| Names: | Son of Tuoni: Panu parka   Panun parka  Punaparta  Satasormi
Son of Manala: Hölmä and/or
Son of Pohjola: Antti Joukkahainen |
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"Son of the Underworld" is an epithet given to potentially multiple different but loosely defined figures. I will present some such instances here.
Note: Tuoni, Manala and Pohjola all refer to the realm of the dead. Tuoni is connected to tuonpuoleinen, "the other side". Manala is connected to maan ala, "underground". Pohjola translates roughly to "Northland", as the realm of the dead was seen to be in the extreme north, in addition to being underground.
The best attested figure with the epithet Tuonen poika is Panu, fire itself or its spirit or deity. He is also called Punaparta ("red-beard"), and he is described as having "churned a fiery churn in a white shirt". As he is fire, he was created by Päivätär, the Sun goddess.
Not sure if he is in any way connected to the "fiery giant" from Pohjola, who was a bit mean actually... He took the hays luonnottaret had reaped and burned them, sowing the ashes in Pohjola. As a result, an oak so massive grew it threatened to block the Sun and the Moon. To me, this sounds like quite the fertile description of slash-and-burn agriculture, which was the standard in Eastern Finland. In this way, fire can not only harm, but it also brings life and fertility. The fertility focused aspects of fire can better be seen in Lemminkäinen (lemmin "fire"), possibly a son of the fertility god Virankannos (and fire is described the same). He goes to seek a bride from the Underworld; Panu, however, is never connected to this beyond the fact that he is also fire. Are they two different entities with the essence of fire in them? Or... Lemminkäinen was killed in the Underworld but resurrected by his mother. "Son of the Underworld" could also easily describe his position after this death experience, or after getting the bride. Most stories do not include a conclusion on if he got the bride or not, but there are some mentions in which he does.
When fire, which was created in the sky, fell down though the earth into the underworld, Satasormi Tuonen poika ("Hundred finger son of Tuoni") and possibly a sister made a fishnet with which the fish was captured which had swallowed fire. Instead of Satasormi, this figure is once in Karelia called Rautasormi "Iron finger", which makes me connect him to another figure: Hölmä, son of Manala. After three luonnottaret had dripped milk from their breasts to the ground, it getting mixed in a bog, it was Hölmä who discovered the result: iron ore, which he took to smith Ilmarinen, who then proceeded to create iron.
Son of Pohjola is, as you can imagine, cold and icy. Enough so, that he is able to cut out and hold the spark of fire which a fish ate. It seems that he is also the one who was able to cut down the Giant Oak. If so, he'd be a "mythic saviour", a "black" (doesn't refer to skin colour) tiny man who rises from the sea. And very respectable so. To be noted is that Ganander called this saviour the "King of Water", though he doesn't seem to be Ahti, at least. One but very late runosong called this mythic saviour the brother of Vellamo, but this is not super reliable. He is, however, able to help out when Joukahainen tries to burn down Väinämöinen's land.
Speaking of Joukahainen, he is also called a Son of Pohjola, or Joukahainen of Pohjola, many times. Considering that he had concflicts with Väinämöinen in the past, it would make sense if he was the one son of Pohjola who had a sword fight with Väinämöinen, lost, and then as revenge, shot at him with an arrow. I wouldn't be the first one to connect Joukahainen to the theme of ice either. However, Joukahainen is also often known as Väinämöinen's own brother, so it's not quite sure if he, or the mythic saviour, could be always assumed when a "son of Pohjola" is mentioned; after all, we know for a fact that there is more than one of them.
Indeed, the mythic saviour is described as a tiny man. However, there are multiple mentions to a son from Pohjola who is specifically tall. He is a great tietäjä, with great power, which could match Joukahainen of course, but again, there's no certainty. He is icy, and is able to take fire in his hand and lift it up to the sky, which almost makes the sky rip apart. Descriptions of height, whether tiny or tall, are common in myths and fairytales.
A son of Tuoni is described as having an... impressive penis like an oaken mallet. No names are mentioned, so I don't know who to credit this to. My headcanon might be Hölmä, but there is a Savonian runosong that for some reason wants to add that the mythic saviour has massive parts as well. It's not the norm in those runosongs though.
Dividing the sons of the Underworld into at least three separate beings here lines up with the daughters of the Underworld, which I have also been able to separate into, at least, three beings (ice, fire, and rocks + water).
| Panu | Means "fire", a loan from the Baltic languages. |
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Only in Finnish, sorry. This is the source material.