Taivaankannen Kannattelija

24 x 35 cm ✦ Watercolour and gouache on paper

Taivaankannen kannattelija is Finnish for "one that carries the sky", an old nickname for the crane. It has earned this name for it's proud posture, as if it's holding up the entire sky.

Fun fact: the Milky Way is linnunrata in Finnish, which roughly translates into "path of the bird". This word has it's roots in the ancient Finno-Ugric people's beliefs, according to which birds could travel along the Milky Way to deliver messages between our world and the gods.