his new plan. About a month after this, all the maidens were met
together for a dance in a glen among the hills, and among them was
Kyllikki. Suddenly Lemminkainen came galloping up in his sledge and
seized the fair Kyllikki as she was dancing with the rest, placed her in
his sledge, and drove off like the whirlwind, and as he flew by the
frightened maidens he cried out to them: 'Never tell that I have taken
Kyllikki, or I will cast a magic spell over your lovers, so that they
will all leave you and go off to the wars and will never come back to
dance and make merry with you.'
But Kyllikki wept and begged Lemminkainen to give her back her freedom,
saying, 'Oh, give me back my freedom, cruel Lemminkainen; let me return
on foot to my grieving father and mother. If thou wilt not let me go, O
Ahti, I will curse thee and will call upon my seven valiant brothers to
pursue and kill thee. Once I was happy among my people, but now all my
joy has gone since thou hast come to torment me, O cruel-hearted Ahti!'
But all her words could not move Lemminkainen to release her. Then he
said to her: 'Dearest maiden, fair Kyllikki, cease thy weeping and be
joyful; I will never harm thee nor deceive thee. Why shouldst thou be
sorrowful, for I have a lovely home and friends and riches, and thou
shalt never need to labour. Do not despise me because my family is not
mighty, for I have a good spear and a sharp sword, and with these I will
gain greatness and power for thy sake.'
Then Kyllikki asked him: 'O Ahti, son of Lempo, wilt thou then be to me
a faithful husband; wilt thou swear to me never to go to battle nor to
strife of any sort?'
'I will swear upon my honour,' Lemminkainen replied, 'that I will never
go to battle, if thou wilt promise in return never to go to dance in the
village, however much thou mayst long for it.'
So the two swore before the great Ukko, Lemminkainen promising never to
go to battle, and Kyllikki that she would never go to the village
dances. And then Lemminkainen rejoicing cracked his whip, and they
galloped on like the wind over hills and valleys towards the plains of
Kalevala.
As they came near to Lemminkainen's home, Kyllikki saw that it looked
dreary and poor, and began to weep again, but Lemminkainen comforted
her, telling her that now he would build a splendid mansion for her, and
so she grew cheerful once more.
They drove up to his mother's cottage, and as they entered his mother
asked him how he had fared. Ahti answered: 'I have well repaid the scorn
of the Northland maidens, for I have brought the fairest of them with me
in my sledge. I brought her well wrapt in bear-skins hither, to be my
loving bride for ever. Beloved mother, make ready for us the best room
and prepare a rich feast, that my bride may be content.'
His mother answered: 'Praised be gracious Ukko, that hath given me a
daughter. Praise Ukko, my son, that thou hast won this lovely maiden,
the pride of the Northland, who is purer than the snow, more graceful
than the swan, and more beautiful than the stars. Let us make our
dwelling larger, and decorate the walls most beautifully in honour of
thy lovely bride, the fairest maid of all creation.'
[Illustration]
KYLLIKKI'S BROKEN VOW
Lemminkainen and Kyllikki lived together happily for many years, keeping
the promises they had made to each other. But one day Lemminkainen had
not come home from fishing by sunset, and then the longing to dance was
more than Kyllikki could withstand, and she went into the village and
joined the maidens in their dance.
As soon as Lemminkainen came home, his sister Ainikki came to him and
told him how Kyllikki had broken her promise and had joined in the
dance. Then Lemminkainen grew angry and sad at the same time, and he
went to his mother and asked her to steep his clothing in the blood of
serpents, for he was going off to battle since Kyllikki could not keep
her vow.
Kyllikki tried to persuade him not to leave her, telling him that she
had dreamt a dream, in which she saw their home in flames and the fire
bursting out through the doors and windows and roof. But Lemminkainen
replied: 'I have no faith in women's dreams or maidens' vows. Bring me
my copper armour, mother, for I long to get to the wars, to go to dismal
Pohjola, there to win great stores of gold and silver.'
'Stay at home, my dear son,' his aged mother said, 'and drink the beer
in our cellars, sitting peaceably by thine own hearth, for we have more
than enough gold and silver. Only the other day, as our servants were
ploughing the fields they came upon a chest of gold and silver buried in
the ground--take this and be content.'
