Seppo Ilmarinen, the Eternal Hammerer, is an archetypal artificer from Finnish mythology. Immortal, he is capable of creating practically anything right down to animated creatures of metal, but is notoriously unlucky in love. He's described as working the known metals of the time, including brass, copper, iron, gold and silver. The great works of Ilmarinen include the Sampo and the dome of the sky; less great ones include crafting a golden robot wife to satisfy his sexual and other domestic needs since his nerdy traits failed to attract wives of the carnal kind. It didn't work out.

Some of Seppo's Myths

The sampo

Joukahainen , after challenging Väinämöinen to a singing contest songfight, had been tossed into a swamp where he was slowly drowning to death. He called out to Väinämöinen, apologizing for his mistake and promising his sister Aino 's "hands and feet" in marriage if Väinämöinen would save him. Väinämöinen agreed, but the deal hit a rough spot when Aino killed herself (by drowning, runs in the family) after she found out she'd been promised to Väinämöinen.

Luckily for Joukahainen, Louhi, mistress of the north sent her great bird Kokko to save Joukahainen. Once the bird had brought Joukahainen to her home in the north, he asked her if he could have a boat to get back to his home, Kalevala. Louhi promised to help him get home, but only if he would build her a sampo. Also, Louhi said that if she got a Sampo, she would wed HER daughter to Väinämöinen, thus getting Joukahainen into the clear with that old god once again.

Now, Joukahainen, a mere mortal, couldn't build a sampo. Luckily, though, he was friends with Seppo Ilmarinen, who could. Unfortunately, when Joukahainen went to ask Seppo, Seppo said he didn't WANT to build the sampo. Apparently, Väinämöinen had played a trick on Seppo, and Seppo was preoccupied with climbing to the top of a very tall tree to try to steal the moon.

Väinämöinen, probably wanting to get married already and be done with it, created a strong wind that blew Seppo all the way to Louhi in the north. The sampo fell out of Seppo's bag and fell at Louhi's feet, whereupon Seppo asked Louhi's daughter to marry him.

Louhi's daughter's reply? "I'm not going to marry you. If I did that, who would make the birds sing? Who would put the song in the cuckoo's throat and make it what it is?"

So, Seppo went back to his home minus one sampo.

And that is how Seppo lost his sampo.