The Kalevala

In primeval times a maiden, Beauteous Daughter of the Ether, wearies of solitude in heaven and descends to the ocean. A storm-wind from the East tosses her; through union of force and beauty she becomes overburdened and swims as water-mother for seven hundred years, unable to deliver her first-born. She weeps and prays to Ukko for deliverance. A duck descends, finds no nesting place until the maiden raises her knee; the duck lays six golden eggs and one of iron, and hatches them. The heat makes the maiden shake; the eggs fall and break, their fragments forming earth, heaven, sun, moon, stars, and clouds. The water-mother then shapes hillocks, deeps, banks, bays, rocks, reefs, and islands. Wainamoinen, still unborn, lingers thirty summers and winters, prays to Moon, Sun, and Bear, who refuse; he bursts the portals himself, swims for years, and reaches a promontory, delivered from his mother Ilmatar. On the island Wainamoinen considers who should sow it, and Pellerwoinen, called Sampsa, scatters seeds and trees. All grow except the oak. Wainamoinen sees water-maidens mowing; the giant Tursas presses the grasses, which burn to ashes, and plants an acorn from which a huge oak grows, blocking sun and moon. Wainamoinen prays to Kape/Luonnotar; a small copper-clad hero rises from the ocean, grows into a giant, and fells the oak. Its chips float to Pohyola, where Northland's maiden gathers them for arrows. Forests and birds return, but barley will not grow. Wainamoinen finds barley seeds, clears the forest, leaves the birch standing; the eagle burns the trees. He sows and prays to earth and Ukko, who sends rain. The barley grows, and he bids the cuckoo sing for Kalevala.

Wainamoinen sings ancient legends on the meadows of Wainola and plains of Kalevala, and the fame of his singing spreads to the South and throughout Northland. In Northland, Youkahainen, feasting, hears that a sweeter singer lives in Wainola. Growing envious, he hastens to his mother and vows to go south to challenge Wainamoinen. His father and mother warn him against it, saying Wainamoinen will bewitch him, but Youkahainen dismisses their counsel and boasts he will transform the singer. He harnesses his courser and drives three days north. On the highway he collides with Wainamoinen, damaging both sledges. Wainamoinen asks who he is; Youkahainen answers and demands the same. Wainamoinen claims seniority; Youkahainen says the wiser singer keeps the road and proposes a contest. Wainamoinen accepts. Youkahainen recites bits of learning about fires, fish, plowing, trees, and waterfalls; Wainamoinen calls these children's tales and asks about creation. Youkahainen recites more, then claims he was present at creation. Wainamoinen names him prince of liars. Youkahainen offers sword combat; Wainamoinen refuses to fight one so paltry. Youkahainen threatens to transform him, and Wainamoinen, angered, sings until mountains tremble, transforming Youkahainen's sledge, whip, steed, sword, bow, arrows, dog, cap, gauntlets, garments, and girdle, and sinking him into quicksand. Youkahainen offers cross-bows, shallops, stallions, gold, silver, and corn-fields as ransom; Wainamoinen refuses each. Finally Youkahainen offers his sister Aino as bride, which Wainamoinen accepts, then sings to free him. Youkahainen drives home heavy-hearted, breaking his sledge. He tells his mother he promised Aino to Wainamoinen; the mother rejoices. Aino weeps over lost youth and beauty; her mother tells her to cease grieving.

After the night, the maiden, sister of Youkahainen, goes early to the forest to gather birch shoots for brooms, binding bundles for her father, mother, and sister. Returning homeward, she is spied by the ancient Wainamoinen, who addresses her as Aino and bids her wear her golden cross, pearls, and braids only for him. Aino refuses, throws away her gold cross, jewels, necklace, and ribbons into the forest, and hastens home. Weeping, she answers in turn her father whittling an ax-helve, her brother carving an ox-bow, her sister weaving a girdle, and finally her mother skimming cream, recounting the encounter with Wainamoinen. The mother tells her to weep no more, to eat butter, bacon, and dainties, and to fetch from the mountain store-house six golden girdles and seven dresses woven by the Moon's and Sun's daughters, recounting how she once received silver and gold from them. Aino ignores this counsel, weeps in the courtyard, and laments; she reveals she has been promised to aged Wainamoinen, wishing rather to drown as the fishes' sister. She dresses in the ornaments, wanders three days singing of going to Tuoni's kingdom, and reaches the sea-shore. She joins water-maidens, disrobes, hangs her garments, swims to a rainbow-colored rock, which crashes and sinks, drowning her. As she sinks she sings warnings to father, mother, brother, and sister never to fish, bake, water horses, or wash there. The hare is chosen to bear the tidings, reaching the bath-house maidens, and tells of Aino's death. The mother weeps, warning mothers never to force unwilling daughters. Her tears form streamlets, torrents, rocks, hillocks, and birches where three cuckoos call "Love," "Suitor," and "Consolation."

Tidings spread of Aino's flight and death, sister of Youkahainen. Wainamoinen weeps and hastens to the waters, asking Untamo where Wellamo's maidens dwell; Untamo describes the sea-maids' island home. Wainamoinen takes fishing tackle in his copper boat, rows to the island, and angles many days until he lands a magic fish. Admiring it, he draws his silver knife to carve it for meals, but the fish leaps back into the water, rises, and chides him. He asks why it came; the fish answers it came to be his wife and companion, then reveals itself as Aino, Youkahainen's youngest sister, rebuking him for trying to kill her. Wainamoinen begs her to return; she refuses and dives away. He draws his net through many waters seeking Aino, catches many fish but not her, and laments his folly. Departing homeward, he laments the silenced cuckoo and wishes his mother were living to advise him. His mother wakes from her tomb and counsels him to go to Northland and court the Suomi daughters, fairer than Aino. Wainamoinen arranges a journey north, saddles his royal racer, and rides to the blue-sea's margin. Youkahainen, nursing envy, fashions a cruel cross-bow and poisoned arrows steeped in serpent's blood, and waits long. Spying Wainamoinen riding, he grasps the bow. His mother asks whose death he intends; he names Wainamoinen. She forbids it, calling Wainamoinen her sister's son. Youkahainen hesitates, then shoots three arrows: the first flies over Wainamoinen's head, the second strikes the earth, the third strikes his steed. Wainamoinen falls into the water, and a storm-wind bears him out to sea. Youkahainen boasts, tells his mother he has slain Wainamoinen, and she laments.

Wainamoinen, old and truthful, swims the deep-sea waters six days and nights, then two more; on the eighth day he grows disheartened, his toe-nails and fingers dying, and laments forsaking home for a maiden. An eagle from Pohyola accosts him, and Wainamoinen recounts how Youkahainen slew his steed and a storm-wind washed him seaward. The eagle, recalling that Wainamoinen left a birch standing for birds, carries him to Sariola, then departs. Wainamoinen weeps three days and nights. Northland's maiden, having wagered with Sun and Moon, rises early, shears six lambkins, does chores, and hears his weeping. Louhi, hostess of Pohyola, rows to him, comforts him, and asks his folly; he names himself the Singer of Northland. She takes him home, feeds and warms him. He declines her invitation to stay, longing for his own country. Louhi offers to return him if he forges the Sampo, promising her daughter; Wainamoinen says he cannot but will send Ilmarinen. Louhi sends him off in a sledge, warning him not to look upward. Driving homeward, Wainamoinen hears a loom and sees the Maid of the Rainbow weaving on heaven's arch. He asks her to his sledge to be his wife; she recounts a thrush's song praising maiden-freedom over marriage. She sets tasks—splitting a golden hair with edgeless knives, snaring an invisible egg, peeling sandstone, cutting an ice whip-stick—all of which he accomplishes. Finally she demands a boat built from spindle-splinters. While building, Hisi and Lempo turn his axe, cutting his knee; blood gushes. He addresses the hatchet, sings incantations of iron's origin, and gathers moss, but fails to stop the flow. Driving to a three-parted road, he seeks a healer; a boy and a witch send him onward, and an old man speaks of greater things done through the master's three words.

