The world of Among The Trolls is steeped in mystery - some gradually revealed through the story, others more deeply hidden within the forest. Uncovering them is a task for the most attentive explorers, who will slowly piece together details and tales from a distant past.
A lot of the characters in Among The Trolls are based on the stories in the Kalevala, an epic poem that Elias Lönnrot put together in the middle of the 19th century. He used traditional songs and folk poetry to put together the historical memory of the Finnish people, combining the cosmogonic origins and the mythological cycle into one work. These fascinating writings have been the focus of our in-depth study, to which - in some cases - we have added our own artistic interpretation, as many descriptions of certain entities leave plenty of room… for imagination.
Below, you’ll find some examples of the kind of notes you’ll be able to discover while exploring. Think of them as a small taste - full versions will be waiting for you directly in Among The Trolls. We hope these will spark your curiosity and evoke the sense of wonder we felt while we turned the pages and got lost in those mystical tales.
The air had a daughter: her name was Ilmatar. Weary of her days and lonesome in the wide halls of the gods, Ilmatar dove down into the wide, gleaming world below. When she descended from the high heavens into the sea, the waves embraced her, and in their union she became the Water-Mother, heavy with a child not yet born.
For nine ages Ilmatar drifted, her womb full, her spirit aching. She lifted her knee above the waters, and a goldeneye laid its eggs upon her. The heat of the nesting grew fierce: Ilmatar, wincing, shifted her knee, and the eggs tumbled into the waves. They shattered not into ruin, but into becoming. From their shards came the world.
From the darkness of Ilmatar’s womb, the unborn Väinämöinen wept and spoke to the gods, but they would not open the path. And so he opened it himself. For nine years he floated on the waves, old though newborn, until at last he touched land.
A sage from the moment of his first breath, with beard white as river-fog and eyes that had seen the shape of stars from within the womb. He wandered the newborn land alone, until he met Sampsa Pellervoinen, the Son of the Field.
Together they carved space for the seeds of life - cutting trees, sowing grain, calling forth the first harvests of the human age. And so Väinämöinen, son of the sea and of sky-born Ilmatar, became not just witness to the world, but its maker and its memory.