Eternal smith of the Kalevala; foundational craftsman-deity of the Finnish-Karelian oral-epic tradition. Cosmogonic-emergence figure with no specified parentage in the canonical Kalevala — parentIds=[] per registry conventions. His foundational works include the forging of the sky-vault itself ("the lid of heaven") at the emergence of the cosmos and the forging of the Sampo (a magical mill-and-treasure-creating device) for Louhi, the mistress of Pohjola, as the bride-price for her daughter's hand. The Sampo-forging is the foundational craft-deed of the Kalevala: at Väinämöinen's request, Ilmarinen traveled to Pohjola and forged the Sampo over four days, with each day producing a different misforged-attempt before the perfect Sampo emerged on the fourth day. The Sampo grinds out grain, salt, and money continuously, providing infinite prosperity to its possessor — the foundational Finnish prosperity-mill mythologem. After the tragic-death of his wife (the Maiden of Pohjola, killed by Kullervo's curse), attempted to forge a replacement-bride from gold and silver, but the gold-and-silver bride was cold to the touch — the canonical-Finnish anti-materialist parable. Joined Väinämöinen and Lemminkäinen in the canonical Sampo-recovery expedition (Runos 39-43); the Sampo was lost at sea during the return-voyage when Louhi pursued and engaged the heroes in cosmic-battle, with fragments washing ashore to provide partial-prosperity to the Finnish-Karelian land — the foundational explanation of the boreal-region's mixed-prosperity-and-scarcity condition. The Ilmarinen sky-and-air etymology, cognates across the Finno-Ugric family (Karelian Ilmarini, Estonian Ilmarine, Sami Ilmaris), preserves the broader Finno-Ugric atmospheric-deity-and-craftsman complex.