Wainamoinen, encouraged, rises in his snow-sledge, goes to a cottage, and takes a seat. Two maids bring silver pitchers and golden goblets and dip up a little of Wainamoinen's blood. From the fireplace an old gray-beard asks who he is and how much blood he has lost, then asks him to sing the origin of iron. Wainamoinen answers, telling how air is the oldest mother, water the oldest brother, fire the second, iron the youngest, and Ukko the first creator. Ukko separates air and water, rubs his hands on his knee, and three maidens arise as mothers of iron, sprinkling black, white, and red milk to make three kinds of iron. Iron visits Fire, his elder brother, who tries to consume him; Iron flees and hides in swamps. The blacksmith Ilmarinen is born, builds his smithy, finds the iron in wolf- and bear-tracks, and addresses the sleeping iron, promising it will not be harmed. Iron enters the furnace but screams; Ilmarinen tells it it will slay heroes. Iron vows never to harm its kindred. Ilmarinen forges tools but cannot harden steel. He makes lye from birch ashes, then asks a bee to bring honey. Hisi's hornet instead brings venom of serpent, adder, spider, and insects. Ilmarinen, thinking it honey, tempers the steel, which then rages and cuts its brother, causing blood to flow. This is the origin of iron. The gray-beard curses iron, recounts its lowly past, and blames iron itself. He commands the blood to cease through magic, invoking Hisi's irons and Ukko. The blood stops. The gray-beard sends his son for balsam; the son gathers herbs, tests the balm on a birch and broken granite, and brings it back. The old man anoints Wainamoinen, who suffers pain, then heals. Wainamoinen praises Ukko.

Wainamoinen harnesses his copper-colored steed to a snow-sledge and journeys three days to the bridge of Osmo and the plains of Kalevala, cursing the Laplander who said he would never see home again. He sings up a wondrous pine-tree reaching the heavens, then sings the Moon and the Great Bear into its branches. He travels homeward, having promised Ilmarinen as ransom to save himself from Northland. Hearing hammering, he enters the smithy and finds Ilmarinen, who welcomes him and asks where he has been. Wainamoinen tells of his wanderings, then describes the maiden of Pohyola and urges Ilmarinen to forge the Sampo and win her. Ilmarinen refuses to go to Northland. Wainamoinen tells of the blooming fir-tree; doubting, Ilmarinen goes to see it, climbs it at Wainamoinen's bidding, and Wainamoinen sings a storm-wind that carries him to Sariola. Louhi meets him, asks his identity and about Ilmarinen; he names himself. Louhi bids her daughter dress, then feeds Ilmarinen and asks him to forge the Sampo from swan feathers, milk, barley, and wool, promising her daughter. Ilmarinen agrees, builds a smithy on a rainbow-colored rock. His hirelings work the bellows; the fire yields a crossbow, a skiff, a heifer, and a plow, each ill-natured, which he breaks and returns to the furnace. Using the winds, on the third night the Sampo rises with its many-colored lid, grinding flour, salt, and money. Louhi locks it within a mountain with nine locks and three roots. Ilmarinen asks the maiden to come; she refuses. Dejected, he receives a boat and North-wind from Louhi, and returns home. Wainamoinen asks if he forged the Sampo; Ilmarinen answers that Louhi has the Sampo, but he has not the bride.

The rune opens by announcing the singing of Ahti, son of Lempo, called Kaukomieli, also known as Lemminkainen, king of the islands, who fed on salmon and whiting and became a hero but had failings, roaming among merry maidens. In Sahri lives the maiden Kyllikki (Kulli), praised throughout Ehstland and wooed from afar. For his son the Day-star wooes her, but she refuses Sun-land; the bright Moon wooes for his son, she refuses Moon-land; the Night-star wooes, she refuses Star-land; suitors from Ehstland and Ingern she also refuses. Lemminkainen undertakes to win her. His mother warns against wooing a maiden of higher station and predicts the Sahri suitors will slay him; he disregards her and drives to Sahri. The women mock him as he upsets in the gateway. He asks about dances, the maidens answer, and he enters service as a shepherd, winning over the women—all except Kyllikki, who rejects him, wishing for a slender, tall husband. Later, at a dancing evening, Lemminkainen seizes Kyllikki into his sledge and gallops home, warning the maidens not to tell. Kyllikki weeps, pleads for freedom, and threatens her seven brothers; he does not heed. He reassures her he will not harm her, offering cattle and home, and speaks of his sword and spear. She asks him to swear never to go to war; he swears, and asks her to swear never to attend village dances. Both vow before Ukko. He bids farewell to Sahri and drives home. Kyllikki laments the cold cottage; he promises better dwellings. His mother remarks on his long absence; he explains he brought the best maiden. The mother praises Ukko, extols the bride, and asks that the cottage be enlarged.

Lemminkainen, also called Kaukomieli and Ahti, lives contentedly with his young wife Kyllikki, neither thinking of battles nor dances. Once he goes fishing and stays out; Kyllikki goes to a village dance. Ahti's sister Ainikki brings the news to Lemminkainen. Dejected and angry, he asks his mother to wash his linen in serpent blood, declaring he will go to war in Lapland because Kyllikki went dancing. Kyllikki begs him not to go and tells a dream of fire rising from the chimney; Lemminkainen distrusts dreams and women and asks for his copper mail. His mother pleads, offers beer, then gold and silver found in a field; he refuses each, wanting war-won silver. He mentions a maid in Pimentola who scorns suitors. His mother warns of Pohya-witchcraft. Lemminkainen recounts once being bewitched by three Lapland wizards, whom he sang into the ocean. His mother still warns of destruction, saying he cannot speak the Tury-language. Combing his hair, he throws the brush and says misfortune will come when blood flows from it. He arms himself, takes a sword ground by Tuoni, invokes heroes, Hisi, Wellamo, and Ukko for protection. He drives his stallion three days to a Northland village. He asks who can unharness his horse; a babe says no one, then a witch answers with threats. He silences a watch-dog through Hisi and Lempo; a pigmy unhitches his horse. Hearing Lapland songs, he changes form and enters. The hostess of Pohyola questions him. Lemminkainen begins his incantations, singing and banishing the singers and heroes to torment, sparing only the old blind shepherd Nasshut. Nasshut, angry, goes to the death-land, Tuoni's kingdom and Manala, to wait for Lemminkainen.

The ancient Lemminkainen asks Louhi, hostess of Pohyola, to give him her fairest daughter. Louhi refuses, noting he already took Kyllikki. Lemminkainen answers that he now wishes a better hostess. Louhi sets a condition: she will give her daughter if he brings the wild-moose from Hisi's fields. Lemminkainen prepares his javelins, bow, and arrows, but lacks snow-shoes. He goes to Kauppi, called Lylikki, the snow-shoe artist, asking him to make snow-shoes. Lylikki warns the hunt is vain, but Lemminkainen insists, and Lylikki fashions the snow-shoes over fall and winter. Lemminkainen boasts nothing can outrun him. Hisi and Juutas hear this and create a magic wild-moose from wood, plants, and grasses, instructing it to flee and exhaust its pursuer. The moose runs through Pohyola's courtyards, upsetting kettles, causing uproar. Lemminkainen pursues far, through Kalma and Tuoni's realms, then to a distant Lapland corner, where he asks about the uproar and learns the moose passed. He summons Lapland's might, catches the moose, binds it, and speaks of resting with his maiden. The angered moose breaks free. Lemminkainen chases again, breaking his snow-shoes, javelins, and snow-staff, and laments his recklessness.

