Väinämöinen
Sign in to saveAlso known as Wäinämöinen
'''' () is a demigod, hero and the central character in Finnish folklore and the main character in the national epic Kalevala'' by Elias Lönnrot. Väinämöinen was described as an old and wise man, and he possessed a potent, magical singing voice.
Key facts
- Deity.type
- Finnish
- Deity.name
- Väinämöinen
- Deity.image
- Akseli Gallen-Kallela - Head of Väinämöinen.jpg
- Deity.caption
- Head of Väinämöinen by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1895
- Deity.parents
- Kaleva (father)Sea giant and Maiden of North (SKVR XII1 2)Ilmatar impregnated by waves (Kalevala)
- Deity.symbol
- Water, sword and paddle
- Deity.ethnic_group
- Finns, Karelians
via Wikipedia infobox
~18 min read
Encyclopedic overview
14 sectionsContents
- Name
- In Finnish mythology
- Epithets
- In the ''Kalevala''
- In other cultures
- Popular culture
- J. R. R. Tolkien
- Akseli Gallen-Kallela
- Music
- Science fiction and fantasy
- Comic books
- Notes
- References
- External links
'''' () is a demigod, hero and the central character in Finnish folklore and the main character in the national epic Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot. Väinämöinen was described as an old and wise man, and he possessed a potent, magical singing voice.
==Name== The name Väinämöinen has often been explained as coming from the Finnish word väinä'' 'stream pool' or väineä 'slow'. Janne Saarikivi hypothesized that the name was possibly connected to early Germanic forms of Odin's name: *wātenos could have been loaned into Proto-Karelian as *vätnä or *väinä, and Auðunn could be compared to Äinemöinen.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Väinämöinen” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.