When all this had no effect upon Lemminkainen, his mother began to tell
him of the magic of the Northland people, and that they would sing him
into the fire so that he would be burnt to death. But he replied: 'Long
ago three Lapland wizards tried to bewitch me, and employed their
strongest spells against me, but I stood unmoved. Then I began my own
magic songs, and before long I overcame them and sank them to the bottom
of the sea, where they are still sleeping and the seaweed is growing
through their hair and beards.'
Still his mother tried to stop him, and his wife Kyllikki begged his
forgiveness in tears. He stood listening to them and brushing out his
long black hair, but at last he became impatient, and threw the brush
from him and cried out: 'I will not stay, but keep that brush, and when
ye see blood oozing from its bristles, then ye may know that some
terrible misfortune has overtaken me.'
Saying this he left them and put on his armour and harnessed his steed
into his sledge. Then he sang a song, calling on all the spirits of the
woods and the mountains and the waters and on great Ukko himself to help
him against the Northland wizards, and when his song was ended he drove
off like the wind.
In the evening of the third day he reached a little village in the
Northland. Here he drove into a courtyard and called out: 'Is there any
one strong enough to attend to my horse and take care of my sledge.'
There was a child playing on the floor of the house, and it replied that
there was no one there to do it. Then Lemminkainen rode on to another
house and asked the same question; and a man standing in the doorway
replied: 'There are plenty here that are mighty enough not only to
unharness thy steed, but to conquer thee and drive thee to thy home ere
the sun has set.'
Then Lemminkainen told him that he would return and slay him, and so
drove off to the highest house in the village. Here he cast a spell over
the watch-dog, so that he should not bark, and drove in. Then he struck
on the ground with his whip, and from the ground there arose a vapour
that concealed the sledge, and in the vapour was a dwarf that took his
steed and unharnessed it and gave it food. But Lemminkainen went on into
the house, having first made himself invisible. There he found a great
many people singing and making merry, and by the fires the Northland
wizards were seated. He made his way on, and then took on his own shape
again and entered into the main hall, and cried out to those that were
singing to be silent.
As soon as she saw him the mistress of the house ran up to him and asked
him who he was, and how he had passed the watch-dog unnoticed. Then
Lemminkainen told her who he was, and instantly began to weave his magic
spells, while the lightning shot from his fur mantle and flames from his
eyes. He sang them all under the power of his magic--some beneath the
waters, some into the burning fire, some beneath the heaped-up
mountains. Only one poor old man, who was blind and lame, did he leave
untouched. And when the old man asked him why it was that he had alone
been left, cruel Lemminkainen began to abuse him and to torment him with
words, until the old man, Nasshut, grew almost wild with anger, and
hobbled away, swearing to have vengeance. Nasshut journeyed on and on,
and at last arrived at the river Tuoni, which separates the land of the
dead from the land of the living. There he waited until Lemminkainen
should come, for he knew, by his wizard's skill, that he would come
thither soon.
[Illustration]
LEMMINKAINEN'S SECOND WOOING
After this Lemminkainen travelled on through dismal Pohjola until he
came to the home of aged Louhi. He went in to Louhi and begged her to
give him one of her daughters in marriage, but Louhi refused, saying:
'Thou hast already taken one wife from Lapland, the fair Kyllikki, and I
will give thee neither the loveliest nor yet the ugliest of my
daughters.'
Still Lemminkainen kept urging her, and at last, to get rid of him, she
said: 'I will never give one of my daughters to a worthless man. Thou
mayst not ask me again until thou bringest me the Hisi-reindeer.'
Then Lemminkainen set to work to make his arrows and his darts. When
these were done he went to Lylikki, the great snow-shoe maker, and bade
him make a huge pair of snow-shoes, as he was going to hunt the
Hisi-reindeer. At first Lylikki tried to dissuade him, telling him he
could never succeed, but perhaps would die in the forest. But
Lemminkainen ordered him again to make the snow-shoes, and Lylikki set
to work. He made them of wood, only a few inches wide, but longer than
Lemminkainen was tall, and with straps in the middle to fasten them on
to the feet; and he also made a staff for Lemminkainen to push himself
along with, or to keep his balance with when he slid down the hills.
