The Defense of the Sampo
Videos
The Defense of the Sampo is a tempera-on-canvas Romantic national painting created in 1896 by Finnish painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela. The painting illustrates a passage from the Kalevala, the Finnish n
Sammon puolustus
Sketch of the fresco made by Gallen-Kallela.
Väinämöinen
Videos
Väinämöinen is a demigod, hero and the central character in Finnish folklore and the main character in the national epic Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot. Väinämöinen was described as an old and wise man, an
The Defense of the Sampo
…the Finnish national epic compiled by Elias Lönnrot in the 19th century. The scene portrayed is taken from the 43rd song of the epic, where the hero Väinämöinen, seen wielding a sword, has stolen the precious artifact Sampo from the evil witch Louhi, and she, having taken the form of a giant bird, is trying to…
Head of Väinämöinen by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1895
The Väinämöinen monument in Vyborg, in January 2015
![Väinämöinen Plays Kantele, an 1814 relief by Erik Cainberg [fi] that is considered to be the first visual depiction of Väinämöinen](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/46/Erik_Cainberg_-_V%C3%A4in%C3%A4m%C3%B6inen_Plays_Kantele.jpg/500px-Erik_Cainberg_-_V%C3%A4in%C3%A4m%C3%B6inen_Plays_Kantele.jpg)
Väinämöinen Plays Kantele, an 1814 relief by Erik Cainberg [fi] that is considered to be the first visual depiction of Väinämöinen
Väinämöinen's Play (fi) by Robert Wilhelm Ekman, 1866