Joukahainen

Joukahainen preparing to shoot Väinämöinen

Joukahainen (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈjoukɑhɑinen]) is a character in the Kalevala, the Finnish epic poem of fifty parts. He is the rival of the main character, Väinämöinen. After losing a singing contest, he pledges his sister Aino to Väinämöinen, but she drowns herself rather than marry him. Joukahainen, still envious of Väinämöinen, then shoots the stag of his rival from under him, plunging him into the waters of Pohjola.

In the original translation into English (by John Martin Crawford (1888)) this character's name was Anglicised as Youkahainen.

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