Lemminkainen, disheartened, considers whether to abandon the wild-moose in Hisi's fastnesses and return to Kalevala, or to hunt it a third time and return victorious to Louhi's home. Taking courage, he prays to Ukko to make his snow-shoes swift for his journey, and he greets the mountains, vales, forests, and fir-trees. He appeals to Tapio, to Nyrikki to mark the paths, to Mielikki the forest-mistress to open Tapio's chambers, and to Tapio's daughter to play her flute so the mistress awakens. Lemminkainen journeys until he reaches Big-stone mountain and sees the Tapio-mansion with golden doors. Approaching, he finds the forest-dames in ragged linens and urges the forest hostess to don festive raiment. He addresses the sable-bearded god of forests, asks Tulikki to drive the game toward him, and requests the gods to guide the moose over obstacles and rivers. He offers to exchange his gold and silver. Singing through the woodlands, he drives the moose home, casts his lasso over the blue-moose, and captures it. Rejoicing, he offers Mielikki her promised gold and silver. He then goes to Pohyola and asks Louhi for her daughter. Louhi demands he bridle the flaming horse of Hisi. Lemminkainen seeks the fire-breathing stallion, prays to Ukko for hail, which Ukko sends, then bridles the horse and rides it to Sariola. Again he asks Louhi for her daughter; she now demands he kill the swan in Tuoni's river with one crossbow and one arrow. Lemminkainen journeys there. Nasshut, the blind shepherd of Pohyola, sends a serpent into Lemminkainen's heart. Dying, Lemminkainen laments not heeding his mother and calls for her. Nasshut throws him into Tuonela's river, where Tuoni's son chops him into five pieces, casting them into Manala. Thus Lemminkainen dies.

Lemminkainen's aged mother roams anxiously, wondering about her son's fate in Pohyola. Kyllikki, his wife, watches his hair-brush and sees blood oozing from its bristles, and declares her husband dead or wounded. The mother sees the bleeding brush and wails, then clutches her garment and journeys northward, mountains trembling under her feet. Reaching the Northland village, she asks Louhi where her son is. Louhi first says she gave him a courser and he may have drowned or been eaten by wolves or bears; the mother calls this falsehood. Threatening to destroy the Sampo, she presses again; Louhi says she placed him in a copper boat. The mother threatens plagues; Louhi tells the truth: she sent him to Hisi's fields to hunt the moose and fire-horse, then to Tuoni's death-stream to shoot a swan as dowry. The mother seeks him, questioning the trees, the pathways, and the Moon, who all refuse; the Sun answers that Lemminkainen perished in Tuoni's river. She has Ilmarinen forge a copper rake, prays to the Sun to lull Manala asleep, and rakes the death-stream, finding his tunic, shoes, and finally his body, missing parts and life. The raven advises casting him into the waters; she refuses, rakes up the remaining parts, reassembles him, and prays to Suonetar, an ether-maiden, and Ukko. Life returns but not speech. She sends the bee for honey from Metsola, then across seven oceans, then to Ukko's seventh heaven; the Creator's balsam heals him. Waking, Lemminkainen names Nasshut, the shepherd of Sariola, as the one who sent a serpent through him. His mother rebukes him and tells the serpent's origin from Suoyatar. She counsels him to abandon the swan and maiden and return to Kalevala; he goes home.

Wainamoinen, the ancient minstrel, works lumber for a boat on a sea-point island but lacks beams and timber. Sampsa Pellerwoinen goes to seek the needful wood, carrying a golden axe and copper hatchet. He meets an aspen seven fathoms high; the aspen asks what he needs, and when told it is for Wainamoinen's boat, it says boats made from it fail and sink, being hollow and worm-eaten. Sampsa leaves it and meets a pine fourteen fathoms high, which likewise says its ships are unworthy and ravens nest in it. He then meets an oak three fathoms round, which agrees to furnish sound wood. Sampsa fells the oak and fashions lumber. Wainamoinen builds the boat by singing, but three master-words are lacking to finish the ledges, stern, and forecastle. Searching for the lost-words, he kills swans, gray-ducks, and swallows, then reindeer and squirrels, without success. He journeys to Tuoni's kingdom, Manala. He calls for Tuoni's daughter to bring a boat; she questions why he comes. He lies four times—saying Tuoni, iron, water, and fire brought him—and she refutes each. Finally he tells the truth about his broken sledge-song, and she rows him across. Tuonetar offers him beer filled with frogs, serpents, and worms, which he refuses. She waves a wand of slumber over him. Mana's son with iron fingers sets copper nets across the river to trap him. Wainamoinen wakes, changes into a serpent, and slips through the nets, escaping. He thanks Ukko for protection and instructs the people of Kalevala to obey parents, avoid falsehood and cruelty, lest they suffer in Manala.

Wainamoinen, old and truthful, does not learn the words of magic in Tuoni's regions, in Manala. He debates where to find the magic sayings until a shepherd tells him a hundred words wait in the mouth of wise Wipunen, reached by a path over needle-points, sword-edges, and hatchet-edges. Wainamoinen goes to Ilmarinen and asks him to forge iron shoes, copper gloves, and a metal staff. Ilmarinen says Wipunen died long ago and cannot teach him, but Wainamoinen, undiscouraged, journeys three days over the needles, broadswords, and hatchets. He finds Wipunen lying with trees grown over him, and fells the aspen, birch, alder, willow, fir, and oak from him. He thrusts his iron staff into Wipunen's mouth and commands him to wake. Wipunen bites the staff, cannot break the steel, and Wainamoinen stumbles into his mouth; Wipunen swallows him. Wipunen remarks he has eaten many things but nothing sweeter. Wainamoinen builds a boat from his birch-handled poniard and rows through Wipunen's entrails, then forges within the hero's body using his armor for a smithy. Wipunen, tormented, questions the monster and delivers a long series of incantations naming the evil's possible origins and commanding it to flee to countless distant places, offering steeds and snow-shoes for its departure, and invoking Ukko. Wainamoinen answers that he will stay, feeding on Wipunen's tissues, until he learns the lost-words. Wipunen opens his store of knowledge and sings the origins of creation for three days. Having learned the sayings, Wainamoinen asks to leave; Wipunen opens his mouth and blesses him. Wainamoinen returns to Ilmarinen, reports his learning, completes the boat by magic, finishing the third task for Pohyola's hostess.

Wainamoinen considers how to woo the daughter of the hostess of Pohyola. He decorates his magic vessel, raises masts and sails, and sails northward, praying to Ukko for protection and asking the winds to bear him. Annikki, Ilmarinen's sister, washing clothes on the shore, sees something on the sea and guesses it is geese, fish, or a floating cliff. Recognizing an enchanter's vessel, she asks its destination. Wainamoinen claims he seeks sea-trout, then wild-geese, then war; Annikki disbelieves each and threatens to capsize his ship until he admits he sails to Sariola to woo the Maid of Beauty. Annikki abandons her washing and runs to Ilmarinen's smithy, offering a story in exchange for forged ornaments and a silver loom. Ilmarinen agrees. She tells him Wainamoinen sails to woo his affianced bride. Grieving, Ilmarinen drops his tongs and hammer, forges her ornaments, and asks her to heat the bath. Annikki prepares a magic soap; Ilmarinen bathes, dresses in fine raiment, harnesses his gray steed to a sledge set with cuckoos and bluebirds, and prays to Ukko, who sends snow. On the third day he overtakes Wainamoinen; they agree to woo in peace and let the maiden choose. At Pohyola the dogs bark; the master's daughter, wife, and son each refuse to investigate, so he goes himself and sees the vessel and sledge. Louhi has the daughter burn a branch, which drips honey; Suowakko declares the strangers friends and suitors. The hostess advises the daughter to choose wealthy Wainamoinen, but she chooses Ilmarinen, who forged the Sampo. Wainamoinen lands first and proposes; the maiden, asking about his ship, refuses to wed a sea-born hero.

