life, allowing his rational principle to dim­ To win the admiration of the young lady, Vainamoinen inish in force and scope. He did not weigh the problems brags about his great shipbuilding ability. Although in involved. Overwhelmed by the maiden's beauty, he has allowed reality, he has never constructed one. The ship, a solid himself to be carried away once again by his inferior feeling force that would see Vainamoinen through the dangerous function. He fa ils to consider the fact that he had no ship­ waters of the unconscious bringing him safely to the other building experience and that to create one without "touching" side, may be identified with ego consciousness. Blind to it, is an im possibility. Hands, which enable humankind to his lim itations, allowing his inflated ego to be his guide, reach out, grab, fashion objects, are means of relating to he neglects to consult the rational sphere of his personal­ the outside world. Without being able to grasp, manipulate, ity and is therefore courting disaster. and feel life, ingredients so important in primitive soci­ eties, Vainamoinen would surely fa il. Important, too, is the Vainamoinen starts to sp lit some logs with which to thought that harm awaits those who believe themselves capable build the ship. The axe slips and wounds his knee severely. of accomplishing feats outside their field of expertise. As we have already learned, the knee plays an important role in The Kalevala: it was on his mother's knee that the bird Vainamoinen has s till not accepted his past defeats: came to rest and build its nest before Vainamoinen's birth. Aino's departure, his second encounter with the anima figure The knee, therefore represents the origin and source of in the being of Louhi’s daughter and the inordinately d iffi­ Vainamoinen's own identity: his strength and energy center. cult demands she placed upon him. Bravura, the persona The fact that his knee has been cut so deeply means that he which hides inferiority, was used to face the world. The can no longer walk, indicating that his relationship with sp lit knee, one might say in Vainamoinen's case, is a mani­ the ground—with actuality—has been injured. Since the festation of his broken heart. knee spells m otility and power, it may be subsumed that Vainamoinen's own thoughtlessness has immobilized him. That The culture nero realizes that the wise is the right blood spurts out of him so powerfully, represents a decline course to take and follows the Old Man’s advice. He goes to in his energies, a diminution of that magical vital force seek the origin of the metal that caused his wound. Iron, that distinguishes the living from the dead. like a ll other metals, was believed to emanate from heaven. Strong, powerful, hard, and inflexible, its use has both Vainamoinen vainly tries to staunch the flow of blood. positive and destructive consequences. As a plow, it helps He puts moss on the wound, tries herbs of various kinds, in planting and thus feeding humankind. As a knife, sword, applies pressure. He must find some way to heal the split, or other warlike instrument, it destroys as well as defends. to mend what has been severed. The dichotomy within his per­ Shamans use iron utensils during their ceremonies to evoke sonality, psychologically speaking, has grown too wide: the spirits and to prove their mettle. The smith's forge is shadow and the anima are experienced only unconsciously: made of iron. On it metals are heated, bent, and fashioned therefore, projecting themselves as autonomous sp lit-offs to serve humanity's needs. Considered as a kind of demiurge, and thus as dangerous powers. because of the "miraculous" works it brings forth, iron is also known to have therapeutic powers. Prior to Pliny's As Vainamoinen is setting out as best he can in search time it was used to stay the flow of blood. Dr. Sydenham of some magic formula, happens upon an Old Man who te lls him (1665) was one of the first physicians to have patients in­ that before he can make his knee whole, he must find the gest the metal in a refined form, because he believed it was source of the element that caused the injury. No remedy can effective in increasing red corpuscles.18 be effective until one understands what brought about the disruptive condition. Since Vainamoinen's axe was made of Vainamoinen's quest to learn the source of this crude iron, he must trace this element to its source, and in that and energetic element aids him physically as well as psycho­ way learn how to control or work in harmony with it. logically. The forging and smelting process which iron must MYTHLORE 31: Spring 1982 page 36

