223. What was Sampo?

... Called the winds to work the bellows // To the utmost of their power. // Then the winds arose in fury, // Blew the east wind, blew the west wind, // And the south wind yet more strongly, // And the north winds howled and blustered. Thus they blew one day, a second, // And upon the third day likewise. // Fire was flashing from the windows, // From the doors the sparks were flying // And the dust arose to heaven, // With the clouds the smoke was mingled.

Then again smith Ilmarinen, // On the evening of the third day, // Stooped him down, and gazed intently // To the bottom of the furnace, // And he saw the Sampo forming, // With its many-coloured cover.

The main feature of Sampo was evidently its cover which had many colours. From this we can deduce the Sun was present, because in the night only black, white, and shades of grey, were visible.

Up above the polar circle the Sun was in principle present during all the 24 hours of the day during the summer and absent all the 24 hours of the night in winter - although the declination of the observer would have defined where summer and winter began.

... In north Asia the common mode of reckoning is in half-year, which are not to be regarded as such but form each one separately the highest unit of time: our informants term them 'winter year' and 'summer year'. Among the Tunguses the former comprises 6½ months, the latter 5, but the year is said to have 13 months; in Kamchatka each contains six months, the winter year beginning in November, the summer year in May; the Gilyaks on the other hand give five months to summer and seven to winter. The Yeneseisk Ostiaks reckon and name only the seven winter months, and not the summer months.

This mode of reckoning seems to be a peculiarity of the far north: the Icelanders reckoned in misseri, half-years, not in whole years, and the rune-staves divide the year into a summer and a winter half, beginning on April 14 [4-14] and October 14 respectively. But in Germany too, when it was desired to denote the whole year, the combined phrase 'winter and summer' was employed, or else equivalent concrete expressions such as 'in bareness and in leaf', 'in straw and in grass' ...

More information follows, and we learn that this coloured cover had pictures on it:

Thereupon smith Ilmarinen, // He the great primeval craftsman, // Welded it and hammered at it, // Heaped his rapid blows upon it, // Formed with cunning art the Sampo.

And on one side was a corn-mill, // On another side a salt-mill, // And upon the third a coin-mill.

Now was grinding the new Sampo, // And revolved the pictured cover, // Chestfuls did it grind till evening, // First for food it ground a chestful, // And another ground for barter, // And a third it ground for storage.

Now rejoiced the Crone of Pohja, // And conveyed the bulky Sampo, // To the rocky hills of Pohja, // And within the Mount of Copper, // And behind nine locks secured it.

There it struck its roots around it, // Fathoms nine in depth that measured, // One in Mother Earth deep-rooted, // In the strand the next was planted, // In the nearest mount the third one.

Early I spent some time trying to understand whether the glyphs Aa1-13--36 described the cycle of the day or the cycle of the year, but then I realized that the pattern was the same and therefore these 24 glyphs could be used for both purposes. I.e., we could let them correspond to right ascension hours, for instance in this way: