Kalevala Project 2020-

An illustration project to illustrate Finland’s national epic, Kalevala. Kalevala is Finland’s national epic consisting of Finnish folk poetry, which only really existed in oral tradition until Elias Lönnrot compiled the scattered, spoken word, poems into one finalised book.

Don’t Worry Babe, I’ve Got You, 2021
Ink pen on paper
29.7 x 21cm

In this scene a man called Lemminkäinen gets ripped into pieces after he attempted to kill The Swan of Tuonela. Later, his mother tries to save him by raking up his body parts from the river of Tuonela (The River of Underworld).

Kalma, 2021
(transl. personified Death)
Ink pen on paper

Kalma in Kalevala comes across as a personified Death, a guardian of a grave as well as a grave itself. In the Eastern dialects kalma is widely seen as a grave or a burial mound, but the word is known to have spiritual connotations e.g. Manala, Manalan haltia (transl. The Underworld and The Underworld’s Spirit, which might be caused by a disease left behind by the deceased person).