Asteroid Louhi 3897, Narnia’s white witch

The blind daughter of Tuoni,
Old and wicked witch, Lowyatar,
Worst of all the Death-land women,…
Ugliest of Mana’s children,
Source of all the host of evils,
All the ills and plagues of Northland,
Black in heart, and soul, and visage,
Evil genius of Lappala,
Made her couch along the wayside,
On the fields of sin and sorrow;
Turned her back upon the East-wind,
To the source of stormy weather,
To the chilling winds of morning.

Louhi was called apon in spells to banish disease, by calling them back to her.  She ruled the land of Pohjola.

Different interpretations of the origins of the mythical Pohjola exist. One of them associates it with the Sami, the northern neighbours of the Finns. Some include parts of Lapland and ancient Kainuu in Kalevala’s Pohjola. Some point out a similarity with the name Pohjanmaa (Ostrobothnia in English), a region in western Finland. Pohjola has also been thought of as a purely abstract place, the source of evil — a foreboding, a forever cold land far in the north.

In Kalevala, the Mistress of Pohjola is Louhi, an evil witch of great power. The great smith Seppo Ilmarinen forges the Sampo at her request as a payment for the hand of her daughter in marriage. The Sampo is a magic mill of plenty like the Cornucopia, which churns out abundance, but its churning lid has also been interpreted as a symbol of the celestial vault of the heavens, embedded with stars, revolving around a central axis or the pillar of the world. Other Kalevala characters also seek marriage with the daughters of Pohjola. These include the adventurer Lemminkäinen and the great wise man Väinämöinen. Louhi demands deeds similar to the forging of Sampo from them, such as shooting the Swan of Tuonela. When the proposer finally gets the daughter, weddings and great drinking and eating parties are held at the great hall of Pohjola.

The foundation of the world pillar, also thought of as the root of the “world tree”, was probably located, from the Finnish mythological perspective, somewhere just over the northern horizon, in Pohjola. The pillar was thought to rest on the Pohjantähti or North Star (also known as the pole star in English). The forging and hoarding of the Sampo and its abundance by the witch Louhi inside a great mountain in the dark reaches of Pohjola; the struggle and war by the people of the south to free the Sampo and capture it for their own needs and the subsequent shattering of the Sampo and the loss of its all-important lid (which implies the breaking of the world tree at the north pole) together constitute the bulk of the Kalevala material.

Louhi sets us challenges, mythic quests and heroic adventures, where Louhi is in the chart we find our demons to battle, quests into foreign lands, illness to conquer, disbilities to overcome.  Louhi tests are strength and determination, she pushes us to show just how strong and resiliant we can be and in the end we are rewarded for that courage.  Like the Queen in Narnia Louhi gives us battles in which we find our true selves as sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve, embracing our divine heritage.