Lemminkainen: Mythical War-Hero Of Finnish Great Epic ‘Kalevala’

A. Sutherland - AncientPages.com - Lemminkainen is a prominent figure in Finnish mythology. He is a handsome young man, a hero, but also a frivolous, ostentatious character with a liking for women and battles.

Lemminkainen is one of the heroes of the ‘Kalevala,’ a 19th-century national epic compiled by Elias Lönnrot, a Finnish physician, philologist, and collector of traditional Finnish oral poetry.

There are many versions of the original Lemminkainen story because his complex character is a mix of traits originating from several other personalities of oral Finnish poetry.

The original Lemminkäinen, in mythology, is a shamanistic figure, but in many different stories, his roles and experiences frequently change.

In one, the hero arrives at Pohjola (or Finnish pohja - 'base, bottom'), the most extreme North, described as a dark place, a forever cold land far in the north. 'Kalevala's author, Lönnrot, interprets Pohjola as a real region inhabited by the Sami people or Finns.

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