“Where the wicked are invited, there the good are always welcome”

“Where the wicked are invited, there the good are always welcome” is a sardonic maxim of bold hospitality: it makes the presence of dangerous company sound like a reason for the good to come, rather than a reason to stay away. In the scene associated with Lemminkainen, its bravado answers a warning about the deadly creatures guarding Pohyola’s portals.

The Warning at Pohyola

The warning describes Pohyola’s dark portals as a place where a wolf and a black bear may rise against a visitor. Hundreds have perished in their jaws, the speaker says, and a thousand heroes have been devoured. The question is pointed: why should Lemminkainen escape when he approaches unprotected?

A Maxim of Defiance

Set against that catalogue of deaths, the maxim reverses the warning’s logic. A place frequented by the wicked becomes, by the saying’s paradox, a place where the good are welcome too. The phrase does not make Pohyola safe; its force comes from treating danger as no sufficient argument for retreat.

Lemminkainen is introduced as a reckless and handsome hero, Kaukomieli. His reply begins by allowing that the beasts may eat gentle lambs and feed on their tender flesh. That image shifts attention from the speaker’s exposure to vulnerable prey, giving his answer a taunting confidence. The scene thus presents the maxim not as a guarantee of welcome or safety, but as a compact expression of the audacity with which he meets the threat.