Mielikki Goddess of the Woodland

Fineliners, watercolours, watercolours and intense pencils, a little of gold and silver decoupage paint and whitish acrylic

"Pride of forests, queen of woodlands,
Metsola's enchanted hostess,
Lovely forest dame, Mielikki,
Mother-donor of the mountains"

Lemminkainen invocation of Mielikki in Rune XIV of Kalevala

Yey finally I made the colour I guess it's one of my most vivid and cheerful in hues watercolour painting Also probably not the the most in detailed, but I was afraid it would overwhelmed the picture other way.

As I said before Mielikki is Finnish goddess of Forest and Hunting. According to this story gold and silver was offered to her and she is connected to the bears, in creation of which she was deeply involved. She is also a skilled Healer and her name is derived from word "mielu" which meant "luck" .

Mielikki is also a NG goddess of Forgotten Realms, where she has similar domain and her symbol is "golden-horned, blue-eyed unicorn's head facing left". She is goddess of autumn, druids, dryads, ranger and her most famous worshipper is Drizzt Do'Urden.


John Martin Crawford in the preface of translation into English wrote:

"When the hunters were successful she was represented as beautiful and benignant, her hands glittering with gold and silver ornaments,
wearing ear-rings and garlands of gold, with hairbands silver-tinseled, on her forehead strings of pearls, and with blue stockings on her feet, and red strings in her shoes.
But if the game-bag came back empty, she was described as a hateful, hideous thing, robed in untidy rags, and shod with straw.
She carries the keys to the treasury of Metsola, her husband’s abode, and her bountiful chest of honey, the food of all the forest-deities, is earnestly sought for by all the weary hunters of Suomi."

For some reason I grew to like this goddess almost immediately as I learnt about her, so it really was my goal to make a picture of her, though of course it's not the book illustration, since there is a bit of my invention in her appearance.
BTW if You know about any figurine of her (in reasonable price), please let me know.