THE LEGEND OF THE GUARDIAN OF VONKALE

On a windy night a long time ago, a tired man was rowing from lake Päijänne upstream to lake Keitele. With his persistence, he overcame the tiredness of his mind and gripped the handles of the oars even tighter, fighting the strong current. He barely made it up the Äänekoski rapids, but it finally got easier when he reached the Häränvirta stream.

The man climbed onto a small island and immediately fell asleep on a bed of moss. He slept through three whole days before resting his eyes on the beautiful sight over lake Keitele on the third day. Everything was perfect, so he decided to settle at the edge of these waters.

And so the settler, Untamoinen, enjoyed his life at lake Keitele, fishing and looking for the biggest whopper of a fish to be caught. After checking the fishing grounds in Korpiselkä and Kaisansaari, he reached the shores of Pökönlahti bay when the wind suddenly picked up. He threw his bait into the water towards the rocks around Talassaret islands when suddenly his rod bent into an arch and the tense line howled; a pike had taken the bait. The beast shot into the depths and pulled the boat behind it. Waves danced around the boat when the pike stopped and stayed at the bottom of the lake.

What on earth could he do to land the fish, he wondered. Nothing he tried would work and the fish simply stayed at the bottom of the lake, and finally Untamoinen turned the fish into a stone with his singing and placed it on the shore, next to a rock. Nevertheless, the fish had already laid eggs in the rushes and its offspring lived on in the lake while the mother fish had been turned into a stony mound at the edge of water. The master of the waters, Ahti, was pleased and thanked his lucky stars.

Once, when he was trolling on the shores of Pökönlahti bay, a spot where mighty ancient pines reached for the sky caught Untamoinen’s eye. Looking carefully, he was able to discern the nest of an osprey up among the treetops. What was that tranquil-looking place that must have been praised by many a fisherman who mentioned another whopper of a fish, Vonkale? That was a place he would like to stay in.

And so the new fisherman on lake Keitele called Untamoinen settled in the attic of the dark and rugged Vonkale boathouse. It was his habit to take his fishing rod, sit down and lazily lean on the textured bark of an old pine tree while keeping an eye on the scenery and waiting for the cork to stir.