5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.
The Finnish deities were worshipped by the Finnic peoples of the forests and lakes of northern Europe. Tied to nature, the hunt, and the magic of words, they were passed down orally for generations. In the 19th century, Elias Lönnrot gathered these songs into the Kalevala, Finland's national epic.
Rune singers passed the myths down in verses sung to the kantele, Väinämöinen's sacred zither. At the feast of Ukon vakat, drink offerings were made to Ukko for thunder and a good harvest, and hunters performed rites of apology to the spirit of the slain bear.
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At a glance
Ilmatar (revered in traditional runic meter as Ilman impi, 'the maiden of the air', and Luonnotar, 'the female spirit of nature') is the foundational cosmogonic figure of Finno-Karelian mythic poetry, enshrined in the opening canto (Runo I) of the Finnish national epic Kalevala compiled by Elias Lönnrot. Before the demarcation of solid ground, celestial spheres, or astronomical luminaries, Ilmatar dwelt throughout boundless ethereal wastes in unbroken celestial solitude. Wearying of her barren existence in the void, she descended to the primeval ocean, where the violent gusts of an eastern tempest and the surging billows quickened her womb without carnal intercourse. Adopting the status of Veen emonen ('Mother of the Waters'), she drifted across the arctic waves for more than seven centuries in ceaseless, agonizing cosmic travail without finding rest. Answering her desperate appeals to the celestial sovereign Ukko, a migratory diving bird (the goldeneye or teal, sotka) hovered over the boundless waters seeking a dry resting place to nest. Moved by pity for the exhausted creature, Ilmatar raised her knee and shoulder above the ocean surface, providing a hillock above the waves. The bird laid seven eggs upon the divine knee — six fashioned of lustrous gold and a seventh forged of dense iron. As the bird incubated the clutch, intense feverish heat flared across the divine sinews, causing the goddess to jerk her limbs; the eggs tumbled into the abyssal waters and shattered upon the sea floor. Through sacred transmutation, the lower shell formed the terrestrial realm, the upper dome raised the celestial firmament, the golden yolk became the radiant sun, the egg-white coalesced into the shining moon, mottled fragments scattered as the stars of heaven, and dark residual particles gathered into rain clouds. In the ensuing years, Ilmatar swam across the tides and sculpted the earth's coastal relief with direct anatomical contact. After thirty years of conscious confinement within her oceanic womb, her ancient son Väinämöinen breached the threshold of the maternal womb and plunged into the sea, inaugurating the heroic era.
9 min read · Reviewed on September 30, 2026 · How we research
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Sacred symbols
The primordial sea, the seabird, the egg and the raised knee
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Family
Ilmatar
Unions
The Wind and the Primeval Sea (dynamic elemental forces whose stormy breath and surging waves impregnated the maiden adrift upon the cosmic waters)
Genealogy according to Elias Lönnrot, Kalevala (1849, Runo 1, v. 111–344); Suomen Kansan Vanhat Runot (SKVR); Anna-Leena Siikala, Itämerensuomalaisten mytologia (2012); Uno Harva, Suomalaisten muinaisusko (1948); Risto Pulkkinen & Stina Lindfors, Suomalaisen kansanuskon sanakirja (2016); Christfrid Ganander, Mythologia Fennica (1789)
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Sources and further reading
Primary sources
Lönnrot, Elias (comp.) & Kirby, W. F. (trans.), Kalevala: The Land of Heroes (Rune I: Birth of Vainamoinen). translation: Complete edition preserved at the Internet Sacred Text Archive. read
Lönnrot, Elias (comp.) & Crawford, John Martin (trans.), The Kalevala: The Epic Poem of Finland (Rune I: Birth of Wainamoinen). translation: Full open text archived at Project Gutenberg (#5186). read
Lönnrot, Elias, Kalevala (1849, Suomen Kansan Kansalliseepos). translation: Full digital edition in Finnish at Project Gutenberg (#25953). read
Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura (SKS), SKVR: Suomen Kansan Vanhat Runot (Digital Base of Runic Poetry). translation: Open database of oral Finnish and Karelian runic poetry. read
Ganander, Christfrid, Mythologia Fennica (1789). translation: Full historical facsimile archived at the Internet Archive. read
Studies
Siikala, Anna-Leena, Itämerensuomalaisten mytologia. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura (SKS), Helsinki, 2012. open
Harva, Uno, Suomalaisten muinaisusko. WSOY, Helsinki & Porvoo, 1948. open
Pulkkinen, Risto & Lindfors, Stina, Suomalaisen kansanuskon sanakirja. Gaudeamus, Helsinki, 2016. open
Pentikäinen, Juha, Kalevala Mythology (Expanded Edition). Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1999. open
Sibelius, Jean, Luonnotar, Op. 70 (Score and Orchestral History). Breitkopf & Härtel / IMSLP, 1913. open
Name and epithets
The theonym 'Ilmatar' is formed from the Proto-Finnic and Uralic noun 'ilma', whose semantic range encompasses ambient air, weather conditions, the sky, and the upper atmosphere.
In the ancient sources
Kalevala (The Expanded Canonical 1849 Edition), 1849 AD. Primary poetic locus detailing Ilmatar's descent from the air, impregnating storm, the water-bird's nesting upon her knee, and her shaping of coastal geography.
The myths
The Descent to the Deep and Conception by the Storm Winds. According to the opening rune of the Kalevala, Ilmatar existed as a spotless maiden across the boundless expanses of the air before heaven and earth were establ…
Worship and archaeology
From a documentary and historical perspective regarding pre-Christian Finno-Karelian religion, there is no evidence of formal temples, organized priesthoods, or regular sacrificial rites dedicated specifically to Ilmata…
How the god was depicted
Visual representations of Ilmatar arose during the 19th-century Finnish National Romantic revival. The definitive pictorial work is Robert Wilhelm Ekman's 1860 oil painting 'Ilmatar', housed in the Ateneum Art Museum (F…
What scholars debate
. Scholarly discussion surrounding Ilmatar centers upon the divergence between genuine oral runic poetry recorded in the SKVR and Elias Lönnrot's composite epic editing for the 1849 Kalevala.
After antiquity
The most significant musical adaptation of the myth is Jean Sibelius's 1913 symphonic tone poem 'Luonnotar', Op. 70, scored for soprano and full orchestra.
Did you know?
The asteroid 385 Ilmatar, discovered in March 1894 by German astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidelberg Observatory, was named in honor of the goddess.
Codex relic
World Egg. The seabird's egg laid upon her knee, from whose shards arose the sky, the earth, the sun and the moon.
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