How Lemminkyainen tried to win the heart of the sorceress Loukhi

Lemminkyainen was a Finninsh wizard who lived in Finland in the period of early epoch of Finnish wizards. Lemminkyainen could turn sand into pearls with the help of songs. He also tried to win Loukhi's daughter's heart. When Finnish poets sing of Vyinyameinen and Ilmarinen, they also mention Lemmikyainen. He also tried to win Loukhi's daughter's heart. Like Ilmarinen he also dared to enter the land of the dead, accomplishing Loukhi's trials. But one of Loukhi's people who was hiding there killed Lemmikyainen.

In Finland Lemmikyainen's mother, who was a sorceress too, immediately learnt about the danger threatening her son, but none of her skills could tell her what kind of danger it was and where her boy was. So, she set out in search of her son, moving to the north by the snowfields. She was the master of changing her image and even if Loukhi's people tried to watch her they could see only a rabbit on the riverbank or a wolf, making his way through the bog grass.


After some time the mother found the path along which her son walked (poets say that the sun showed her the way, but it must be only words describing her skill to find the way by stars). She went on and on to the north, crossing vast wastes, where fields covered with snow changed bushes studded with bones. It was a kingdom of twilight. And the cry of winds never stopped there.


After all, the woman got to the black water, which poets called the Death River. She found there the body of her son. She stared her work right there on the riverbank. She sang conjurations which helped her to put her son's body, all the bones and joints, together. But the body was still cold. Lemmikyainen's mother start singing again, calling for the powers capable to bring her son to live. When she stopped at last her son's heart started beating under her hand. So the woman gave life to her son once again, and returned him to Finland to the safe place. But Lemmikyainen lost the sorceress' daughter.