Blacksmith Ilmarinen

Today a hectic day at work.

Yesterday we celebrated the Kalevala day here in Finland. Kalevala is the Finnish national saga, collection of heroic poems that Elias Lönnroth collected during his trips to Carelia province. One of the characters of Kalevala is blacksmith called Ilmarinen, who manufactured the gadget called Sampo. In today's fotograph is the statue of Blacksmith Ilmarinen that is part of the facade of the old student house in Helsinki. The statue is sculpted by Robert Stigell.

Kalevala rune in English can be found in
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/kveng/

Amilie