Väinämöinen
c. 1 CE – 1849 CEattested
Karelia
- Finnic
Ancient singer whose weapon is song: he wins duels by knowing the origin of things and reciting it. Collected from Karelian oral singers in the 1830s, he became the centre of the Kalevala and of Finnish national identity.
Known for
- magic as knowing a thing's origin
- the kantele made of bone
- song as a duelling weapon
Dates are estimates. A great deal of what this atlas covers is only datable to within a century.