undergo in order to become ingestible by humans, requires thrust the things into the fire, his work down time and knowledge. Its consistency alters from hard to to the bottom of the forge (p. 59). fluid} its color, from black to red, sim ilar to Vainamoinen's nervous system which was heated and bruned with ardor far Ilm arinen's forge is rem iniscent of the great furnaces love of Louhi's daughter. The redness or fire of passion he worked by the Taoist m asters, those organizers of the created fe lt in her presence held aroused sparks within him, influen­ world, fashioners of so many wonder-working instrum ents. It cing his countenance as w ell as his actions. Its incandes­ also recalls the Nibelung dwarfs who shaped the magic help- cence had liquefied what had once been solid within him, met, Tarnhelm, and the m ysterious sword, Nothung, in Vagner's spreading chaos, blindness throughout his system. So sight­ Ring cycle.20 As the fire blazes, the bellows sound, the less had he become that when fellin g the tree to make his anvil rings, so the Finnish counterpart of the Grek Gold ship, he failed to pay complete attention to his task. His Hephaestos, indulges in the alchem ical dictum: Solve et Coa- thoughts, like ductile m atallic elem ents, flowed toward the gula—nothing substantial and valuable can be made until the object of his passion, the g irl. The anima figure, unpre­ hardest of elem ents can be made to flow lik e water) only then dictable as an autonomous force in his unconscious, had are new unions and alloys brought into existence; psychologi­ caused him great harm. The joint that allowed him to walk, cally speaking, a reconstituting of views and attitudes to­ run, jump through life on a steady keel had been injured. w a rd l i f e . Now he would have to apply particles of iron in their flam­ ing state to his wound, to cauterize it and staunch the flow Ilm arinen's forging of the Sampo ushers in a whole new of blood. Only then w ill he contain the life force within dimension into The Kalevala: the personification of m etals, him and purify the noxious and debilitating powers that the humanization of inanimate farces. Nature, both within caused such damage. and without the earth seems to awaken, to tingle with life and activity, energized as if by some spectacular farce. As In tim e, Vainamoinen learns the secrets of iron. He the fire burns and glares, the molten metal acquires an returns to the Old Man and te lls him: "I know the origin of audible voice. The shriek of the metal as it burns, and then iron" (p. 4-7). Satisfied with Vainamoinen's progress, the is hammered and shaped, is again symbolic of tte d ifficu l­ senex figure evokes the charm which checks the flow of ties involved in trying to change one's life course, in al­ blood. He also prepares an ointment that w ill "exorcise" the tering the accustomed thrust of certain habits and relation­ pain experienced during the healing process. Not only are ships. The Sampo, like the Philosopher's Stone, is a pain and discom fort to be reckoned with in the physical complexio opposi torum. Within its essence lie s a treasure, sphere, when bones and flesh are mending) they are also part a mysterious alliage, a m editative device sim ilar to a man- of the psychological process—as the sp lit in the personal­ data, healing those who see into it and learn from the ex­ ity gradually fuses. To test the efficacy of the unguent, p e r i e n c e . the Old Man mends some huge boulders, seals crevices in the mountains. He then bandages Vainamoinen's knee with strips Ilm arinen, the Master Smith, brings the Sampo into o f s i l k . being on the third day.

Then old Vainamoinen already fe lt a real relief. He bent down to look at the bottom of his forge) He soon got w ell, his flesh grew fa ir ... he saw that a Sampo was being bam , a lid of many healthier than before, finer than in the past colors forming. Then craftsman Ilmarinen, eternal ( p . 5 4 ) . sm ith, taps away fa st, pounds away spiritedly. He forged the Sampo sk illfu lly: on one side a Vainamoinen raises his "eyes upward" in gratitude. The grain m ill, on the second side a salt m ill, on pain of the ordeal he has experienced has taught him that the third a money m ill. Then the new Sampo bravado and arrogance nearly severed h is knee—his personal­ ground away,'the lid of many colors went round ity . What he has not yet understood, however, is that des­ and round) it ground a binful in the dawn, one pite the iron's hardness and strength, it rusts and flakes binful of things to eat; it ground a second of when exposed too long to the elem ents. So too the anima, things to se ll, a third of household supplies when projected indiscrim inately and unconsciously onto ( p . 6 0 ) . another person, can likew ise lead to a fragmented psyche. The Sampo incarnated the needs of a culture, of a people When Vainamoinen fin a lly reaches home he suggests to whose liv es were arduous and whose future was always precar­ Ilm arinen, Master Smith and beater of iron, that he make a ious. As such, it brought happiness and prosperity to North Sampo. Second in rank to the shaman, the smith in northern Farm. It was composed of commodities of a ll types, foods medieval tim es was constantly at work in the community to and staples that were lacking in the workaday world. The ward off evil sp irits. Since he handles fire, forging ins­ Sampo fed both sp iritu ally and physically, the hungry and truments of war as w ell as for sorcery, he was believed to starving communities. As a hierophany, it answered a deep- be a seer able to penetrate inner realms where metal is bom seated desire: humankind's wish to be connected with celes­ and evolves.19 The Kalevala gives the entire history of tia l and earthly spheres, thereby empowering them to block iron, from its creation and gestation to the finished pro­ out and immobilize ev il farces. Vinter snows and iced-over duct. Identified with intelligence the forge and t h e s m it h waterways that made hunting and fishing so d ifficu lt were —Ilmarinen in th is case—were frequently associated with some of the nearly overwhelming odds against which these the fire of thought and m editation, and with the libido as northern peoples struggled. The Sampo's presence developed w ell. That a forger succeeded in hammering a finished in the people a new sense of belonging that helped then article out of a form less mass, made him a m iracle worker stave off melancholy, feelings of loneliness and alienation and his forge, a theophany in prim itive societies. which corroded their beings during the long bleak winter months. The Sampo represented activity, fe r tility , and hope Ilmarinen arrives at North Farm and goes to work to for those who believed in its power. bring the Sampo into existence. In a breathlessly exciting as w ell as terrifying interlude, the reader is shown the smith at work. The fire blazes, burns, and glows. From' F o o t n o t e s within its flow ing embers, which Ilmarinen observes with extreme attention,- there fir st emerges the bow of a boat. 18. The occult and Curative Powers of Precious Stones, He removes it from the flam es, examines it, is d issatisfied , p . 4 6 8 . smashes it, and throws it back. The same thing happens with other forms that he shapes: a heifer with golden horns, a 19. Shamanism, p. 470. plow with silver handles. A perfectionist, only a flaw less object w ill satisfy his creative urge. 20. Robert Donnington, Wagner's 'Ring' and its Symbols, p. 9 8 .

Then on the third day he came upon a marbled continued from page 22 stone, a big block of rock. There the crafts­ man stopped, the smith b u ilt a fire; one day Hougr.von M ifflin Company, 1965): p. 198 he made a bellow s, the next he set up the forge, the craftsman Ilmarinen, eternal smith, 12Pictures: notes to Plate 47