Ilmarinen, the hero-blacksmith, hastens into the court of Louhi, hostess of Pohyola. Servants offer him Northland brewing, but he refuses to drink until he sees the Maid of Beauty for whose hand he journeyed. Louhi sets a condition: he must plow the serpent-field of Hisi, once plowed by Piru and Lempo. Ilmarinen goes to the Rainbow-maiden's chamber, reminding her that she swore to become his bride when he forged the Sampo. She advises him to forge a golden plowshare, silver beam, and copper handles. He forges these plus iron armor, harnesses a fiery horse, stills the vipers by invoking Ukko's power, and plows the field. Louhi then demands he bridle Tuoni's bear. The maiden advises forging a steel bridle; Ilmarinen forges it and, praying to Terhenetar the ether-maiden to raise fog, muzzles the bear. Louhi next demands he catch the monster-pike of Tuoni's river without tackle. The maiden advises forging an eagle. Ilmarinen forges the eagle, rides it, and after three attempts the eagle catches the pike, but eats the body, leaving the head. Ilmarinen rebukes the eagle, which flies off breaking Ukko's rainbow and the Moon-horns. Ilmarinen brings the pike-head to Louhi, who complains the test was poorly done, then agrees to give her daughter. A child seated on the floor tells of an eagle that seized the Maid of Beauty from the virgins' castle. Louhi questions how the child learned of the maiden; the child describes seeing her grinding, dyeing, and weaving. Louhi laments teaching her daughter to hide her beauty. The child answers that a maiden cannot be hidden. Wainamoinen, downhearted, wanders home to Kalevala, lamenting his age and rejection, and decrees that old men must not go wooing.

The rune opens singing of Ilmarinen's marriage to the Maiden of the Rainbow and the drinking-songs of Pohya. Louhi orders great preparations in Pohyola. A giant ox grows in Karjala, of immense size, and is led to Pohyola's meadows. No butcher in Sariola can kill it. Wirokannas of Karelen comes to slaughter it, but when Palwoinen swings his war-club the ox flashes its eyes, and the hero flees and hides. A search for a butcher proves fruitless until a small hero rises from the sea, grows large, with iron hands and copper face, holding a golden cleaver; he fells the ox, yielding much meat, blood, and suet. Louhi's vast hall is described. Louhi asks who will brew beer, confessing ignorance of malting. An old man explains beer's origin from barley, hops, and water. The hop-vine, son of Remu, and barley grow; the trio agree to join forces. Osmotar brews but cannot make it ferment. Kalevatar repeatedly finds a splinter, chip, and pod in the caldron and gives them to Kapo, who by magic produces a squirrel (fetching fir-cones), a marten (fetching bear-foam), and finally a bee (fetching honey from a sleeping maiden's island). The honey makes the beer ferment and overflow. Heroes rush to drink; Lemminkainen drinks first and grows intoxicated. Osmotar laments; a robin advises using oaken vessels. The beer's reputation is told. Louhi then brews beer herself. Smoke rises; people wonder; Lemminkainen's mother thinks it battle; Ahti learns it is Louhi's brewing and wishes to be invited. The beer, stored, demands a singer; a salmon, pike, and boy fail. Louhi sends a maiden-servant to invite everyone except Lemminkainen, explaining his troublesome nature, and describing his island home.

Louhi, hostess of the Northland, at work in her dwelling, hears whips and sledges, looks northward, and wonders whether those approaching are friends or hostile armies; examining closer, she finds friends and suitors, Ilmarinen among them as her son-in-law. Seeing him approach, she describes mistaking the sounds for winds and ocean, then tells how she recognized the bridegroom by his coal-black courser and singing birds. Ilmarinen enters the court, and Louhi orders her men to unhitch and tend his stallion, feeding, watering, and currying it. Ilmarinen descends from his sledge. Louhi bids lads lead the suitor to her chambers, noting he is too tall for the doors; servants heighten the doorway. Louhi thanks Ukko that her son-in-law has entered, then finds her chambers remodeled by magic, built of bones, silver, and copper. Ilmarinen enters, invoking Ukko's blessing; Louhi welcomes him. She calls for fire to see his eyes; smoke blackens his face, so she orders tapers, which make his sable eyes glisten. She has him led to the seat of honor and serves the guests, feeding the bridegroom first, then serving beer, again first to Ilmarinen. The beer, sparkling on his beard, speaks through the tongues of heroes, and Wainamoinen calls for its praises to be sung. A child offers to sing; an old man says the task belongs to Wainamoinen. Osmoinen asks for other singers; the gray-beard recalls his own lost skill. Wainamoinen then sings, filling the halls and stilling the guests in wonder. He speaks again, praising Ukko's creative power and asking Ukko's blessing upon the feast, bride, bridegroom, and people of Pohyola.

At the Northland wedding's close, the hostess of Pohyola, Louhi, speaks to the blacksmith Ilmarinen, asking why he lingers and telling him three times to wait longer while the bride is prepared—her tresses braided, one hand ready, one foot in fur-shoes. Ancient Louhi then declares the bride ready and tells her daughter, the Fairy Maiden of the Rainbow, to join her suitor, describing the bridegroom, steed, and sledge waiting. Louhi reminds her she sought this suitor, then warns she leaves her father's cottage, kindred, and happy childhood forever for the blacksmith, going to a second mother, father, and strangers, unable soon to return. The daughter answers, recalling a childhood song about becoming a virgin only upon wedding, yet says she cannot leave with gladness and goes as a maid of sorrow. An industrious old maiden offers doubtful comfort, recalling advice to refuse suitors—warning Lempo sits on his forehead and Tuoni in his mouth—and says the bride, unheeding, has entered bondage. She contrasts the bride's home-names (Moonlight, Sunshine, Sea-foam, Flower) with names she will bear among strangers (Brush-wood, Sledge of Rags, Flight of Stairs, Scare-crow), foretells labor and trouble, and repeatedly urges her to weep, warning of returning to find father, mother, brother, and sister failing. The young bride weeps and addresses her sisters and parents, unable to understand her sorrow, likening herself to a songless blue-duck and saying her troubles exceed the waterfalls' pebbles. A babe by the stove then speaks, telling her not to weep, for she is led to fields of flowers and the mead of Kalew, that Ilmarinen waits to guard her, is a skilled hunter and provider, and possesses birds, beasts, cattle, grain, gold, silver, copper, and all the wealth of Kalevala.

The text asks who will instruct the bride, the Maid of Beauty. Osmotar, the wisdom-maiden, undertakes to teach the bride of Ilmarinen. Osmotar tells her to leave her father's house for her husband's village, to leave behind only three things—day-dreams to her sister, kindness to her mother, labors to her brother—and to cast away incantations and girlhood pleasures. She must acquire new habits and love her husband's mother, father, brother, and sister, bending her head and speaking kindly. She must never approach the household wickedly, must honor her husband's kin, rise at the rooster's second call, consult the Moon and Great Bear, kindle fire, feed the cattle, tend the crying babe, sweep her husband's dwelling, clean weekly, dress plainly, tend the sorb-tree, greet returning men with basin and towel, meet her second mother, ask the mother-in-law for tasks, grind and fetch water and gather wood in silence without lingering, wash vessels, bathe briefly, invite the father to bathe, spin and weave alone, brew beer, welcome strangers, speak wisely in the village, praise her mother-in-law, and never forget her own mother, lest she suffer in Manala under Tuoni's sons. A witch, a beggar-woman by the fire, then speaks, comparing herself to the winter crow. She recounts her own marriage: once a happy maiden, driven like a fox into a trap by hunger for a husband, she journeyed to a wealthy mansion, met cruelty, ground flour and ate siftings and moss, labored endlessly, was derided, and her husband became a bear and wolf who beat her with willow and deer-skin whip. She fled freezing, said farewell forever, returned home to find her parents dead, her brother a stranger, and his heartless wife bringing evil water and dogs' leavings. She wandered to strangers' doors, lamenting slanderers of women. Thus Osmotar instructs the bride.

