Louhi

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"The defense of Sampo" ( Akseli Gallen-Kallela )

In Finnish mythology, Louhi is the wicked ruler or witch of the northern country Pohjola . Like almost all of the Kalevala figures , she too has magical abilities.

Louhi promises men her beautiful daughter in order to give them almost impossible tasks. So Ilmarinen also has to solve several tasks - among other things he has to forge the magic mill " Sampo " for Louhi - before he can marry his daughter.

Later, Väinämöinen , Ilmarinen and Lemminkäinen stole the Sampo from Louhi because it made the north country too rich and powerful. On the way home they are attacked by Louhi, who wants to recapture the Sampo in the form of a giant eagle. In this fight the Sampo is destroyed.

In the 45th song of Elias Lönnrot's Kalevala, Louhi and the “most disgusting woman” Loviatar , who is impregnated by the wind when she calls them and who is said to bring harm to the people of Kalevals through the birth of her sons, are two different people, but it seems to be in tradition just to be two names for the same character. Loviatar's nine sons are the originators of nine diseases - from constipation to gout and consumption to cancer.

interpretation

Hans Fromm considers the figure of Louhi to be a medieval borrowing from Russian and a variant of the biblical Herodias . Matti Haavio traces the figure of Louhi / Loviatar back to a much older pre-Christian, widespread myth of the origin of diseases. Loviatar is also equated with the nocturnal demon Lilith (derived from Babylonian: lilitu - wind spirit) of the Old Testament (Isa. 34:14). Etymologically, there could be a relationship to the German word flight .

Others

The Sampo theft is portrayed in the Soviet-Finnish film The Stolen Happiness (original title Sampo ) by the director Alexander Ptuschko from 1958. Louhi was played by Anna Orotschko , then 61 .

Louchi (from the Russian spelling Лоухи ; Karelian Louhi ) is the name of an urban settlement in the north of the Republic of Karelia in Russia . Louhi is also the name of a village in eastern Finland that has belonged to Savonlinna since 2013 and was previously part of the Kerimäki municipality .

Louhi is a Finnish surname. Several ships were named after the figure, including a Finnish mine-layer (1916–1945). An asteroid discovered in 1942 also bears the name (3897) Louhi .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kalevala, commentary on the 45th song by Hans Fromm
  2. ↑ http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?174043, accessed April 23, 2013

literature

  • Kalevala. The Finnish epic by Elias Lönnrot , commentary by Hans Fromm. Reclam, Stuttgart 1967.
  • Martti Haavio, Suomalainen mytologia , Porvoo, Helsinki 1967.