Kantele of Väinämöinen

The first kantele

In Rune 40, after the heroes kill the giant pike, Väinämöinen makes a kantele from its jawbone, using its teeth as pegs and hair from Hiisi's gelding as strings. Neither Ilmarinen nor Lemminkäinen nor anyone else can play it. In Rune 41 Väinämöinen sits on the rock of joy and plays, and all creatures of forest, air, and water, and the people too, come to listen, weeping; the old singer weeps too, and his tears roll into the sea and become pearls.

Lost and remade

In Rune 42 the music puts the people of Pohjola to sleep so the heroes can take the Sampo, but in Louhi's storm the kantele falls into the sea. In Rune 44 Väinämöinen makes a new one from a weeping birch, with pegs from an oak and strings from a maiden's hair. When he sails away at the end of the epic, he leaves the kantele and his songs to the Finnish people.

The instrument

The kantele, a plucked box-zither traditionally with five strings, is Finland's national instrument, and the Kalevala's account of its invention helped make it a symbol of Finnish identity in the nineteenth century.