Osmotar, the bride-instructor, counsels the wedding-guests and addresses the bridegroom Ilmarinen, telling him to praise his fortune and the maiden Ukko has given, and to sound her praises to his father and mother. She describes the bride's beauty and her labors—raking hay, spinning, and weaving. She instructs Ilmarinen to forge a scythe and make hay in Kalevala, and to equip the bride for weaving so the village will ask who weaves, to which he should answer that his young bride does. She compares the weaving to that of the daughters of the Moon, Sun, Great Bear, and Evening. She warns him not to lead the Rainbow-daughter into wild places, never to let her suffer or sit in darkness, never to set her grinding bark at the mortar but to lead her to abundance, and never to make her regret marriage; if unhappy, he should take her to her father's dwelling. She tells him not to censure her low station, and gives graduated instructions for correcting her over several years, ending with striking only in private, on the shoulders, not the face. A gray-beard beggar by the fireplace tells how buying his wife luxuries failed, but a birch-whip made her affectionate. Thus the bridegroom is instructed. Then the Maiden of the Rainbow, Ilmarinen's bride, weeps and laments parting from home, thanks her father, mother, brother, and sister, tells them not to grieve, and bids farewell to the fields, forests, and waters. She reflects that on returning she would find her parents dead, and that kine, steeds, and dogs might know her though people would not. She gives farewell greetings to the homestead and gardens. Pohyola's daughter departs with Ilmarinen. A children's chorus laments a bird of evil stealing their maiden. Ilmarinen drives homeward three days, arriving at his smithy in Wainola.

At Ilmarinen's home the household has long watched and waited for the blacksmith and his bride from Sariola, the watchers growing weary. One winter morning they hear a snow-sledge from the woods. Lakko, hostess of Wainola, the Kalew-daughter, speaks excitedly, welcoming the metal-worker returning with the Bride of Beauty. Ilmarinen drives into his cottage. Lakko delivers a long welcome, telling how she waited and feared misfortune, and rejoices that the sledge has come triumphant. She bids the bridegroom stable his courser, give greetings, and relate his journey, asking whether he took the Maid of Beauty from Pohyola; she declares she already knows he stormed the forts of Louhi. She addresses the bride to descend and enter the halls, praising the dwelling, and hails the courtiers, Ukko, and the bridegroom's companions. She asks the bridegroom to unveil the honey-maiden. A babe on the matting mocks the bride as an aspen-log brought empty-handed. Lakko rebukes the prattler, defends the bride as best of Sariola, and lists the furs and weavings she brought. Lakko then addresses the bride graciously, describing her new home, its freedom, and its plenty. Bride and bridegroom are refreshed with abundant food and beer. Wainamoinen, old and truthful, begins his incantations, praising in turn the bridegroom's father the mansion-builder, the hostess who brews and bakes, the bridegroom in his rich attire, the bride's playmate, and the assembled guests. Wainamoinen then rides homeward singing, but his sledge breaks on a birch-stump. He asks whether anyone will journey to Tuoni's kingdom for the magic auger; all decline. Wainamoinen himself goes to Manala, crosses the stream of Deathland, fetches the auger, sings a forest to life, fashions a new sledge, and gallops home to Kalevala.

Ahti, living on his island near Kauko-point, plows his fields and hears an uproar from the village, recognizing it as Pohyola's wedding, the wedding of the Rainbow-virgin. In envy he stops plowing, gallops home, and asks his mother for food, drink, and a heated bath. Lemminkainen's aged mother provides these. After eating and bathing, he asks her to fetch his finest garments. She asks whether he goes hunting; he answers he goes to Pohyola's feast. She and others forbid him, saying he was not invited; Lemminkainen insists his sword is his invitation. His mother warns of three deaths on the road. She names the first: a fiery stream with an eagle; Lemminkainen boasts of remedies. She names the second: a pit of fire; he claims a snow-man to lead through it. She names the third: a wolf and bear at Pohyola's gate; he says his armor protects him. She warns further of an iron wall with serpents and lizards, and of warriors who will enchant him. She recalls his earlier near-drowning in Tuoni's river and warns of stakes for heroes' heads. Lemminkainen dons his father's armor, tests his sword and crossbow, orders his servant to harness his charger, and departs. His mother counsels him to drink only half a cup and take half a seat, giving the rest to lesser men. On the journey he gathers hazel-chicken feathers. He meets the fiery eagle and conjures birds from the feathers to feed it, passing the first danger. He prays to Ukko, who sends snow to quench the fire-pit, passing the second. He conjures sheep for the wolf and bear, passing the third. He hews the serpent-wall with his sword, then confronts a great serpent, sings its origin from Suoyatar's spittle and Hisi's breath, and the serpent crawls aside, letting him proceed to Pohyola.

The narrator states he has brought Lemminkainen (Kaukomieli, Ahti, the Islander) to Pohyola and will relate how he went uninvited to the feast. Lemminkainen enters; the floors tremble. He greets the hosts and asks for food and beer. The host of Sariola offers a stable but tells him to wait in a lowly spot; Lemminkainen refuses, citing his father, and sits on a bench. Ilpotar, the hostess, calls him evil and uninvited, saying the food is gone. Lemminkainen accuses her of ill-conducting the wedding, inviting the poor and crippled but not him, though he sent barley. Ilpotar orders a maiden to bring salmon and beer; the maiden brings scraps and vile beer. Lemminkainen finds serpents in the pitchers, commands them to Tuonela, hooks and decapitates them, then drinks. He asks why no ram or calf was slaughtered. The landlord asks who invited him. Lemminkainen offers payment. The landlord conjures a lake; Lemminkainen conjures a bull to drink it. They exchange conjured creatures—wolf, rabbit, dog, squirrel, marten, fox, hen, hawk. The landlord challenges him to measure swords; his is longer by a half-link. The landlord strikes first, missing. They move outside onto an ox-skin. The landlord strikes thrice without drawing blood; Lemminkainen's sword flames, and by tricking the landlord to look at his glowing neck, Lemminkainen beheads him and spikes the head on a picket. He orders the hostess for water; Ilpotar conjures warriors against him, and Lemminkainen departs. In "Mother's Counsel," Lemminkainen flees, cannot find his horse, becomes an eagle, prays to Ukko for a cloud, and reaches his mother. She questions him repeatedly; he reveals he slew the Northland host. She recounts many refuge-forms, then names a distant island where his father hid, requiring an oath against war for sixty summers. He swears; she sends him across nine oceans.

Lemminkainen, called Kaukomieli and Ahti, takes provisions and sails toward the Isle of Refuge, bidding farewell to his island-dwelling and to his mother, instructing her to tell Northland warriors seeking vengeance that he has departed. He launches his copper boat, raises sails, and asks the winds to carry him to his father's refuge; the winds blow three months. Maidens waiting on the shore for brother, father, and suitor spy his vessel and question him. Lemminkainen lands and asks the island-maidens for anchorage, then for hiding-space from battle, then for land to cultivate (refused, all being owned), then for a place to sing his magic. Granted this, he sings oaks, cuckoos, precious metals, gems, flowers, a well, and ducks, astonishing the maidens. Invited into a castle, he conjures food, beer, and a silver knife with golden handle, then feasts. He roams the island's hamlets, greeting every maiden save one neglected spinster, spending three summers. The slighted spinster curses his vessel. He resolves to depart, wanders the hamlets, and finds heroes grinding weapons for his death. He finds his boat burned by the spinster, rebuilds a vessel from fragments, and sails homeward, sorrowful. The lamenting maidens call after him; he answers he leaves from longing for home. A storm wrecks his ship; he swims until reaching land, where a kindly hostess feeds him and gives him a new vessel. He sails home but finds his father's and mother's dwellings gone. An eagle and raven tell him his people perished by Pohya's weapons. Weeping, he follows footprints to a hidden cabin and finds his mother alive. They rejoice; his mother explains his long absence, and Lemminkainen describes the island's beauty and how he shunned its maidens.

