"The eternal exorcist" Vyaynyamyoynen (other transcriptions – Vaynemeynen, Vyaynemyoynen) was one of the main characters of the Karelian-Finnish national epos "Kalevala". He was considered as the first person of the earth.
What "Kalevala" is
Unlike "Illiad" eposes, "Odyssey" or "the Senior Edda", in "Kalevala" there is no uniform plot uniting the narration. It is rather a collection of folk songs ("runes") about a peace arrangement and its stories in representations of ancient Finns.
In "Kalevala" it is told about creation of the world, about birth of a pervochelovek of Vyaynyamyoynen who organized the earth and seeded the first barley and also about its further adventures and feats perfect together with other athletes – Youkakhaynen, Lemminkyaynen, the smith Ilmarinen. Is narrated also about their battles with the powerful sorcerer – the old woman Loukhi. Loukh was Pokhjyola's mistress, the Northern land, the "country of a gloom and fog" symbolizing cold and death.
Vyaynyameynen as epic hero
It agrees to the Karelian-Finnish mythological beliefs, the first person Vyaynyameynen was born right after creation of the world. It is interesting that it had only mother – the daughter of air goddess Ilmatar carrying the pregnancy is a lot of years. Vyaynyameynen had no father: "Wind inflated a fruit to the maiden, the sea gave Completeness to it", - the epos says.
On light the hero was thirty-year-old at once.
If other characters of the Finnish mythology Youkakhaynen and Lemminkyaynen represent typical athletes-heroes, then Vyaynemeynen is a hero wise man, the shaman and the exorcist. In one of songs of "Kalevala" is narrated about how Vyaynemeynen met the beautiful maiden of the North from Pokhjyola and fell in love with it. The beauty agreed to become the wise man's bride if he manages to make the boat of splinters of its spindle. The wise man the spells transferred to the North of the smith Ilmarinen that that held down the wonderful mill of Sampo granting happiness and wealth for the hostess Pokhjyola. It went to an underworld to learn a secret of production of the boat. In an underworld of the hero the dead giant swallowed, however as a result Vyaynemeynen managed not only to be released, but also to learn a treasured secret. However, having returned to Pokhjyola, Vyaynemeynen learned that the maiden of the North already marries the smith Ilmarinen.
In love Vyaynyameynen was not lucky at all. Already in an extreme old age he fell in love with the beauty Ayno. But that, promised the aged man, in horror ran and turned into a Sea Lady.
Further Vyaynyameynen together with other heroes stole Sampo's mill from the hostess Pokhjela and with its help rendered many blessings to own people. And when Pokhjela Loukhi's mistress hid the Moon and the Sun, he returned them on the sky. Also Vyaynemeynen had to fight against a set of the monsters sent by the sorcerer Loukhi.