Antero Vipunen is a primeval giant of the Viena Karelian rune tradition, recorded above all in the runes collected in White Sea Karelia and printed in Suomen Kansan Vanhat Runot I. He lies long dead beneath the earth, an aspen growing from his shoulders and a birch from his temples, yet retains the full hoard of origin-charms. When Väinämöinen lacks three words to finish his boat, he journeys to Vipunen, is swallowed, and torments the giant from within until the charms are sung out. Martti Haavio read the figure as a reminiscence of the dead shaman whose grave is visited for knowledge, and the episode was reworked by Lönnrot as Kalevala runo 17.
Domains
hidden knowledge
underworld wisdom
Powers
to hold in memory the primeval origin-charms and songs lost to living singers
to sing and speak from within the grave, undecayed in knowledge though long dead
Epithets
virsikäs Vipunen
Sources
Martti Haavio, Väinämöinen: Eternal Sage (Folklore Fellows' Communications 144), Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1952
Matti Kuusi, Keith Bosley & Michael Branch (eds.), Finnish Folk Poetry: Epic. An Anthology in Finnish and English, Finnish Literature Society, 1977
Suomen Kansan Vanhat Runot I: Vienan läänin runot, Finnish Literature Society, 1908