Lemminkainen, called Kaukomieli, goes at dawn to the harbor and finds the vessels weeping, their rigging wailing that they must lie unused since Ahti wars no more in Northland. Lemminkainen strikes the ships with his copper gloves and tells them to mourn no more, for they will soon go to war. He then goes to his aged mother, telling her not to weep, for he means to avenge the insult the warriors of Northland gave her. His mother warns him against the wars in Sariola, where Death awaits. Lemminkainen resolves to find a swordsman and names Tiera, called Kura. He travels to Tiera's hamlet and recalls their past battles together. Tiera's father, mother, brother, and sisters say Tiera has no time, being lately a bridegroom. Tiera, lying by the fire, arms himself, hurls his javelin, then pledges his aid to Lemminkainen. Kaukomieli launches his boat toward Pohya. Louhi sends the black-frost to freeze his vessel and freeze Ahti. Frost strips the land and freezes lakes and rivers; on the second night he freezes the ocean and the hero's ship, threatening Lemminkainen's body. Lemminkainen, filled with magic, hurls Frost to the fire-god, commands it to freeze other things instead, and recounts Frost's evil origin, born of Sin and Dishonor. He threatens to banish Frost to Hisi's furnace and to summer. Frost begs Ahti's mercy and agrees to a truce. Lemminkainen leaves his frozen boat and journeys northward with Tiera. They reach Starvation-island, find no food, and Lemminkainen curses the castle. Kura laments they have come to perish. Lemminkainen speaks of former pleasures and of trust in the Creator. Finally he fashions racers from his sorrows and gallops home to his mother, while Tiera returns to his Island-dwelling.

A mother raises swans and chickens; an eagle, hawk, and falcon scatter them—one carried to Karyala, one to Ehstland, one left in Pohya. The Ehstland one becomes a merchant, the Karyala one becomes Kalervo, the Pohya one becomes Untamoinen. Untamoinen sets fish-nets in Kalervo's waters; Kullerwoinen takes the fish. Untamo grows angry and battles, but neither wins. Kalerwoinen sows barley near Untamoinen's barns; Untamo's sheep eat it; Kullerwoinen's dog tears the sheep. Untamo raises an army and slays Kalervo's people, sparing only Kalervo's daughter, who bears a son named Kullervo, called "Pearl of Combat" by Untamo. The infant breaks his cradle; at three months he vows to avenge Kalervo. Untamo tries to kill him: placed in a basket in water, he survives fishing; set on a pyre, he survives raking coals; hung on an oak, he survives carving pictures. Judged immortal, he is made to nurse an infant, whom he blinds, kills, and throws to the waters. Set to fell forest, Kullervo obtains a copper axe from a blacksmith and curses the woodland. Set to build a fence, he makes one without a gate reaching to heaven. Set to thresh, he grinds the grain to powder. Untamoinen, angered, sells Kullervo in Karyala to the blacksmith Ilmarinen for worn sickles, old caldrons, scythes, hoes, and axes.

Kullerwoinen, servant of the blacksmith Ilmarinen and purchased slave from Untamoinen, described with sky-blue stockings and golden ringlets, asks the blacksmith and the hostess for work. The wife of Ilmarinen, once the Maiden of the Rainbow, deliberates and makes him a shepherd, keeper of her pastures. The scornful hostess bakes a loaf of oat-meal and barley with a flint-stone baked in its center and butter poured around, gives it to Kullerwoinen, and instructs him not to eat until the herd reaches the woodlands. She sends her cattle to pasture, telling Kullerwoinen to drive the cows to the birches and aspens. The hostess then delivers a long invocation. She calls on the Creator and Ukko to guard the cattle from danger, and asks alders, birches, and willows to shepherd them if the herdsman fails. She summons Creation's daughters—Summer-daughter, Kateyatar, Pihlayatar, the Alder-maiden, Millikki, and Tellervo—to protect the herd, to spread robes of safety, and to shield them from wild beasts, swamps, and whirlpools. She asks that milk not be lost to Mana, Manala, or Tuoni, recalling her mother's practice of obtaining milk from Mana, and echoes her mother's words about where milk wanders. She names her cows—Suotikki, Watikki, Hermikki, Tuorikki, Mairikki—and asks for abundant milk. She invokes the virgin of the valley and fountain, Millikki, and Tellervo, and asks Nyrikki, Tapio's son, to bridge the swamps. She addresses Otso the bear, proposing a treaty that he not harm the cattle, threatening slaughter by cross-bows and archer-women. She calls Knippana to restrain his dogs, and asks Ukko for muzzles of alder, copper, iron, gold, and silver. Finally the wife of Ilmarinen opens her stables and places her herd in Kullerwoinen's keeping.

Kullervo, herding for Ilmarinen, laments his poverty and sings for the Sun to shine on him and guide him home to good food. While he sings, Ilmarinen's wife feasts on fine bread and sets aside only cabbage and dogs' leavings for him. A bird tells him to eat. Kullervo cuts his oat-loaf, strikes a stone baked inside, and breaks his knife, his mother's relic. Weeping, he plans revenge. A raven advises him to drive his herd to the wolves and bears and turn them into cattle by magic. Kullervo answers the raven, cuts a birch-wand, drives half the herd to wolves and half to bears, and transforms them. He drives them home, telling them to tear the hostess when she milks. From an ox-bone, Tuonikki's cow-horn, and Kiryo's shin-bone he makes a bugle and flute. The hostess welcomes him, then goes to milk despite Kullervo urging her; the wolves and bears attack and tear her. She addresses Kullervo, who cites the baked stone. She begs release, offering food and raiment; he refuses. She prays to Ukko to shoot Kullervo; he prays that she perish instead. She falls dead. Thus dies Ilmarinen's wife, the Maiden of the Rainbow. Kullervo leaves before Ilmarinen learns of her death, playing his bugle. Ilmarinen hears, finds his wife dead, and weeps. Kullervo wanders, laments being fatherless and orphaned, and resolves to journey to Untamo's village to avenge his father, mother, and tribe. A blue-clad woman tells him his tribe still lives, his mother with old Kalervo in Northland, and directs his route past mountain, river, three waterfalls, to a fishermen's cottage. He journeys there, finds his kindred, and reveals himself. His mother rejoices, having mourned him as dead, and tells how his sister vanished gathering berries and was never found.

Kullervo lingers with his parents, unable to change his ill-nurtured nature. Sent fishing, he asks how to row; a gray-beard tells him to pull hard, and Kullervo rows the boat to pieces. Kalervo bids him drive salmon to the nets; the master of the fish-nets says little force is women's work, so Kullervo beats the nets and salmon to pulp. Kalervo sends him to pay the yearly tribute. Returning by snow-sledge, Kullervo meets a golden maiden and invites her to his furs; she refuses, naming the Death-maid. A second maiden refuses, naming Tuoni. A third maiden with a tin-pin scorns him, but he draws her into the sledge, shows her gold and silver, and they pass the night. At dawn each tells their lineage: both are Kalervo's children. The maiden recounts becoming lost gathering berries, then bounds into the cataract and dies in Tuonela. Kullervo laments slaying his sister, rides home, and confesses to his mother, who says sins can be hidden for years; he vows vengeance on Untamoinen. Kullervo grinds his sword for battle. His mother warns against war; he asks who will guard each kinsman and answers dismissively. He bids farewell to father, brother, sister, and mother; only the mother says she will weep. Going to war blowing his bugle, messengers announce the deaths of father, brother, and sister, which he dismisses; the mother's death he mourns. Ukko grants him a sword; Kullervo slays Untamo's people and burns their villages. Returning, he finds his family all dead. His mother's spirit bids him follow the dog to the forest. Reaching where he met his sister, he asks his sword if it will drink his blood; it consents, and he falls upon it and dies. Wainamoinen, hearing this, counsels that children never be ill-nurtured.

