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jjnaas — Heroes of Kalevala
Published: 2004-02-21 15:34:05 +0000 UTC; Views: 8640; Favourites: 127; Downloads: 368
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Description
An illustration I did for my university magazine, to an article concerning Kalevala, the Finninsh national epic that has also influenced Tolkien when he wrote LOTR. (Tolkien knew Finnish well enough to read Kalevala in the original language, and according to Tolkien, the elven language is a mix of Finnish, ancient Welsh.. and some third language.)Anyway, the characters from top to the bottom, from left to right:
Louhi - Witch-Queen of Pohjola, the Winter Hag/Crone; leader of the rival tribe of the southern Kalevala.
Ilmarinen - The magical black smith who created the Sampo (a money making machine), the stars and the heavenly dome.
Väinämöinen - The eternal sage, a bard and a powerful sorcerer.
Joukahainen - A gambler, brother of Aino.
Aino - Joukahainen's sister, she was promised to be Väinämöinen's Wife, but ran away after discovering how old he was.
Kyllikki - Maiden of the islands.
Lemminkäinen - Adventurer, friend and comrade of Väinämöinen; potentially comes from a God of love/fertility. Also known as Lempo (which later came to be associated with the devil)
Kullervo - The tragic hero, an angsty young man.
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Comments: 54
"Angsty young man", does not even begin to describe Kullervo.
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Hello! Your work has been featured here [link] Please, 
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This is lovely!
hah, I love Ilmarninen's expression.
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What a nice picture! 
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great job! I wish you illustrated the book I'm reading xD It's not original Kalevala, but like some retelled story so we can better understand. Anyway - excellent drawings!
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I love your illustration 
Just doing my fine arts final project based on this finnish masterpiece.
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Thanks.
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^^ Oh... I appreciate it a lot coming from a finnish, many thanks
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I figure Sampo was a machine that could give you never-ending prosperity.... We had to make a modern Sampo in our art class and I did a bracelet that cooked you tea all the time....My idea of never-ending prosperity I suppose.
I like how you portrayed Ilmarinen in this (prolly 'cause he resembles my idea of him
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Thanks. I think there are some other interpretations of what Sampo might be as well.. like, it may possibly also mean the the golden knob at the end of the tree or a pillar that holds up the sky.
I'm glad you like my Ilmarinen.. he looks very down-to-earth here despite being a magical blacksmith.
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Very good picture, I love Kalevala!
This goes to my favorites...
(If you wonder what Sampo was, it was a machine which could give you salt, grain and gold.)
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I LOVED this epic but i never really got what the hell the Sampo was
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I'm not sure what Sampo was either, I think it has been interpreted in many different ways. One interpretation is that it's meant to be a money making machine, other that it's the golden knob at the end of a pillar that keeps the sky from falling down.
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I had no idea that The Kalevala has influenced Tolkien, or that he knew Finnish.
I'm reading The Kalevala at the moment (translated), and the illustrations in it don't fit the characters completely. I like yours much better visually. The colours are nice, warm and earthy, I like how you draw Louhi's character the most. In my head they all looked a bit more "fantastic", though. Louhi was a bit of a goth and such ...
Glad I found this, now I'll enjoy reading Kalevala even more.
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kalevala is best when you read it in finnish. (i know imading it) so try to learn finnish and read it
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I decided to read the Kalevala after rooming and working with a guy from Hyvinkää. I'm just now reading the forging of the Sampo, but I like it. I like this picture. Any idea what the Sampo looks like?
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Heh, no. My mental images of Sampo are so vain and surreal that I haven't managed to capture them on paper. I think it's about the size of a washing machine though.
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I did some thinking and drew a diagram of what the Sampo may have looked like. [link]
What do you think (answer on the deviation page)?
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aww how much I love Kalevala!!! and how much I love Tolkien...
And how much I love this pic
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The Kalevala: The Ultimate Finnish Epic
This deserves a fave!
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Kuuntelen Korpiklaania ja vaeltelin tänne Kalevala aiheista taidetta etsimään. Hienoa työtä!
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NIce
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I like how you draw the characters of Kalevala, it suits them very well !
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WoW!!!!!! so kewls!! and interestin cuz i dint kno that! i love your style ^-^ hope to see more!!
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very nice color and comp, luv the witch.
the foreshooting arm is not that good, imho. It´s a hard position to draw.
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You really captured the drama in this movie poster-type picutre. I'm very impressed. Bravo!
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Nice work! Nice group! I appreciate the mini lesson.
... but you neglected to give info on the dog...?
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Oh yeah, the dog.. A classic painting of Kullervo by Gallen-Kallela has that dog in it, next to Kullervo. That's where it comes from.
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I think Annikki was Ilmarinen the blacsmith's little sister. Here's a summary of the characters I used as my source: [link]
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Very awesome! I'd have guessed that the blonde with his fist raised was Lemminkä inen, but that's just from association with that wonderful MST3K flick. I was hoping to see your take on the Sampo, but I suppose it wasn't much of a hero in itself. 
Anyways, great job!
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Wow, I wish Canada had a national epic. I suppose we can just settle for lots of beavers and geese.
This looks great... they have a lot of character.
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This sounds interesting...I know qvasi nothing about Finnish legends, but I must say looking at these characters makes me want to know more....
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hmm, the name sounds familiar... but i'm pretty sure i haven't read it/ seen any of the 10 hours of documentories on tolkien i still havta wade through :/ *muses*
louhi seems to stand out alot from the others (methinx coz of the shading technique) is this intentional?
on a side note; old-style movie posters rock my socks, & i'm pretty sure the lil dog wasn't thar when i first looked at it O.o
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Louhi is the nemesis in Kalevala, so I tried to make him look like Vader or Palpatine on the background of some of the Star Wars posters.
...I did dome googling, and found out that the Web is full of discussion about the link between Kalevala and LOTR. Here's just one example: [link]
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~Makkir is right about the dog. Spooky.
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ohh yah, i see, it does work well at making him seem less 'human' and more sorta 'evil villainus type'
i haven't read the comparison yet (gotsta go look at sister's new house O.o) but i'll get round to it later. an i hadn't realised twoz a poem! and is that the whole story (in english) on the site as well?
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Hehe. I actually portrayed Kullervo in a school play back in elementary school. They made me up into a GOTH ;__;
I remember when I was reading the lay of Turin Turambar from Silmarillion and got to the part where he marries his sister, I thought "waaaait a minute, this seems awfully familiar". Then I was all "*HUFF PUFF* this guy is ripping off our national epic! destroy him!"
Aaanyway.. great work. I especially like the expressions on Aino and Joukahainen.
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Kullervo a goth..? 0__o What a strange idea because he's got blonde hair in that classic painting by Gallen-Kallela.
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I guess it was their version of stage makeup - lots of black eyeliner and nothing else! I didn't wear a wig though, it was just everything else that was black.
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*snickers* I'm sorry all I can think of is MST3K (Mystery Science Theatre 3000) and when they did "the day the earth froze" a not so good rendition of the legend. *Snickers and sings* "He fa-ailed to bring back the Sampo! And we will die of starvation! Sampo! He's a failiure la la laa! What a loser la la la! Faliure Faliure La la laaa...!"
Ahem It is a very good piece aside all that! ^^ I shall have to read the original tale now and see who these other charecters are that never got mentioned in the movie. I mean LemonKynaineian Er however you spell that was the protagonist. Kullevero never even got mentioned!!
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LOL!! I didn't even know about the existence of The Day The Earth Froze.. so I had to find out about it. Oh man... ^___^ [link]
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