Vellamo
Also known as: Veden emäntä (Mistress of the Water)
Mythological Narrative
The mistress of the waters and wife of Ahti in Finnish runo-song, whose water-maidens appear in the Kalevala and who was asked for good fishing and calm seas.
Scholarly Commentary & Evolution
## Mistress of the water
In Finnish folk poetry and charms, Vellamo is the mistress of the waters (*veden emäntä*) and the wife of Ahti. She and her maidens, the water-maidens (*Vellamon neidot*), live in the depths, and fishermen addressed her for a good catch and for calm weather.
## In the Kalevala
Vellamo and her maidens appear among the water beings of the epic. In Rune 5 the drowned Aino has become one of Vellamo's water-maidens, and Vellamo is named again in the runes of the lost kantele (Runes 42 and 44); in Rune 41, the rune of Väinämöinen's music, an unnamed hostess of the waters rises to listen alongside Ahto. Lönnrot's use of her follows the folk poems' pairing of the water's king and queen.
## Evidence
Vellamo is not in Agricola's list but is attested in folk poetry and in Ganander's *Mythologia Fennica* (1789). The maritime museum center Vellamo in Kotka is named after her.
Academic Discussion & Critique
Exchange peer-reviewed hypotheses, comparative Indo-European etymologies, and archaeological field interpretations regarding Vellamo.
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