Loviatar

For the deity in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, see Loviatar (Forgotten Realms).

Loviatar (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈloʋiɑtɑr], alternative names Loveatar, Lovetar, Lovehetar, Louhetar, Louhiatar, Louhi) is a blind daughter of Tuoni, the god of death in Finnish mythology and his spouse Tuonetar, the queen of the underworld. Loviatar is regarded as a goddess of death and disease.[1] In Runo 45 of the Kalevala,[2] Loviatar is impregnated by a great wind and gives birth to nine sons, the Nine diseases. In other folk songs, she gives birth to a tenth child, who is a girl.[3]

  1. ^ Wilfred Bonser, "The Mythology of the Kalevala, with Notes on Bear-Worship among the Finns" (1928), pp. 344-358.
  2. ^ Kalevala, translated by John Martin Crawford (1888)
  3. ^ Martti Haavio, Suomalainen mytologia (1967).