Kultapyörä

Laws of Väinämöinen

In runosongs from Kainuu, South Savo, and North and South Karelia, Väinämöinen has made certain things prohibited, which is why these laws of Väinämöinen are known in Finnish as Väinämöisen kiellot "the prohibitions of Väinämöinen". They are listed here in not any specific order.

  1. You must not whistle or sing while on water. (You might end up summoning a storm this way.)
  2. You must not shout in the middle of the night. (Not only is loudness rude to other people, but it's also rude to the spirits.)
  3. You must not lie in the middle of a road.
  4. You must not eat the intestines of a pike or a whitefish, nor the lower side of a perch.
  5. You must not bow to gold or waver in the face of silver.
  6. An old person must not desire after a young person.
  7. There must not be a land without a man.
  8. There must not be a village without an axe.
  9. There must not be a harvest without a Lady/mistress.
  10. There must not be a mansion without a dog.
  11. There must not be a house without work.
  12. There must not be an unsown field. (This and the five laws before it seem to refer to the necessity of work in order to survive and grow food in agricultural communities.)
  13. You must not take the patched wallet of an unmarried man. (Stealing? Bad, of course. Stealing from someone who already has very little? Super bad!)
  14. You must not bring a leavener from Lapland. (North is the cardinal direction connected to the land of the dead, and it is the origin of diseases, so you might want to watch out for potentially disease-filled food.)
  15. You must not swim or sail dangerously. (No matter your skills, your fate is still not ultimately in your hands. Don't tempt it.)
  16. You must not go rowing alone in the middle of the night.
  17. You should not marry for wealth. (It'll likely end up emotionally very cold.)

Other laws

Incest (between siblings or a parent and a child) is consistently portrayed as a bad and shameful thing.