Original subtitles

In the beginning -

Earth's water was bound in minerals.

Water is thought to have originated from icy comets and meteors.

All of this the ancient Finns already knew.

The national epic, Kalevala -

describes how water originated in the mountains:

waters came down from the sky and grew beneath the rocky surface.

In the ice age, the northern hemisphere was covered by ice.

Movement of the ice carved out depths and its weight left depressions -

which would later form lakes.

There are around 190,000 lakes in Finland.

TALE OF A LAKE

The never-ending cycle of water is the basis of all life.

In Finnish mythology -

Vellamo is the goddess of water and Ahti the guardian of all waters.

Forever reborn in the bubbling spring water -

is Ahti and Vellamo's daughter, the tiny water spirit Ahitar.

She appears in a mist-

to watch over the water folk and guard the waters and shores.

The Arctic chars know when Ahitar's birth is near -

and rush to greet her as the clouds of mist clear.

Ahitar spends her early years in the spring -

raised by arctic chars.

Soon she befriends all the different plant and animal spirits.

According to the tale, water spirits grew up in the springs -

and learned to take care of the water folk.

When the water spirits were old enough -

the winter sky was lit up by northern lights in celebration.

After the ice melts water can flow freely, and it is time to move on -

toward the lake.

Nature knows something great and joyous is about to happen:

Ahitar, the tiny water spirit -

begins her first journey in the eternal cycle.

All the animals and plants were known to have their own guardian spirits -

who looked after their own.

Tapiotar was the guardian spirit of birds.

She waited in the open water -

and greeted the whooper swans arriving, trumpets blaring, -

on the icy runway.

Many Finnic people thought -

the swan was their divine ancestor.

They believed swans had been humans before breaking down to birds.

The European otter hunts in a large area.

Its territory can cover over 50 kilometers of waterways.

It lives in the water but also spends time on land.

The otter is a solitary creature.

Otters use their sensitive whiskers -

to help track fish even in the darkness of underwater ice.

Otters are playful animals that love to -

slide from one ice hole to another and downhill on their tummies.

The female looks after the offspring by herself.

The pups often stay with their mother for over a year.

Hillervo is the guardian spirit of otters

She sends her people to carry the message forward:

Ahitar is on her way to the lake.

Amphibians frogs were the first vertebrates to live on land -

yet they still return to the water to reproduce.

Toads can hibernate underwater -

since they can breathe through their skin as well as with their lungs.

Toads can live for over 50 years.

Toad wrestling matches commence in the spring -

following the rules of ancient Greek Olympics.

Soon though it starts to look more like freestyle wrestling.

The winner is awarded the fairest of all toads.

There aren't enough brides for everyone, though.

The battle-worn toad must crawl back to its solitary abode -

and wait for a whole year before spring and the next wrestling match.

Come springtime, the warm sun and the cold hard ice engage in battle.

Every year the ice has to surrender.

It then starts moving and forcing its way through everything -

until it softens and melts.

The elk have spent the winter together grazing in large herds.

In the spring they begin to make their way -

towards new pastures following their age-old routes.

Even large waterways cannot stop the elk.

In Finnish folk tales, the elk guardian spirit is called Laus.

He tends to the elk and breaks the herd into groups.

After having spent a long winter together -

friends must finally part ways.

Laus explains why some must cross the water -

while others stay behind.

Sufficient food must be available for everyone in the summer.

Perch and roach swim upstream to spawn.

Not everyone makes it, and only the strongest get to reproduce.

Some continue on, and others stay behind.

Only the cycle of water is never-ending.

In many ancient tales, the world is created from an egg.

In Kalevala, the egg's lower half becomes the earth -

and the upper half becomes the sky.

The yolk turns into the sun -

the white transforms into the moon -

all the coloured bits become the stars -

and the darker bits change into clouds in the sky.

From that same egg our whole world was hatched -

fish and birds were born too.

From the tiny egg hatched the brown trout fry -

the miracle of new life.

The water flows from the spring into streams and rivers, toward the lake.

One part of the water cycle is about to end.

As it flows, the water washes dirt away and is cleansed itself -

in rapids and strong currents -

grabbing some oxygen and nutrients on the way.

It is renewed.

The fresh, oxygen-rich water flows into the lake.

Shrouded by mist, Ahitar inspects her new home.

When the first morning dawns -

she sees how Päivätär, the mother of all living things -

directs life-giving sunlight onto the lake.

