Theft of sun. The sun, which is kept by a monster, is stolen and brought to earth.
Mythological motifs. · Cosmogony and cosmology. · The heavens. · The sun. · Nature and condition of the sun. · view the constellation · filed as A721.1
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On our shelf — the index’s citations, resolved to served chapters
- FinnishThe Kalevala, Rune XLVIIThompson cites: Kalevala runes 47, 49. – Eskimo (Bering Strait): Nelson RBAE XVIII 483
The motif on our shelf
— written from the served texts; every claim cited receiptThompson's Finnish entry names runes 47 and 49, and both are served, so theft and recovery stand on one page. Louhi, "Northland’s old and toothless wizard", lures Sun and Moon down with harp-music, "Makes the Sun and Moon her captives", and hides the Sun "In the iron-banded mountain" [The Kalevala, Rune XLVII]. The label's "kept by a monster" is exact, and the cost is total: "Night was king and reigned unbroken, / Darkness ruled in Kalevala" [ibid.]. Recovery fails first as craft: Ilmarinen sets out to "Forge from gold the Moon for Northland, / Forge anew the Sun from silver", and Wainamoinen delivers the verdict — "Silver will not gleam as sunshine, / Not of gold is born the moonlight!" [The Kalevala, Rune XLIX]. What works is dread of the smith: told that the forge is shaping a collar "For the neck of wicked Louhi", the thief herself "unlocked the massive portals / Where the Sun and Moon were hidden" [ibid.]. One divergence from the label, which has the captive sun "stolen and brought to earth": in the Finnish form the recovery is no counter-theft but a coerced release — the monster turns her own key.
Witnesses: The Kalevala, Rune XLVII · The Kalevala, Rune XLIX