The image of a mythical country Pohjola in Karelian epic runes

The article considers the mythological sources of Pohjola image and contains a holistic description of this locus based on all available versions of epic runes. The Kalevala metric runes (234 texts) gathered in different years in Karelia and published in several collections, are used as a research material. The history of studying of the storyline of the trip to Pohjola, in one way or another touched upon in the works of foreign and Russian researchers, is described in the article. The textological and structural-semantic analysis of folklore texts, some of which form part of Lönnrot's Kalevala, made it possible to reveal the entire polysemy of the image under consideration. The study indicated that Pohjola is identified with a far, transcendental world, the realm of the dead and the land of exuberancy. The talent of the mistress of Pohjola to become a bird alludes to her connection with the animal world, as well as the connection with the image of a shaman who in the likeness of a bird is able to travel from one world to another. The female nature of the main character of Pohjola reflects the matriarchal tribal system of society, and the motif of giving her daughter in marriage to a representative of another world - reveals the echoes of exogamous relations. Pohjola is localized in the spatial plane mainly separated by the watershed that fits into the concept of a horizontal arrangement of the Universe.