Legend of Lemminkainen


     When Finnish Poets sang of Vainoinen and IImarinen, they
sang of Lemminkainen too.  Like IImarinen he sought to win the
daughter of the sorceress Louhi, and like IImarinen he dared the
lands of the dead, bent on tasks Louhi had set as a bride price. 
But one Louhi's people were there and when he Lemminkainen came,
slew him.

     In Finland Lemminkainen's mother, a sorceress herself, knew
at once of her son's danger, but none of her arts could tell what
the danger was or where the young man had gone.  so she set out
to find him, heading North across the snow fields, travelling
alone and on foot.  She was a mistress of disguise, and if
Louhi's people had been on watch for her she would have been seen
no more than as a rabbit on a riverbank or a grey wolf loping
among the grasses on the fens.

     At length, the mother found the path her son had taken (The
poets say the sun told her the way, but that may be the only the
words to express her skill with the lore of track. tree and
star's signs) She continued far to the North, crossing the border
wastes, where the snowy meadows gave way to the bone littered
scrub and shadow, and the wind never ceased sobbing.

     At last she came to the black water the poets called Death's
River, and from it's bed she raked the piteous remnants of her
son.  working on the riverbank she sang spells that made his body
whole again, bolting the bones together and weaving the flesh. 
But he was cold. Lemminkainen's mother sang again, calling
fiercely on powers that might animate him.

     When she finally fell silent, his heart began to beat
beneath her hand.  Thus the mother gave life to the son again,
and having done this, took him back to Finland and safety.  But
he never won the daughter of the sorceress.