Joukahainen

Mortal young singer of the Kalevala, the meagre son of Lapland; brother of Aino and rash rival of Vainamoinen. His losing of the singing-contest and his pledge of Aino (Runo 3) trigger the Aino tragedy (Runos 4-5), and his crossbow-ambush (Runo 6) launches the Pohjola journeys. Carried until now only implicitly behind the Aino record; authored here as the attested but unregistered brother of the corpus figure finnish_aino and rival of finnish_vainamoinen. Mortal tier, mirroring his sister Aino.

Powers

• Contend in the singing-and-knowledge contest
• Lie in wait and loose the crossbow at the sage

Epithets

• nuori Joukahainen

Relations

• sibling: Aino
• enemy: Väinämöinen

Sources

• Kalevala (Lonnrot 1849), Runos 3-6.
• Kuusi, Matti et al. Finnish Folk Poetry: Epic (1977), on the Joukahainen and Aino narratives.