Editing Cosmic egg (section)

== Finnish mythology ==

In the [[Kalevala]], the [[national epic]] of [[Finnish mythology|Finland]], there is a myth of the world being created from the fragments of an egg. The [[goddess]] of the air, [[Ilmatar]], longed to have a son. To achieve this, she and the East Wind make love until she conceives [[Väinämöinen]], the child of the wind. However, she was not able to give birth to her child. A pochard swooped down and impregnated her: as a result, six golden cosmic eggs were birthed or laid, as well as an iron egg. The pochard took these eggs for himself and protected them by sitting on them, but this came with sitting on Ilmatar as well. Upon the movement of the air goddess, they rolled into the sea and the shell broke: the fragments formed heaven, earth, the sun, moon, stars, and (from the iron egg) a thundercloud.{{Sfn|Alcock|2007|p=21}}

The following is the [[List of Kalevala translations|translation]] of the part of the text describing the formation of the cosmos from the fragments of the egg, published by [[William Forsell Kirby]] in 1906:<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kalevala, The Land of the Heroes, Volume One |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25953/pg25953-images.html |access-date=2024-04-18 |website=Project Gutenberg |language=en}}</ref>

: In the ooze they were not wasted,
: Nor the fragments in the water,
: But a wondrous change came o'er them,
: And the fragments all grew lovely.
: From the cracked egg's lower fragment,
: Now the solid earth was fashioned,
: From the cracked egg's upper fragment,
: Rose the lofty arch of heaven,
: From the yolk, the upper portion,
: Now became the sun's bright lustre;
: From the white, the upper portion,
: Rose the moon that shines so brightly;
: Whatso in the egg was mottled,
: Now became the stars in heaven,
: Whatso in the egg was blackish,
: In the air as cloudlets floated.