Wainamoinen's Mother's Magic Rake

Wainamoinen's Mother's Magic Rake is a purpose-built instrument of recovery: forged by Ilmarinen at Lemminkainen's mother's command, it lets her search the River of Tuoni for her missing son. Its extraordinary dimensions and the repeated labor of its use turn a blacksmith's work into the means by which a body is recovered from the domain of death.

Commission and Construction

Lemminkainen's mother brings her request to Ilmarinen, addressing him as a metal-artist and immortal blacksmith. Her appeal recalls his earlier acts of forging: he had made the earth's concave cover and had forged wonders the day before. That history establishes him as the smith capable of answering a task beyond ordinary workmanship. She now directs his skill toward a specific need: a rake with a copper shaft and teeth of the strongest metal.

The measurements make the requested tool monumental. Its teeth are a hundred fathoms long, while its handle is given as five hundred long. The passage does not specify a material for the teeth beyond their strength, nor does it explain a separate enchantment or magical mechanism. Its magic is associated with the metalwork and the work it is made to perform; the concrete design is a long shaft and an immense span of teeth, suited to searching river depths.

Ilmarinen carries out the order and completes the rake. The brief account of its making emphasizes both obedience to the mother's request and the completeness of the finished object: it is made in full perfection, ready to be used in the search.

Use in the Search

Lemminkainen's faithful mother takes the rake herself and works it through the bottom of the River of Tuoni. The search is not immediately successful. She rakes for a long time and finds nothing, then wades farther into the river and works across its shallows and depths from different angles. The tool's immense reach does not make recovery effortless; the passage makes the mother's persistence part of the action.

The decisive discovery comes on the third time she draws the rake from the river's shores and waters. Its metal teeth catch the body of Lemminkainen, entangled among them. The instrument thus does more than mark the mother's effort: its teeth physically bring the lost hero within reach. The narrative gives the discovery a precise point of arrival—the third sweep—after the earlier failures and continued searching.

Narrative Function

The rake joins Ilmarinen's craft to a mother's search in the realm of death. Its construction answers a request that ordinary human strength could not fulfill, but the recovery depends equally on the mother's repeated work: she takes the tool into the river, changes the depth and direction of her search, and draws it through the water again. The object is therefore both a product of exceptional smithing and an instrument put to practical use.

Its design also shapes the scene's suspense. The great length of the teeth and handle suggests a tool made to reach widely through the river, yet the first prolonged search yields nothing. Only on the third sweep does the rake catch Lemminkainen's body. The metal teeth, initially specified as a feature of manufacture, become the means of contact between the bereaved mother and the son she has been searching for.