Ilmatar (pronounced [ˈilmɑtɑr]) is a virgin spirit and goddess of the air in the Finnish national epic Kalevala.[1]

Ilmatar by Robert Wilhelm Ekman, 1860

Origins

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The name Ilmatar is derived from the Finnish word ilma, meaning "air," and the female suffix -tar, corresponding to the English "-ess". Thus, her name means Airess. In the Kalevala she was also occasionally called Luonnotar (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈluo̯nːo̞t̪ɑr]), which means "Naturess," "female spirit of nature" (Finnish luonto, "nature").[2]

She was impregnated by the sea and wind and thus became the mother of Väinämöinen.

 
Ilmatar by Joseph Alanen [fi], 1913–1916

Sibelius’s Luonnotar

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Jean Sibelius composed the Finnish epic tone poem Luonnotar, for soprano and orchestra in 1913. In this work, the mythical origin of the land and sky (recounted in verses from the Kalevala) becomes an intense Sibelian metaphor for the inexorable force of terror of all creation. Considered to be one of the composer's most compelling works, it alternates between two musical themes. As heard at the outset, these are the shimmering stirrings of ever-growing possibility; and, underpinned with dissonant, static, harp strokes, the even more incantatory, distressed cries of the "nature spirit" (Luonnotar) herself, heavy with child.[citation needed]

Homage

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References

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  1. ^ Lönnrot, Elias, compiler. The Kalevala: Epic of the Finnish People. Translated by Eino Friberg. Otava Publishing Company, Ltd., 4th ed., p. 365. (1998) ISBN 951-1-10137-4
  2. ^ Lönnrot, Elias, compiler. The Kalevala, or Poems of the Kaleva District: A Prose Translation with Foreword and Appendices. Translated with foreword and appendices by Francis Peabody Magoun, Jr. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963.