Originally, Sibelius intended to title the work Väinämöinen, after the character in the Kalevala (the Finnish national epic).

[4] The passage in the Kalevala that inspired this work is in the 8th Runo, known in various English translations as "The Wound"[5] or "Väinämöinen and the Maiden of North Farm".

[6] The tone poem depicts the "steadfast, old," white-bearded Väinämöinen, who spots the beautiful "daughter of the North (Pohjola)", seated on a rainbow, weaving a cloth of gold while he is riding a sleigh through the dusky landscape.

Väinämöinen asks her to join him, but she replies that she will only leave with a man who can perform a number of challenging tasks, such as tying an egg into invisible knots and, most notably, building a boat from fragments of her distaff.

Pohjola's Daughter is scored for a large orchestra: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet in B♭, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns in F, 2 cornets in B♭, 2 trumpets in B♭, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, harp, and strings.