From her golden threads she weaves her beams of light.

The lake's ecosystems are powered by the sun.

All they need is just a few fractions of daylight.

The lake is an important part of the cycle of water -

which is why the water spirits -

had to make their home here.

People who lived close to nature understood -

that humans were a part of nature -

and needed to respect its delicate balance.

The eldest of the perch guides Ahitar and introduces the water folk to her.

The perch spawns over a long period of time -

from May to as late as July.

A large female perch can lay up to 50,000 eggs.

Right after spawning -

the new generation must be closely guarded.

The northern pike has always been an important fish for Finnish folk.

The mysterious pike -

was considered the king of fish.

According to an epic poem of its birth pikes came from the sky -

and brought fire and music to people.

People knew the pike's skull was made up of a hundred bones -

and each one was given a name and meaning when casting spells.

These days the skull bones are used to calculate the pike's age.

The black-throated loon is a very timid bird.

People believed the mysterious loon was a messenger of the gods -

and some even thought the dead could assume the shape of the bird -

and return to their families and ask for food.

Black-throated loons were thought to keep evil spirits away -

and so people would brush their cows with loon feathers -

to keep predators from attacking the herd.

No one knows why some birds gather in flocks -

and how their pecking order is established.

It's hard for a new member of the flock to be elected as the leader.

Birds are thought to have evolved -

from small dinosaurs that lived in the Jurassic period.

The scales became feathers to keep the dinosaur warm.

When their upper limbs became stronger and their bones hollow -

the feather-covered creatures took to the skies.

Water birds have played a crucial part in the lives of ancient Finns.

Birds carried messages from gods -

but were also an important source of food.

People welcomed returning migratory birds after a food-scarce winter.

Water birds appear in rock paintings thousands of years old.

The miraculous origin of the world -

life hatched from an egg, is repeated in the life of a bird.

It takes a very little time before the water bird chicks -

are ready to leave the nest after hatching.

On land the chicks would be easy prey.

They are safer on water.

They must, however, learn to respect the water territories of other birds.

It would be foolish to go near a red-throated loon's home.

It is said that the bear was born where the moon lives -

in the heart of day on the Big Dipper's shoulder.

From there, it was lowered onto the Earth -

in a golden cradle hanging from a silver sling.

White-tailed eagles wear five different suits during their lives:

four suits in their youth and one for old age.

In many stories, the eagle acts as a messenger -

and in Kalevala it rescues Väinämöinen -

and helps other heroes as needed.

Lake shores are a haven for many insects.

The metamorphosis, when they migrate from water to land is fascinating.

The dragonfly is a magical creature -

that has lived on the earth for hundreds of millions of years.

It spends a great part of its life underwater -

as a monstrous larva that feeds on other underwater creatures.

Mosquito eggs hatch in the water, and they become swimming larvae.

The larvae breathe through the surface -

using a thin tube that protrudes from their rear end.

Insects born in water need to be reborn into a whole new world -

with completely different laws for life.

These insects change from divers into fliers.

They become airborne in order to reproduce and lay eggs.

From the water, a new cycle of life begins once again.

Without insects there would be no birds:

they live side by side in nature's delicate balance.

Water striders have measured -

the span of the lake many times -

while others beneath the surface -

such as polyps and moss animals are left far behind.

The beaver is known as an ecosystem engineer -

because its purpose in life is to build.

It makes its environment ideal for the preservation of its own species -

by building clams and creating a fine nest inside a water enclosure.

The dams can be several metres high and tens of metres long.

For rafting timber, beavers also build channels -

that can reach hundreds of metres in length.

When threatened, the beaver may stay underwater for as long as 15 minutes.

Its body functions slow down.

This is made possible by a diving reflex many mammals carry -

as a legacy from a time when their ancestors still lived in the water.

A beaver family sometimes include offsprings from the previous year.

As many as ten beavers may live together in the same nest.

As autumn comes, Tapiotar, the guardian spirit of birds -

gathers her flocks and directs them due south for the winter.

It is time to bid a touching farewell to the summer and its bustling life.

One can also hear joy and eagerness in the flocks' farewell calls.

The water folk say good bye -

to a summer bright and vibrant with life -

seeking peace and quiet as the nights get darker.

They need not go far from their home lake.

They can seek shelter in the nooks and crevices of the deep.

