seamusfnnigan:

Finnish mythology series: Ilmatar

In the Finnish national epic Kalevala, Ilmatar [‘ilma’; Finnish word for ‘air’] was a virgin spirit of the air:

“At first there were only primal waters and Sky, who also had a daughter named Ilmatar. One day, seeking a resting place, Ilmatar descended to the waters. There she floated for 700 years until she noticed a beautiful bird searching for a place to lay her eggs. Ilmatar raised her knee for the bird. The bird then laid her eggs, six made of gold and one made of iron, on her knee. As the bird hatched the eggs, Ilmatar’s knee got burned by the heat and she jerked her leg. The eggs fell and shattered in the water. Land was formed from the lower part of one of the eggshells while sky formed from the top. The egg whites turned into the moon and stars, and the yolk became the sun.
     Ilmatar spent another few hundred years floating around the waters, admiring the results of these broken eggs until she could not resist the urge to continue the creation. Her footprints became pools and simply by pointing her finger she created contours of the land. She made all that is. One day she gave birth to Väinämöinen, the first man, whose father was the sea.”