Ilmarinen weeps three days over the death of his companion, once the Maiden of the Rainbow, ceasing his smithing for three months, then laments his weariness and loneliness. After weeping further months, he gathers gold from the ocean, silver from the mountains, and birch-wood, burns the wood to ashes, and sets servants at the bellows to melt the metals. The workmen fail him, so he fans the flames himself. First a lambkin rises from the furnace; Ilmarinen rejects it and returns it to the fire. Next a colt of gold, silver, and copper rises; he rejects it too. Finally a golden-haired virgin rises. He forges her feet, hands, ears, mouth, and eyes, but they cannot walk, embrace, hear, speak, or see. He sleeps beside her but finds her side cold as ice. Ilmarinen takes her to Wainola and offers her to Wainamoinen as a bride. Wainamoinen refuses, tells him to forge her into trinkets or take her to Pohya, and warns his people never to wed an image of gold. Ilmarinen then journeys to Pohyola to woo a second daughter of Louhi. Louhi asks after her daughter; Ilmarinen reveals the Maiden of the Rainbow sleeps in death in Tuonela and requests her youngest sister. Louhi refuses. Ilmarinen seizes the maiden and carries her off in his sledge. A babe on the floor warns the maiden against him, and she refuses him. She threatens to escape as salmon, ermine, and lark; he answers he will follow as pike, serpent, and eagle. Seeing hare, fox, and wolf tracks, she wishes to follow each rather than stay with him. At home, Ilmarinen considers slaying her; his sword refuses, so he sings her into a sea-gull. He tells Wainamoinen that Pohyola prospers by the Sampo and that he changed the hateful virgin into a sea-gull.

Wainamoinen proposes to Ilmarinen that they go to Sariola to gain the Sampo. Ilmarinen answers that seizing it is hard, explaining that Louhi carried the Sampo and colored lid into the copper mountain, secured by nine locks and deep roots. Wainamoinen urges building a vessel; Ilmarinen argues land travel is safer than the perilous sea. Wainamoinen praises sea travel but, since Ilmarinen dislikes water, agrees to go by land and asks Ilmarinen to forge a fire-sword. Ilmarinen melts the metals and forges and ornaments the blade. Wainamoinen views and tests it, describing the moon, sun, stars, horse, kitten, and dog upon it. Ilmarinen asks about armor. They harness a steed to a sledge and drive northward, hearing wailing on the shore. Wainamoinen supposes a weeping maiden, but finds a war-ship lamenting that no hero sets it free, that it decays at anchor. Wainamoinen tells it to weep no more, promising it will sail to Sariola. The ship says it cannot sail unaided. Wainamoinen ties the steed to a birch, rolls the vessel to the water, and sings youths, maidens, and old heroes aboard. He seats himself at the helm. Young men, maidens, and old men row without lessening the distance; Ilmarinen rows and the boat speeds forward. Wainamoinen steers toward a promontory where Lemminkainen works on a fish-boat. Lemminkainen calls out; the two recognize each other. Wainamoinen states they sail for the Sampo. Lemminkainen asks to join as third hero, and Wainamoinen assents. Lemminkainen brings aspen floats; Wainamoinen questions this, and Lemminkainen cites storm dangers, while Wainamoinen affirms the vessel is built of steel and copper.

Wainamoinen steers his vessel from the isle of Lemminkainen toward Pohyola; maidens on the banks marvel at the music. Lemminkainen recalls words and utters a prayer to the cataract, the maidens of foam, the aged dame, the rocks, Kimmo son of Kammo, the hostess of running water, the virgin of the whirlpool, the goddess of the helm, and Ukko, that the ship pass safely. Wainamoinen steers through. In open water the vessel sticks fast. Ilmarinen with Lemminkainen works the rudder but cannot free it. Wainamoinen bids Lemminkainen look below; he reports the boat rests on the pike of Northland. Wainamoinen tells him to cut the monster; Lemminkainen strikes and falls into the water, and Ilmarinen lifts him out, speaking of accidents. Ilmarinen strikes and breaks his sword. Wainamoinen chides them, draws his fire-sword, impales and cuts the pike; the tail falls to water, the head to the ship. He gathers the fragments, has the pike sliced and cooked by the maidens, and all feast. From the fish-bones Wainamoinen fashions a harp—arches from jaw-bones, pins from pike-teeth, strings from Lempo's stallion. Young, aged, and Lemminkainen play only discord. Taken to Sariola, Louhi and the Pohyola folk also fail; a blind gray-beard bids them cast it into the water, but the harp answers it will play only for its creator, and it is carried back to Wainamoinen. Wainamoinen washes his hands, sits, and plays and sings. Beasts, birds, the daughters of the Moon and Sun, fish, Ahto, Satko's daughters, and the water-hostess gather; all are moved to weeping. His tears fall into the water. He offers plumage to whoever retrieves them; the raven fails, but the duck gathers them—the origin of sea-pearls and the blue-duck's plumage.

Wainamoinen, Ilmarinen, and the reckless Lemminkainen (Kaukomieli) sail toward the Northland. Ilmarinen and Lemminkainen lead the rowers on opposite sides while Wainamoinen steers to Pohyola's landing; they roll the ship ashore and go to Sariola. Louhi asks their tidings, and Wainamoinen says the heroes have come to divide the Sampo. Louhi refuses to share it; Wainamoinen threatens to take it by force, and Louhi angrily summons warriors. Wainamoinen plays his fish-bone harp, lulling all Pohya to sleep, and locks their eyes with slumber-arrows. Wainamoinen sings the mountain portals open, Ilmarinen anoints the locks, and the gates open. Wainamoinen bids Lemminkainen bring the Sampo; Lemminkainen praises himself but cannot lift it, for roots hold it nine fathoms deep. He harnesses a mighty ox, plows around the roots, and the Sampo loosens. Wainamoinen carries the Sampo to the ship, and Wainamoinen decides to hide it on a fog-covered island. Sailing homeward, he refuses Lemminkainen's call for singing; Lemminkainen then sings discordantly, frightening a crane that flies screeching to Sariola and wakes the Northland. Louhi finds her locks broken and the Sampo gone. She asks the sea-fog virgin for fog, Iku-Turso to destroy the heroes, and Ukko for storms. The fog binds Wainamoinen three days until he smites the billows with his sword and honey flows, clearing it. Wainamoinen seizes Iku-Turso by the ears, questions him thrice; the monster confesses and is freed, never to rise again. Ukko sends storms that toss the fish-bone harp into the sea, lost to Ahto and Wellamo. Wainamoinen laments, Ilmarinen laments, and Wainamoinen commands the sea, Ahto, Wellamo, and winds to calm; Lemminkainen prays for eagle and raven feathers. The heroes repair the vessel, and Wainamoinen steers it safely through the whirlpool.

Louhi, hostess of Pohyola, gathers her tribes, arms archers and swordsmen, fits out a war-ship, and sails to retake the Sampo from the heroes of Wainola. Wainamoinen, sailing, bids Lemminkainen climb the topmast and look. Lemminkainen looks three times, reporting first clear sky with clouds, then a forest and island, then a boat with a hundred rowers and a thousand heroes. Wainamoinen orders Ilmarinen, Lemminkainen, and his oarsmen to row, but the distance does not widen. Wainamoinen casts flint fragments on the water and by magic raises a reef, on which Pohyola's war-ship wrecks. Louhi cannot free it; she shapes an eagle from the vessel's parts, plants armed heroes in its wings, body, and tail, and rises as a monster-eagle. The hero's ocean-mother warns Wainamoinen, who sees Louhi swooping to his topmast. Ilmarinen prays to Ukko. Wainamoinen asks Louhi to divide the Sampo; she refuses. The eagle grasps the Sampo; Lemminkainen cleaves her talons, leaving one toe. Louhi accuses Lemminkainen of breaking his promise to his mother. Wainamoinen smites the eagle with the rudder. Louhi drops the Sampo, which breaks in the deep-sea; fragments float to Wainola's shores. Wainamoinen rejoices. Louhi threatens frost, hail, Otso, and diseases; Wainamoinen answers that only God can banish his people. Louhi departs weeping, taking worthless fragments; hence Northland's poverty. Wainamoinen gathers the relics and prays to Ukko for protection. In Rune XLIV, Wainamoinen laments his lost harp and has Ilmarinen forge an iron rake, but raking the sea finds nothing. Wandering, he hears a weeping birch, makes a harp from its wood, tuning-pins from an oak with cuckoos, and strings from a maiden's golden tresses. He plays; all creatures gather to listen for three days.

