19.09.2024

Who is your favourite Kalevala character?

Author: The Kalevala Society Foundation

The Kalevala Society Foundation is established in 1919. We continue to look for new ways to interpret Kalevala and our cultural heritage.

The theme for the European Heritage Days 2024 is Routes, Connections, and Networks. In the spirit of the European Heritage Label given to the Kalevala, we will approach the theme from the perspective of routes, connections and networks in time and ideas. We asked who is the most interesting of the Kalevala characters.

Musician Maria Kalaniemi, Martta Tiainen Debroek from the Karelian Youth Association, runo singer Virve Kallio from the Parppeinvaara Runo Village, Saara Paavola from the Kalevala Women’s Association, and biologist, bone setter Jan-Peter Bäckman share their choices.

Maria Kalaniemi: ”Väinämöinen is my favourite, no two ways about it. The one who enchanted everyone with his music.”

Martta Tiainen-Debroek: ”I think that if the Kalevala is brought into the present day and I choose a character who represents the values that I feel are important, I will definitely choose Aino. Aino’s story begins with Aino’s brother deciding to give her away in marriage to a guy that Aino really doesn’t want to marry, just because her brother lost a little argument. I think this is a good illustration of the situation in which so many people have had to live for centuries, and unfortunately so many women still have to live today. The situation is that someone else makes decisions for you that affect your life. And someone else tells you what you can be and what you can do. I find the idea really horrible, and I think it’s really great that Aino said ’No’ to this. What happens to Aino later on, and how the story actually ends, is not necessarily a classic happy end. But even so, because Aino had the courage to say that this is no good, and had the courage to act in such a way that she could live the kind of life she wants to live, Aino is, in my mind, a real boss lady, and therefore definitely the most interesting character in the Kalevala.”

Virve Kallio: ”My favourite character in Kalevala has remained the same all these decades since childhood, and that is Antero Vipunen. The fact that we remember that all this knowledge and wisdom comes from hundreds of years ago, from somewhere in the twilight of antiquity, and that our ancestors have led the way and sustained life, makes me vote again and again for Antero Vipunen. I’m inside a work of art by Mira Heikkilä, on display here at Parppeinvaara.”

Saara Paavola: ”Louhi is one tough bitch. She’s got her own empire and a lot of ambition. She’s also got all the right skills for today’s working life and she’s active. She’s keen to be very involved. She is also a very strong personality and a very strategic type. Väinämöinen offers her gold and silver to get himself Louhi’s daughter. But she wants a sampo with which she can grind the gold to her heart’s content. She is also a rather contradictory character. There is an interesting humanity in her. There is goodness in her. She has evil, she has selfishness, but then she also has fairness. Louhi is definitely my favourite character.”

Jan-Peter Bäckman: “There are many interesting characters in the Kalevala, but I have chosen Louhi Pohjan akka, the Queen of the North for this one. I believe that she was once a historical figure, but who and in what context, it’s a different story. Pohjan akka is such a character that without her, Kalevala would not really exist, at least not as we know it. Whether she is good or evil – she is both and neither. She must have been some high priestess, a cult figure at one time. Good in the sense that if she is the leader of the people then the people should of course accept and respect her. And evil she is of course when she creates diseases and grabs this mighty sampo for herself and leaves the Väinölä people in poverty.”