Aino

Also known as: Joukahainen's sister · Family: Lapland · Role: Joukahainen's sister · First appears: Runo III · Väinämöinen and Joukahainen · Part 3

In Runo III, Joukahainen pledged his sister Aino to Väinämöinen as the minstrel’s consort. When Aino heard, she wept for two days at the prospect of leaving her home and youth. In Runo IV, Väinämöinen sought her, but she refused him; she told her mother that she had been promised as “an old man's comfort,” and did not heed her mother’s counsel to return home.

On the third day, Aino drowned after the rock beneath her sank, and the maiden perished in the lake. In Runo V, Väinämöinen caught a fish that revealed herself as Aino, saying she had sought him as his consort. She refused to return, then disappeared beneath the water.