Ilmatar

Ilmatar (pronounced [ˈilmɑtɑr]) is a virgin spirit and goddess of the air in the Finnish national epic Kalevala.

[1] The name Ilmatar is derived from the Finnish word ilma, meaning "air," and the female suffix -tar, corresponding to the English "-ess".

Jean Sibelius composed the Finnish epic tone poem Luonnotar, for soprano and orchestra in 1913.

In this work, the mythical origin of the land and sky (recounted in verses from the Kalevala) becomes an intense Sibelian metaphor for the inexorable force of terror of all creation.

As heard at the outset, these are the shimmering stirrings of ever-growing possibility; and, underpinned with dissonant, static, harp strokes, the even more incantatory, distressed cries of the "nature spirit" (Luonnotar) herself, heavy with child.