The Lady of the mythical North, Louhi or sometimes Loveatar is a very powerful character in the ancient Finnish mythology. By nature she is usually a malevolent caharacter of the wild, dark and cold North and an opponent to the Finnish mythical heroes.

The word louhi is also met in the Finnish word Louhikäärme (=Louhi-snake) meaning dragon. As a place the North is often equated with Tuonela, that is the World of the Dead.

In the Myth of the Nine Diseases Louhi is made pregnant by the north wind (in some versions by the god Tursas). She then gives birth to her nine sons. The children are born on a rock in a stream (The Stream of Tuonela) and Louhi then names the sons after diseases and misfortunes.

These sons are the demons causing all the diseases and misfortune in the world.

The names of the sons are the names of diseases used by common people of those days and as such rather vague. For instance there are Riisi which means rickets, Rutto (plague), Ajos (abscess) and also some very mystical names like Nuolennoutaja (Fetcher of the Arrow) and Syöjä (Eater).

When dealing with a sick person the sorcerer recited the spell Origin of the Nine Diseases in which the birth of the demons and their diseses are told.

This spell was regarded as a very powerful one and was sometimes refered as the Words of the Birth or the Origin of the Spell.