The archaic Finnish meal knows neither starter nor dessert: it is organized around a base of grain (barley, in the form of thick porridge or flatbread, *puuro* and *rieska*), supplemented by game from the arctic forests and fish from icy waters (§), then wild berries gathered in abundance. Everything is drunk with home-brewed beer or mead. At Pohjola, Queen Louhi sets the same table, but on the scale of a court banquet: what everywhere else is survival food becomes at her table a feast of power.

In a North without pepper or Eastern spices, the juniper berry and branch are THE flavor of Finnish-Karelian cuisine: they flavor mead and beer, they are used for smoking game and fish, they are rubbed onto barrel staves. At Louhi’s, juniper is also a plant of magic — purifying and protective smoke against spells.