Loviatar

For the deity in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, see Loviatar (Forgotten Realms).

Loviatar (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈloʋiɑtɑr], alternative names Loveatar, Lovetar, Lovehetar, Louhetar, Louhiatar, Louhi) is a blind daughter of Tuoni, the god of death in Finnish mythology and his spouse Tuonetar, the queen of the underworld. Loviatar is regarded as a goddess of death and disease.[1] In Runo 45 of the Kalevala,[2] Loviatar is impregnated by a great wind and gives birth to nine sons, the Nine diseases. In other folk songs, she gives birth to a tenth child, who is a girl.[3]

In the Kalevala

Loviatar appears in Rune 45:

The blind daughter of Tuoni,
Old and wicked witch, Lowyatar,
Worst of all the Death-land women,
Ugliest of Mana's children,
Source of all the host of evils,
All the ills and plagues of Northland,
Black in heart, and soul, and visage,
Evil genius of Lappala,
Made her couch along the wayside,
On the fields of sin and sorrow;
Turned her back upon the East-wind,
To the source of stormy weather,
To the chilling winds of morning.

— Kalevala, Rune XLV, from the translation by John Martin Crawford

Relation to Louhi

When Elias Lönnrot compiled the Kalevala, he made Loviatar and Louhi two different characters. However, in the folk songs from which he compiled the epic, the names are often used interchangeably, and in some songs Louhi herself is the mother of the nine diseases.[4][5] Other songs give Loviatar the title "Whore Mistress of Pohjola".[6][7]

There is one difference between Louhi and the various forms of Loviatar in the songs: Loviatar's name occurs only in spells where diseases are banished to go back to her, while Louhi's name occurs also in epic or narrative songs. She gives quests to heroes,[8] and opposes Lemminkäinen in a spell contest.[9]

One hypothesis is that Louhi and Loviatar were regional variants of the same goddess, and that the epic songs were composed in an area where Louhi was the primary name. A large portion of the epic songs about the Mistress of Pohjola do not give her any name.[10]

See also

• Syöjätär: in some variants of Finnish folk songs, Syöjätär is the offspring of Loviatar's tenth child.

References

1. Wilfred Bonser, "The Mythology of the Kalevala, with Notes on Bear-Worship among the Finns" (1928), pp. 344-358.
2. Kalevala, translated by John Martin Crawford (1888)
3. Martti Haavio, Suomalainen mytologia (1967).
4. For example, poem 2104 in Part I4 of Suomen Kansan Vanhat Runot (SKVR), the corpus of Finnish folk songs (in Finnish).
5. Wilfrid Bonser, "The Mythology of the Kalevala, with Notes on Bear-Worship among the Finns" (1928), pp. 344-358.
6. For example, poem 2039 in Part VII4 of SKVR.
7. Wilfrid Bonser, "The Mythology of the Kalevala, with Notes on Bear-Worship among the Finns" (1928), pp. 344-358.
8. As in poems 1020 in Part I2 and 364 in Part VII1 of SKVR.
9. Poem 815 of part I2 of SKVR.
10. There are about 50 such poems in Part I1 of SKVR.