|left In some
runic songs, Joukahainen is mentioned to be a brother of
Väinämöinen, though this is not the case in all versions, as White Karelian poems refer to Väinämöinen as Joukahainen's aunt's son, and some poems also refer to Joukahainen as an inhabitant of
Pohjola. In his 1782 book
De superstitione veterum fennorum,
Christian Erici Lenqvist called Joukahainen a god.
Christfried Ganander called him a giant in his 1789 book
Mythologia Fennica. Joukahainen appears in a myth which describes the runic singing battle between him and Väinämöinen. It has been described as the first ever such confrontation and interpreted as a battle between two skilled
shamans. The two come face to face on the same path on land or water, and Joukahainen challenges Väinämöinen by suggesting that the one who has less knowledge should be the one to give way. Joukahainen sings about things he remembers had happened in the beginning: the bottom of the sea had been formed, the starts had been set to the sky and mountains had been created. This knowledge is no match for Väinämöinen, who expresses his superior knowledge by stating that he was the one who made all of those things happen. Joukahainen's epithet is 'young' while Väinämöinen is 'old' and therefore wiser. The song portrays the authority an older person has over a younger person, which is true even in the hierarchy of divine heroes.) rises from the waters to stop it. A rare
North Savo version have Väinämöinen and Joukahainen fighting over fire: Väinämöinen makes fire by rubbing pieces of wood against each other, while Joukahainen was trying to burn Väinämöinen's area by rubbing two rocks together. Väinämöinen has to ask the king of the sea to help him put out the fire. This was possibly a spell related to
slash-and-burn agriculture. In another version, Väinämöinen proceeds to sing (spellcast) Joukahainen into a bog or cold water, which symbolize a path to the underworld. Joukahainen begs Väinämöinen to let him go, promising his only sister as Väinämöinen's wife which Väinämöinen accepts. Drowning someone in water was a popular method of execution in Medieval Europe. In
Karelian songs, Joukahainen later cries about having done this but his mother consoles him by saying that she'll gladly have a great man like Väinämöinen in the family. It shows that in Baltic Finnic tradition, the mother and brother of a girl were responsible for her marriage as opposed to western, nomadic pastoralist, and other patriarchal cultures, where this was the right of the father. In
Central Finland, the battle story gained a new context: Väinämöinen was jealous of his brother Joukahainen, who had made a boat. Joukahainen also appears as Väinämöinen's companion on his adventures. In Ostrobothnia and
South Savo, Väinämöinen asks his brother Joukahainen to bring him three magic words from the great shaman
Antero Vipunen which he needs in order to be able to finish building his boat. However, Joukahainen says that Vipunen is long since dead. Joukahainen accompanies Väinämöinen to steal the
sampo from
Pohjola in a
Forest Finnish version of the myth. When they are escaping with it on a boat, Joukahainen asks Väinämöinen to start singing his spells but Väinämöinen refuses, saying that the gates of Pohjola are still too close. Eventually, he starts singing. The sampo then flies out of the boat into the clouds and Joukahainen jumps after it and strikes it with his sword. He only manages to cut off two toes from the sampo, one which fell into the sea, making it salty, and the other fell on land, making wild hay grow. If only he had been able to cut off more toes, crops would grow on their own without the need of farming. Krohn saw this as a description where the sampo and
Loviatar turned into a
kokko bird had fused into one, like sampo itself was a bird.
Väinö Salminen pointed out the Forest Finn belief that storm itself was an evil being, a storm bird from Pohjola, like it was the storm bird which had taken the sampo from Väinämöinen and Joukahainen's boat. In
White Karelian runic songs, Joukahainen is connected to the
lappalainen (Sámi) who shot Väinämöinen into the primordial sea. As a result, Väinämöinen lied on the bottom of the sea with his knee on the surface, and a bird laid an egg on his knee. When Väinämöinen moved his knee and the eggs fell and broke, the world was born. This version was also known in inland Finland but had become partially forgotten by the 19th century.
Kainuu tietäjä Jeremias "Kovan Jeru" Seppänen referred to the one who shot Väinämöinen as
Pohjolan pitkä poika ("tall son of Pohjola") and
Antti Joukkahainen. In Border Karelia, when someone needs to catch the Sun from top of a pine, Joukahainen and
Ilmarinen make failed attempts to do so. Only Väinämöinen succeeds. In White Karelia, Väinämöinen is also portrayed as a better
seine fisher than Joukahainen. In
Ladoga Karelia, Väinämöinen, Ilmarinen and Joukahainen are sons born from the maiden Iro (after Saint Irene) or Maaria (
Virgin Mary). ==Comparisons==