VÄINÄMÖINEN is the protagonist of the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, and an important figure in ten ancient Finnish poems in Kalevala meter. He is the inventor of the kantele (the ancient psaltery used to accompany the chanting of the Kalevala epics), an expert singer, and a master musician. Väinämöinen has taken part in the primeval acts of creation; were he to be killed, joy and song would depart this earth.

Väinämöinen's name is derived from the word väinä, meaning a strait or a wide, slowly flowing river. The derivation seems to indicate that Väinämöinen was originally associated with water, but scholars are not in agreement about this or any other explanation of the hero's original character...