The Finnish

flood myth A flood myth or a deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these Mythology, myths and the ...

is recorded in the '' Kalevala'' rune entitled ''Haava'' (''The Wound'', section 8). Väinämöinen attempts a heroic feat that results in a gushing wound, the blood from which covers the entire Earth. This deluge is not emphasized in the Kalevala version redacted by Elias Lönnrot, but the global quality of the flood is evident in original variants of the rune. In one variant collected in

Northern Ostrobothnia North Ostrobothnia ( fi, Pohjois-Pohjanmaa; sv, Norra Österbotten) is a region of Finland. It borders the Finnish regions of Lapland, Kainuu, North Savo, Central Finland and Central Ostrobothnia, as well as the Russian Republic of Karelia. T ...

in 1803/04, the rune tells: : ''The blood came forth like a flood
'' : ''the gore ran like a river:
'' : ''there was no hummock
'' : ''and no high mountain
'' : ''that was not flooded
'' : ''all from Väinämöinen's toe'' : ''from the holy hero's knee.''

Matti Kuusi Matti Akseli Kuusi (25 March 1914 in Helsinki – 16 January 1998 in Helsinki) was a Finnish folklorist, paremiographer and paremiologist. He wrote several books and a number of articles on Finnish folklore. He was the first to have introduced ...

notes in his analysis that the rune's motifs of constructing a boat, a wound, and a flood have parallels with flood myths from around the world. There are sources that cite this flood mythology to the nature of Kalevala as a

comparative mythology Comparative mythology is the comparison of myths from different cultures in an attempt to identify shared themes and characteristics.Littleton, p. 32 Comparative mythology has served a variety of academic purposes. For example, scholars have used ...

, which borrowed elements from stories found in other ancient sources such as the Persians, Phoenicians, the Bible and Greek mythology, then integrated it with the myth's personification of nature. The account of the great flood was embedded in a narrative that also featured the Greek sun-myths and moon-myths. These influences are not found in the myths of Finland's Slavic and Scandinavian neighbors. However, a theory explained this aspect to Finnish myth as a relic of the earliest Asiatic life of one of the Finnish ancestors. According to

Anna-Leena Siikala Arja Anna-Leena Siikala (formerly Kuusi, née Aarnisalo, born Helsinki, 1 January 1943, died Espoo, 27 February 2016) was a professor emeritus at the University of Helsinki, specialising in folk-belief, mythology, and shamanism, along with oral stor ...

, Väinämöinen's legs are of mythological and

cosmogonic Cosmogony is any model concerning the origin of the cosmos or the universe. Overview Scientific theories In astronomy, cosmogony refers to the study of the origin of particular astrophysical objects or systems, and is most commonly used i ...

significance throughout Finnish mythology. For example, it is originally on Väinämöinen's knee that the primordial water-fowl first lays the world egg.

References

{{Reflist Finnish mythology Flood myths Kalevala