Louhi

Also known as: Crone of Pohja / Crone of Sariola the misty / Ilpotar / Pohja's aged Mistress / Pohja's old dame / Pohjola's great Mistress / Pohjola's most gracious Mistress / Pohjola's old Mistress / crone of Pohja · Family: Pohjola · Role: Pohjola's old Mistress · First appears: Runo VII · Väinämöinen and Louhi · Part 2

In Runo VII, Louhi took Väinämöinen to her dwelling in Pohjola, fed him, warmed him and restored his strength. She offered to send him home if he would forge a Sampo. In Runo X, she housed and fed Ilmarinen and offered him Maid of Pohja as a reward for making the Sampo; after it was forged, she carried it to the rocky hills of Pohja and secured it behind nine locks, then sent Ilmarinen home.

In Runo XIV, Lemminkainen asked for her daughter, and Louhi made the marriage conditional first on capturing a Hiisi steed and then on shooting the river-swan. In Runo XV, when Lemminkainen's mother came seeking her son, Louhi said she had sent him on dangerous tasks and placed him in a boat to shoot the rapids, though she did not know what became of him. In Runo XIX she promised Maid of Pohja to Ilmarinen as his wife. She brewed ale and prepared for the wedding feast in Runo XX, but ordered her maid not to invite Lemminkainen; in Runo XXI she welcomed the bridegroom’s party and served the guests, with the bridegroom first.

In Runo XXVII, Louhi refused to receive Lemminkainen as a guest while the food and ale were unready, then ordered her waiting-maiden to serve him. Afterward she summoned armed men to capture him. In Runo XXX, she called on her foster-child Frost to freeze Lemminkainen and his boat. In Runo XXXVIII, she refused Ilmarinen’s request for Louhi's second daughter, saying, “No more daughters will I give you”.

In Runo XLII, Louhi refused to share the Sampo with Väinämöinen and ordered her people to aim their weapons at him. When the Sampo was stolen, she armed an army and sailed to recover it in Runo XLIII. Her ship broke on a reef; she took eagle form, attacked Väinämöinen, and pulled the Sampo from his boat, breaking it in the lake. She returned to Pohjola with only a small fragment. In Runo XLV, she secretly brought Loviatar to the bathroom and sent diseases toward Väinölä and Kalevala; in Runo XLVI she drove a bear toward their lands. In Runo XLVII she captured the sun and moon, hid them, and stole the fires from Väinölä. In Runo XLIX, she released the moon from the stone and the sun from the rock before escaping to Pohjola.