Louhi, hostess of the Northland, hears in Sariola that Wainola prospers and Osmoinen's wealth increases despite the Sampo's ruin. In wrath she plans destruction for Kalevala's people and prays to Ukko to slay them by hail, lightning, or sickness. The blind daughter of Tuoni, Lowyatar, worst of Death-land women, lays her couch by the wayside and is impregnated by the east-wind. She suffers long, unable to deliver. Ukko directs her to Pohyola. Louhi receives Lowyatar, bathes her, and instructs her to fetch sea-foam and mermaid honey, and to call Ukko if needed. Lowyatar bears nine children, naming them Colic, Pleurisy, Fever, Ulcer, Plague, Consumption, Gout, Sterility, and Cancer. She banishes the worst; Louhi sends the rest against Wainola. Wainola sickens. Old Wainamoinen heats the bath-rooms, prepares healing vapors, and prays lengthily to Ukko, to Tuoni's Torture-daughter, and to the Health-virgin to banish the diseases. He rubs sufferers with balsams and prays for rain and honey. Wainamoinen thus expels the nine diseases and heals Kalevala's tribes.

News reaches Pohyola that Wainola has recovered from its troubles and sicknesses. Louhi, hostess of the Northland, envious, resolves to drive the bear, great Otso, from cavern and forest onto the cattle and flocks of Wainola. Wainamoinen asks his brother, the blacksmith Ilmarinen, to forge a triple-pointed spear so he may slay Otso; Ilmarinen forges it in wondrous beauty, adorned with images of animals. Snow having fallen, Wainamoinen sings, invoking the ruler of Tapio's forests, Mielikki, and Tellervo, and addressing Otso to hide his claws and teeth and rest peacefully. Hearing his dog bark, Wainamoinen finds the bear, praises Ukko for granting Otso, and speaks to the bear, inviting him to Kalevala with promises of milk and honey. He hastens homeward singing with Otso. The people hear and wonder; heroes ask whether he found gold, silver, or the Honey-eater. Wainamoinen answers that the Illustrious, the Master, is coming, and the tribe-folk welcome Otso. Wainamoinen leads him to the dining-hall; he pulls the sacred robe from Otso, cuts the members into fragments, and cooks them in caldrons seasoned with salt of Dwina. At the feast, the people ask about Otso's birth. Wainamoinen tells that Otso was born in ether on the shoulders of Otava; a maiden threw wool and hair upon the waters, and Mielikki gathered and cradled the bear on a pine-tree, later giving him teeth and claws after he swore never to harm the worthy. Wainamoinen recounts how Otso fell from his tree and gave his life. He takes the bear's eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and brain, counts its teeth and loosens its claws, and directs Otso to the mountain-top. He tells the children he laid Otso in a pine-tree's summit on the Gold-hill. Wainamoinen plays his harp, singing and praying to Ukko for future banquets and hunts.

Wainamoinen plays his magic harp, filling the north with gladness; the Moon settles in a birch-tree and the Sun in a fir to listen. Louhi, hostess of Pohyola, seizes the Sun and Moon, hides them in a rock and an iron-banded mountain in Sariola, utters words of concealment, and steals the fire from Northland, leaving darkness over Kalevala. Ukko wonders at the darkness, walks the heavens, strikes lightning from his fire-sword, kindles a fire, hides it in a golden box, and gives it to an ether-virgin to rock into a new moon and sun. The Fire-child escapes her hands and drops downward. Wainamoinen and Ilmarinen set out to find it, build a boat, and meet Ilmatar, ether-daughter, who names herself first of Ether's daughters, wedded seven times. She tells them the fire fell through Turi to Palwoinen's rooms, burned an infant and mother, then burned fields and reached the Alue-sea, where a whiting swallowed it, then a trout ate the whiting, and a gray-pike ate the trout. Wainamoinen and Ilmarinen weave a fish-net; maidens and brothers drag it but catch no Fire-fish. The deep-sea-dwellers ask whether the heroes have died; Wainamoinen answers no. Wainamoinen has flax sown from seed found in Tuoni's kingdom, grown in a single night, and woven into a net. Repeated fishing fails. He summons Wellamo and Ahto; a water-pigmy rises, cuts a linden, and drives fish to the net. Wainamoinen lands the Fire-pike. The Sun-child carves it with a knife fallen from heaven, finding trout, whiting, a blue ball, a scarlet ball, and the fire within. Wainamoinen snatches the fire; it singes his beard and burns Ilmarinen, then rolls westward burning lands. Wainamoinen finds the Fire-child in an elm, addresses it, and carries the willing Panu home. Ilmarinen laves his burns, addresses Panu, and calls upon the frost-daughter, the Long-man of the ice-plains, and Ukko to send snow, stilling his pains.

Fire has returned to Northland, but the gold Moon and silver Sun do not shine over Wainola and Kalevala. White-frost settles on crops, cattle and birds die, and men and maidens perish in cold and darkness. The pike, eagle, and winds keep their ways, but the wise men cannot find the dawn. Young and old debate how to live without light. A maid runs to Ilmarinen's furnace and asks him to forge a Moon of gold and Sun of silver. He rises and forges them. Wainamoinen arrives and warns that silver and gold cannot become sunlight and moonlight; Ilmarinen nonetheless sets the Moon in a pine and the Sun in an elm, but they do not shine. Wainamoinen cuts three alder chips and, invoking Ukko, asks the alder where the Sun and Moon lie hidden. The alder answers they are in the stone-berg of Pohyola. Wainamoinen journeys three days to Pohyola. The Ferry-maiden ignores his call; he builds a fire, and Louhi sends a Pohyalander who refuses him a skiff. Wainamoinen becomes a pike, swims across, resumes his form, and enters Louhi's hall, finding armed Pohya-masters. He declares he seeks the Sun and Moon; they refuse. He draws his magic sword, which proves longest, and beheads Louhi's heroes. He finds an island with a pillar of nine portals, cuts it apart, sees serpents drinking beer, kills the adders, but cannot open the portals, his magic having failed. He returns; Lemminkainen offers help and is rebuked. Wainamoinen has Ilmarinen forge a trident, rings, keys, bars, and hammers. Louhi, as an eagle, learns Ilmarinen forges a collar to bind her; frightened, she frees the Sun and Moon, then, as a dove, brings the tidings. Ilmarinen and Wainamoinen see the light returned, and Wainamoinen greets the Sun and Moon.

Mariatta grows to maidenhood in Northland, wearing away her father's threshold, rafters, pillars, and flooring, and guards her virtue, feeding on whiting, birch bark, and lamb. At milking and while riding she declares she will not serve or ride the unworthy. Driving her flocks, she asks the cuckoo how long she must stay unmarried. A mountain-berry calls to her; she cuts a charm-stick, presses it, and the berry rises to her mouth and into her bosom, making her pregnant. Her mother wonders, and a babe explains she tasted the berry. Mariatta asks her mother, then her father, for a birth-place; both call her a Hisi-maiden and refuse. She insists she will bear a hero who will rule Wainamoinen. She sends the servant Piltti to Ruotus; Ruotus's wife offers only the stable of Hisi's flaming horse. Mariatta goes there weeping, prays to Ukko, and asks the fire-horse to warm her; it breathes vapor, and she bears the child in the manger. The child vanishes while she sleeps. Searching, she questions the star and moon, who refuse to tell, then the sun, who reveals the child lies in the reeds. She finds him and brings him to her father's dwelling. The mother names him Flower, others Son-of-Sorrow. Wirokannas refuses to baptize an untested child and summons Wainamoinen, who judges the outcast should be dashed against a birch. The two-week-old child rebukes Wainamoinen for false judgment, recalling his brother's ransom and Aino's death. Wirokannas then baptizes the child king of Karyala. Wainamoinen, recognizing his waning powers, sings a farewell, builds a copper boat, and sails westward, prophesying his return with the Sampo, leaving his harp and songs to Suomi. An epilogue closes the singer's song.