The Magic of the Sampo

Meet Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen in a Finnish tale of the magical Sampo, retold for children with themes of community and shared work.

Region: Finland
Category: Gods & Heroes
Ages: From 4, with three reading levels (ages 4–6, 7–9 and 10+)
Languages: English, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish

About the legend

Being: Sampo (magical artifact)
Cultural meaning: The Sampo is the great mystery of the Kalevala: a wondrous thing that brings plenty and good fortune to whoever holds it, much like the horn of plenty. The old singers never agreed on what it looked like. In the epic it is forged by Ilmarinen, the smith who forged the sky. The heroes of these songs win with words and music rather than weapons. Väinämöinen is the eternal singer and wise man, a tietäjä or "knower": in old Finnish belief, someone who knew the right songs, and knew how things had come into being, could calm them, heal them and command them.
Fun fact: The Kalevala is so important to Finland that it has its own flag day! Every year on 28 February, Finns celebrate Kalevala Day, also known as Finnish Culture Day.

Cultural notes

The Kalevala is Finland's national epic. Elias Lönnrot, a district doctor in Kainuu, compiled it from oral folk poetry he collected on journeys through eastern Finland and Karelia, and published it in 1835 and in a larger edition in 1849, when Finland was a grand duchy under Russia. The epic played a key part in shaping Finnish national identity. The old songs describe the Sampo in many different ways. Lönnrot made it a mill that grinds flour, salt and gold, and scholars have read it as a world pillar, a treasure chest or even the sun. Kirjokansi, "the many-coloured lid", is also one of its names. In the epic, Väinämöinen makes his first kantele from the jawbone of a giant pike. That is the kantele he uses to play Pohjola to sleep, and only after it is lost at sea does he make the birch kantele.

About this retelling

Abridged literary adaptation The Sampo cycle from the Finnish national epic Kalevala, abridged and retold for children.

Väinämöinen, Ilmarinen, Louhi and the Sampo come from the Kalevala. Louhi's price, the rejected crossbow and red boat, the nine locks in Pohjola's mountain, Väinämöinen's request to share the Sampo, the song that puts Pohjola to sleep, his second request at sea, Louhi's flight as an eagle and the pieces that wash ashore in Kalevala all follow the epic. In the Kalevala, the Sampo is the price Louhi sets for her daughter, Ilmarinen rejects four works over four days, Lemminkäinen sails with the heroes, Väinämöinen strikes the eagle with the rudder, and there is fighting at sea. Afterwards Louhi carries only worthless pieces home, and Pohjola is left poor. For children, we left out the daughter and all the fighting and kept two rejected works. We also let the riches of the broken Sampo reach every shore, Pohjola's too, so that the story ends in sharing rather than in one side winning. The hungry winter in Kalevala, Louhi's fear for her own people, the young mother and Väinämöinen's offer to bring the Sampo back were created for Nordic Tales.

Sources

Themes

community
generosity
sharing
wisdom
Sampo
Kalevala
Väinämöinen
Ilmarinen
Louhi
Pohjola
Finland
Finnish mythology
kantele
smith
magic mill
generosity
greed