Ilmatar
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In Kalevala, finnish national epic, Ilmatar was a virgin spirit of the air.[1]
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[edit] Origins
Ilmatar was invented by Elias Lönnrot, who assembled and edited Kalevala in the early 19th century, as the creator of the world. In the original poems, the creator of the world was usually Väinämöinen. Lönnrot probably wanted Väinämöinen to be more like a wizard-warrior, and so he stripped him of god-like characteristics that were common to him in the original poems. Thus Ilmatar is not a genuine figure from Finnish mythology, but a late invention by Lönnrot himself.[citation needed] In Kalevala, Ilmatar is portrayed as androgynous with both male and female aspects, though she is primarily female. Though a virgin, she was impregnated by the sea and wind and thus became the mother of Väinämöinen.
The name Ilmatar is derived from the Finnish word ilma, meaning "air," and the suffix -tar, denoting a female spirit. Thus, her name literally means "female air spirit." In the Kalevala she was also occasionally called Luonnotar, which means "female spirit of nature" (Finnish luonto, "nature").[2]
[edit] In popular culture
J. R. R. Tolkien was well educated in Finnish and Nordic mythology, and borrowed much from these. His creator of Arda, Ilúvatar, has a similar name to Ilmatar. Ilmatar is also the title of a CD by the Finnish band Värttinä, released in 2000. Its theme was inspired by the goddess's creation story in the Kalevala and similar Finnish folklore and magic.
[edit] In Sibelius's Luonnotar
Jean Sibelius composed the tone poem Luonnotar, for soprano and orchestra in 1913. In the tone poem, the mythical birth of the earth and sky, recounted in craggy verses from the Kalevala, becomes an intense Sibelian metaphor for the inexporable force - even the terror of all creation - including that of the artist. One of the composer's most compelling works, it alternates between two musical ideas. As heard at the outset, these are the shimmering stirrings of ever-growing possibility; and, underpinned with dissonant, static, harp strokes, the even more incantatory, distressed cries of the "nature spirit" (Luonnotar) herself, heavy with child. In its relentless physicality and eruptive violence, Luonnotar is unlike anything else in the entire repertory.[citation needed]
[edit] In Finance
The Ilmatar Fund is an Eastern European Multi-Strategy Hedge Fund for professional investors. The aim of the fund is to generate absolute returns in all market environments using multiple investment strategies. Ilmatar Fund
[edit] References
- ^ Lönnrot, Elias, compiler. The Kalevala: Epic of the Finnish People. Translated by Eino Friberg. Otava Publishing Company, Ltd., 4th ed., p. 365. (1998) ISBN 951-1-10137-4
- ^ Lönnrot, Elias, compiler. The Kalevala, or Poems of the Kaleva District: A Prose Translation with Foreword and Appendices. Translated with foreword and appendices by Francis Peabody Magoun, Jr. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963.
