Ilmatar


Ilmatar is a virgin spirit and goddess of the air in the Finnish national epic Kalevala.

Origins

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, which means "Naturess," "female spirit of nature".
She was impregnated by the sea and wind and thus became the mother of Väinämöinen.
Ilmatar does not appear connected to the creation of the world in Finnish mythology. In runic songs, the name only appears in one collected White Karelian poem in reference to the oldest of women. In a rare Ostrobothnian runic song, it is said that the one who gave birth to Väinämöinen was the Maiden of North. This is the runic song basis for Lönnrot's Ilmatar as the feminine birther of the world. In Ladoga Karelia, the one who gives birth to Väinämöinen is either Iro or Maaria.

Sibelius’s ''Luonnotar''

composed the Finnish epic tone poem Luonnotar, for soprano and orchestra in 1913. In this work, the mythical origin of the land and sky '' 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" herself, heavy with child.

Homage