Free choice in courtship

Free choice in courtship makes the Maiden of Pohyola’s decision—not a suitor’s force, wealth, or victory—the authority that determines whom she will marry. As Wainamoinen and Ilmarinen travel together to woo her, they agree that she may choose between them and that the unsuccessful suitor must accept her choice without anger or envy. The maiden then states her own terms: riches will not buy her consent, and she chooses Ilmarinen for qualities she values in him, including his wisdom and good behavior.

The agreement between the suitors

The principle takes shape as a compact between Wainamoinen and Ilmarinen during their journey in Ilmarinen’s magic vessel. Ilmarinen addresses Wainamoinen as an ancient minstrel and proposes that they woo the Northland maiden in peace. His formulation gives the decisive act to her: “Let her wed the one she chooses,” and, having chosen, “let her follow.” The suitors are participants in the courtship, but neither is entitled to decide its outcome.

Wainamoinen accepts the proposal rather than treating the two men’s pursuit as a contest whose winner may claim the maiden. He repeats that they should woo her in peace and makes the prohibition explicit: “Not by force, nor faithless measures,” shall they seek her. The agreement therefore concerns not only who gets to choose, but also how the suitors may conduct themselves. Courtship is permitted; coercion and deceit are ruled out.

The compact also anticipates disappointment. Wainamoinen says that the unsuccessful suitor should “Harbor neither wrath nor envy” toward the man she follows. Her choice is to be final enough that the rejected suitor’s response becomes part of the rule. The agreement does not guarantee that both men will be satisfied; it asks that neither turn the outcome into a grievance against the chosen man. In this way, peaceful wooing includes both restraint before the decision and acceptance afterward.

The maiden’s criteria

The Maiden of Pohyola speaks for herself after the suitors’ agreement. The passage presents costly presents and priceless gems from Kalevala alongside her response, but she refuses to make wealth the measure of a husband. She acknowledges maternal advice, then distinguishes listening to that advice from surrendering her decision: “I will not wed for riches,” she says, and will not marry for “countless treasures.” The gifts may be part of the courtship, but they cannot substitute for her consent.

Her refusal is more than a rejection of one offer or one set of presents. She describes a broader injustice in which daughters are “sold by anxious mothers” to suitors they do not love. Against that possibility, she asserts that she will choose without regard to a man’s treasures. The scene thus connects the suitors’ promise not to use force with the maiden’s insistence that marriage cannot properly be determined by material inducement or another person’s wishes.

Her stated grounds for choosing are personal qualities: worth, youth, appearance, noble form and features, wisdom, and good behavior. She names Ilmarinen as her choice for his wisdom and character, and also recalls that he forged the wondrous Sampo and hammered its lid in colors. The decision is therefore neither a choice of wealth alone nor an abstract declaration detached from the suitors before her. It is her assessment of a particular man, including both his conduct and his remarkable work.

What the rule permits—and refuses

The rule preserves a courtship in which two men may both seek the same woman without turning their rivalry into a claim over her. Wainamoinen and Ilmarinen agree to proceed together, but the agreement does not give them joint authority over the outcome. Its central distinction is between wooing and possession: a suitor may offer himself, but the maiden decides whether to follow him.

The terms also place limits on the meaning of defeat. One suitor will not be chosen, yet Wainamoinen’s promise requires him to refrain from directing resentment or envy at the successful rival. That condition matters because it makes the maiden’s freedom consequential: her choice can settle the matter rather than merely mark the start of a further struggle between the men. The rule does not erase the possibility of disappointment; it specifies a peaceful response to it.

Significance in the courtship

Free choice in courtship joins a public agreement between the suitors to the maiden’s own spoken preference. The men establish that force and deception are unacceptable, but the maiden supplies the decisive test by refusing riches as a sufficient reason to marry and naming the qualities that lead her to Ilmarinen. Neither the suitors’ cooperation nor the presents decide for her.

The passage gives the principle practical form through its sequence: a proposal of peaceful wooing, Wainamoinen’s acceptance and commitment to forgo resentment, and the maiden’s explicit choice. Its standard is not simply that a woman’s preference should be acknowledged after a contest; the suitors agree in advance that her decision governs the contest’s result. By making both the manner of pursuit and the response to rejection part of the compact, the episode presents consent as a condition of courtship rather than a prize earned by the strongest or wealthiest suitor.