Feb 24, 2011

Lemminkäinen's Mother


Erik the Finn at Roids and Rants is posting some iconic Finnish art on his blog (NSFW). Here is Lemminkäinen's mother, an 1897 painting by Akseli Gallen-Kallela.

Lemminkäinen's mother, having searched heaven and earth for her missing son, finally discovers that he has drowned in the River of Underworld, in the realm of the dead. But she doesn't give up...

In one myth he drowns in the river of Tuonela (the underworld) in trying to capture or kill the black swan that lives there as part of an attempt, as Ilmarinen once made, to win a daughter of Louhi as his wife. In a tale somewhat reminiscent of Isis' search for Osiris, Lemminkäinen's mother searches heaven and earth to find her son. Finally, she learns of his fate and asks Ilmarinen to fashion her a rake of copper with which to dredge her son's body from the river of Tuonela. Thus equipped, she descends into the underworld in search of her son. On the banks of the river of the underworld, she rakes up first Lemminkäinen's tunic and shoes, and then, his maimed and broken body. Unrelenting, she continues her work until every piece of Lemminkäinen's body is recovered. Sewing the parts together and offering prayers to the gods, the mother tries to restore Lemminkäinen to life, but succeeds only in remaking his body, life is still absent. Then, she entreats a bee to ascend to the halls of the over-god Ukko and fetch from there a drop of honey as ointment that would bring Lemminkäinen back to life. Only with such a potent remedy is the hero finally restored.

5 comments:

Alan Abbadessa-Green said...

Beautiful. There's something very sincere and bittersweet in this post. (must be the honey).

Plus, this fits perfectly with a dream I had last night, all about the archetype of the dismembered god in the underworld.

Eleleth ר ק D said...

I give you: Uncle Scrooge in "The Quest for Kalevala".

Michael said...

Thanks El. I was just thinking about your Carl Barks post, and that amazing image of the Junk II tugboat powered by twin sharks that always want to point "Northeast".

Syncing nicely with the Ironman 2 (masculine arrow pointing NE) fight scene which had some crazy twin electric serpent armed villain or something?

I dunno, it all points to Junk DNA...

Eleleth ר ק D said...

I think that you had it right the second time. The "Junk II" is literally one's "junk" and "II" testicles (the Two Witnesses of Revelation) that one must harness to attain the Red Powder--just as the prima materia is a "base and apparently worthless substance from which, through alchemical operations, one can produce what is of highest value". Simple. :)

Devin said...

I agree with Alan here Michael --I had never heard of this one --reminds me of Osiris a bit --but I am no myth/folklore genius to say the least so I may be off track
all the best to you and Var as always!!
wv= herpigm

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