Metsänväen suojatti

Virkkunen, Elsa 1977
Illustrator Martta Wendelin

Little Sami is spending summer at Grandma’s and Grandpa’s house in the country. With them lives also Granpa’s dad. Grandma is baking bread indoors and tells Sami not to go anywhere from the front yard. Sami forgets this soon and walks into the forest.  Grandma notices this and panics. She looks for Sami in the well, the lake shore and then continues the search in the forest. 

 

She meets all forest animals and they help her, because she has always taken care of the injured animals. She also meets the daughters of Ahti, the god of water. She meets Tapio, the god of forest. Finally Tapio’s son shows her were Sami is. He is well, but he is sorry that he caused so much worries to his Grandma. All is well.

At first I thought the protégé is the boy, but maybe it is the grandma. She’s been so kind to the forest animals that the forest king wants to be kind to her by protecting her grandson. The illustrations are made by Martta Wendelin, who is one of the most respected illustrator of the 20^th century.