| Names: | Kosketar 
Kuohutar  |
|---|
Kuohutar or Kosketar is the haltija of rapids. I also believe that she is the same as Väinämöinen's wife, but that's just my theory. (I think it's a good theory though.)
Usually, she is asked to help someone as they are sailing down a rapid by taking all the stones away from the boat's path so the boat couldn't hit them on accident. In one instance, this individual is called a "black girl maiden of Pohjola", but this is a rare instance. More common is that she has been replaced with Virgin Mary, who appears as Väinämöinen's rowing-partner in multiple instances.
As Kosketar, she is asked to heal an illness which came from a rapid. She is often described as sitting on a rock by a rapid, brushing her hair. Kuohutar is also asked to help with a "fan of bone" when tooth ache (= "tooth worm") has gnawed on someone's teeth.
Sound familiar? A water maiden of Koskela ("rapid-place"), who is involved with the birth of tooth ache is, in fact, how Väinämöinen's wife is described.
Once, when Väinämöinen (in one version, Ilmarinen) was sailing, a fish jumped into his boat. He tried to cut the fish in order to eat it, but the fish jumped out back into the water. Then it revealed itself to be a water maiden, stating: "I didn't come to you to be salmon slices and eaten. I came to be your spouse!"
This water maiden is only known as a "maiden of Vellamo" (Vellamon neito) and "Koskelan komia vaimo" (handsome woman of Koskela ("rapid-place")). (Same epithet as Kosketar). Maybe she is the same as the akka salmen korvallinen ("wife by a strait") who brushed her hair, a bristle of the brush falling into the water and creating a snake. This role is typically given to Maatar; however, there are runosongs that show that Väinämöinen's wife had a role in creating tooth pain (literally "tooth worm"). She was cleaning the sea with a broom, and on the third day of doing that, she caught some litter with the broom and started chewing on it, becoming pregnant with the tooth worm.
It seems that Väinämöinen copulated with this water maiden, even though their relationship was not considered valid by the church (obvious Christian influence here). Once, an abandoned child was found. As its father could not be found, and thus the child could not be named and made a member of the community, Väinämöinen as a judge ordered for the child to be taken into the forest and killed with a blunt strike from a tree. This is when the two-week-old child magically gained the ability to speak, asking why did he need to be killed for being fatherless when it was Väinämöinen himself who was his father.
Due to Christian influence, this tale later became to be seen as symbolism for the arrival of Christianity, the baby being Jesus and Väinämöinen, otherwise humiliated by being accused of incest, for example, leaves and escapes into a whirlpool. However, that is not the original setting of the runosong.
Väinämöinen's son is connected to water by having created water's healing properties and by being a helper of the mythical saviour in the sea, though he is also sometimes called Frost.
| Kuohutar | From kuohu "foam". |
|---|---|
| Kosketar | From koski "rapid". |
Only in Finnish, sorry. This is the source material.