She was a maiden (
Pohjolan impi) who refused to marry any man but, when in water, was impregnated by a sea giant, giving birth to the diseases and ailments of the world. After this, she became the Mistress of Pohjola. In some versions of the poem of the birth of diseases, she is impregnated by wind instead. She then proceeds to name or baptize the children herself, giving them the names of diseases and disasters. In spells related to burn wounds,
Pohjolan impi is asked to bring cold to the wound. Multiple different takes on her exist in runic songs. In a song from
South Savo, she is from Ostrobothnia and marries
Väinämöinen, who is from
Savonia and takes her there. This is why she is called Väinätär. In
White Karelian songs, after hearing his cries, she instead promises to give him a maiden to marry if he forges for her the
sampo. In White Karelian songs, the sampo is akin to a machine which gives riches to Pohjola, so Väinämöinen and allies (who they are differs based on the song) decide to steal it. The heroes bring it to their boat, but Louhi transforms into a
kokko bird and begins to chase them. One of the heroes cuts off the bird's toes, which causes the sampo to fall into the waters in three pieces. In a
Forest Finnish version of the myth, the sampo itself 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. Kaarle Krohn saw this as a description where the sampo and Louhi 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.
Louhi as a shaman in bird form Tradition knows a raven-like bird called
lievo or
vaaka bird, related to Sámi
vuokko bird, a shaman's bird form. More common is the
kokko eagle, who came from Pohjola (
Turjan lintu), whose description is similar to Karelian descriptions of Louhi turning into a
vaaka bird. The Forest Finn Kaisa Vilhunen told folklorists that
kokko eagle is
Ukko's helper. It drove away the raven-form Loho, for if she was allowed to stand on a pole on a yard, it was a sign that wolves were coming to devour cattle. This is why Forest Finns had a
lykkylauta shelf as an altar for Ukko worship, as they kept a
wood grouse's wing on the shelf to drive away Loho and to please Ukko. Loho was the adversary of Ukko and Väinämöinen, and she lived on
Kalmanmäki (Hill of Death) with her servants.
Kokko spews fire and could therefore be related to ideas of the
thunderbird. ==Descriptions==