Akseli Gallen-Kallela

Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931): Lemminkäisen äiti, 1897. (Kuvalähde: Kuvataiteen keskusarkisto)

Sammon taonta / The forging of Sampo-Akseli Gallen-Kallela. Sampo is forged by ilmarinen, a legendary smith as a task set by Louhi in return for her daughter's hand. Sampo was a magical artifact of inderterminate type that brought good fortune to its holder. When the Sampo was stolen, it is said that Ilmarinen's homeland fell upon hard times and sent an expedition to retrieve it, but in the ensuing battle it was smashed and lost at sea.

Akseli Gallen-Kallela

Akseli Gallen-Kallela and the Kalevala

Aino is a figure in the Kalevala. It relates that she was the beautiful sister of Joukahainen. Aino's brother, having lost a singing contest to Väinämöinen, promised Aino's "hands and feet" in marriage if Väinämöinen would save him from drowning in the swamp. Aino did not want to marry such an old man. Rather than submit to this fate, Aino drowned herself. However, she returned to taunt the grieving Väinämöinen as a salmon.

Gallen-Kallela, Kalevala Kullervon kirous

Joukahainen is a character in the Kalevala, the Finnish epic poem of fifty parts. He is the rival of the main character, Väinämöinen. After losing a singing contest, he pledges his sister Aino to Väinämöinen, but she drowns herself rather than marry him. Joukahainen, still envious of Väinämöinen, then shoots the stag of his rival from under him, plunging him into the waters of Pohjola.

Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Suuri hauki, 1904,

Finnish art.1896-1906