According to ancient wisdom, the birds' guardian spirits told them -

when the time was right to migrate -

and they also guided the birds along the journey.

Come spring, they would show the way back north to the nesting grounds.

The guardian spirits may acually be the earth's magnetic fields.

Birds can sense the lines of force and navigate by them.

In the autumn, the brown trout leave the lakes -

and swim upstream towards gravelly patches where they can spawn.

They travel from lakes far along the rivers -

to where they have spawned since times immemorial.

There they were born, and there they will return each autumn.

The guardian spirit of the trout was thought to be related to Tapiotar -

who gathered the migratory birds for their journey south.

Trout spawning is a secret ritual -

no one knew much about.

It takes place in the bottom of fast- flowing streams, unseen by humans.

The spawning dance of trout celebrates life.

Flowing water sets the rhythm -

as couples find their way to the gravelly dance floor -

and females pick their partners for a dance.

Waters cool down and all movement becomes slower.

Waters get heavier as the temperature drops -

reaching their heaviest at four degrees Celsius.

The four-degree water sinks to the bottom of the lake -

lifting colder water upwards towards the surface.

Water is the only substance -

that is lighter when frozen solid than as a liquid.

Even though the northern pike was considered the leader of all fish -

it was also labelled as a "wolf of the waters".

The water wolf was known as the pike of the underworld -

an omen of death.

Shamans of Lapland believed that bad souls ended up in pikes' bowels -

and therefore wouldn't eat pike.

The pike played a significant part in the mythology of ancient Finns.

It could traverse between the worlds of the living and the dead.

It would swim through the deepest of depths into the underworld, Tuonela -

but one of Kalevala's heroes, Ilmarinen, could catch it there.

Viimatar arrives and brings winter with her.

Everything above the ice stops -

and even beneath the surface life is much slower.

Everyone has time to dwell on their own thoughts.

When winter is coming, the northern pike swims into the depths.

Somewhere deep in the cold, beneath the ice, lies Tuonela -

the realm of death watched over by its armoured guards.

The eternal current of living water flows through even Tuonela -

and that is why no one needs to stay there forever.

The power of flowing water always brings life with it.

Viimatar grows an ever stronger roof of ice on the lake's surface.

When water takes its icy form -

its power shapes and erodes the earth's crust.

The ice age tore grooves into a bedrock billions of years in age -

and brought with it ridge gravel and erratic boulders -

that would divide bodies of water.

Deep beneath the ice -

one finds more evidence of the power of water.

Rapids have shaped river bottoms anew.

Flowing water has proved even more powerful than rock.

Life forms long since extinct have also been preserved -

within rock layers.

There, somewhere deep in the underworld beyond consciousness -

lay also the place from which ancient Finns received their secret skills.

Winter is building ice roofs on rapids -

creating halls of ice where the union of water and air is celebrated.

Flowing water and cold air are joined here.

New life is revealed from underneath wintery banks of snow.

A seal pup has been born in a snow cave -

and now it is time for it to venture out into the wide world.

Saimaa ringed seals give birth in midwinter so they take shelter -

in a shoreline snow cave with access to water through a hole in the ice.

The mother uses its front flippers to dig out a cave from the hole -

undetectable until springtime, when its roof collapses.

By then the ringed seal pup -

is big enough to manage by itself in the water.

There are only about three hundred Saimaa ringed seals in the world -

and they all live in Lake Saimaa.

Saimaa ringed seals are fully adapted to living in the water -

but because they are mammals, they have to surface to breathe.

They must also maintain breathing holes in the ice during wintertime.

These ringed seal can stay submerged for as long as half an hour.

The rest of nature still waits for spring to awaken life in the lake:

for millions of fish spawn to mature into new generations -

for birds to arrive from the south, for nesting to begin -

for eggs to grow into bird families.

Even though ice still covers the lake -

the small ringed seal pup underneath it brings with it a promise:

the cycle of water will always continue.

The morning mist arises from the lake -

and with it Ahitar takes to the skies.

As it evaporates and rises ever higher, the water is purified.

Thunder and lightning rid the water of dirt -

and Ahitar is likewise cleansed.

Coming full circle, the water returns to the earth and forests -

and Ahitar rains down from the misty clouds -

and back into the spring where she was born.

There she is reborn new and pure so that she may start another journey.

Old friends are waiting in the spring.

Subtitles: BTI Studios