At length they were finished, and Lemminkainen put them on, and his
quiver on his back, and took his snow-staff in his hand, and as he set
off he cried out: 'There is no living thing in all the forest that can
escape me now, when I take my mighty strides in Lylikki's snow-shoes.'
But the evil spirit Hisi overheard him as he boasted thus, and Hisi set
to work to make an enchanted reindeer, that Lemminkainen would never be
able to catch. So he took bare willow branches to make the horns, and
wood for the head, the feet and legs were made of reeds, and the veins
from withered grass, the eyes were made from daisies, the ears from
flowers, and the skin of the rough fir-bark, and the muscles from
strong, sappy wood. When this magic reindeer was completed it was the
swiftest and the finest-looking of all reindeer. And Hisi sent it off
to Pohjola, telling it to lure Lemminkainen into the snow-covered
mountains and there to wear him out with the cold and the fatigue of the
chase. So the reindeer went forth to dismal Pohjola, and there it ran
through the courtyards and the outhouses, overturning tubs of water,
throwing the kettles from their hooks, and upsetting the dishes that
were cooking before the fires. There was a frightful noise there, for
all the dogs began to bark, and the children to cry, and the women to
laugh, and the men to shout. And then the magic reindeer went on its
way.
Now Lemminkainen had set out, as soon as his snow-shoes were ready, and
had hunted the whole world over for a trace of the Hisi-reindeer,
rushing like the wind over mountains and valleys, until the fire shot
from his snow-shoes, and his snow-staff smoked. But after he had
wandered over the whole world and still had found no trace of the
Hisi-reindeer, he came at last to the corner of Northland where the
magic animal had just run through the courts upsetting everything, and
the children were still crying and the women laughing when he arrived.
Lemminkainen asked what the cause was of their uproar, and they told him
how the reindeer had been there.
No sooner had he heard this than off he flew over the snow, and as he
went he sang a spell, calling on the powers of Pohjola to enable him to
catch the Hisi-beast. After he had sung, he gave three huge strides with
his snow-shoes, and at the end of the third he caught up with the
Hisi-reindeer, and in another moment had it bound fast. Then he spoke to
the reindeer and patted it on the head, and bade it come with him to
Louhi. But suddenly the animal made a mighty rush, snapped his bonds in
two, and sprang away over the hills and valleys out of sight.
Lemminkainen started off after it, but at the first step his snow-shoes
broke right in two and threw him down, breaking his arrows and his
snow-staff in his fall. Then he arose and looked sadly at his broken
shoes and arrows and stick, and said to himself: 'How shall I ever
succeed in my hunt, now that my shoes are broken, and the reindeer is
once more free?'
[Illustration]
LEMMINKAINEN'S DEATH
For a long time Lemminkainen sat considering whether he should give up
the chase and return to Kalevala, or still keep on after the
Hisi-reindeer. At length he regained hope and courage, and having sung
an incantation that made his snow-shoes and arrows and staff whole
again, he started off once more.
This time he turned his steps to the home of Tapio, the god of the
forest, and as he went he began to sing wondrous songs to Tapio and his
wife Mielikki, begging them to help him, and promising them great stores
of gold and silver if they would do so.
At last he arrived at Tapio's palace, which had window-frames of gold,
and the palace itself was of ivory. And within it Mielikki and her
daughters were dressed in golden garments, and wore gold and gems in
their hair, and pearls round their necks. And they all promised to help
Lemminkainen, and went off to drive the reindeer up to the palace so
that he might catch it. Nor had he long to wait before whole troops of
reindeer came flocking into the palace courtyard, and Lemminkainen saw
among them the Hisi-deer, and caught it.
Then Lemminkainen sang a song of triumph, and having paid to Tapio's
wife, Mielikki, the gold and silver he had promised, he hastened off
with the reindeer to Louhi's home. But when he gave the Hisi-deer to
her, she said: 'I will give thee my fairest daughter if thou wilt catch
and bridle for me the fiery Hisi-horse, that breathes smoke and fire
from his mouth and nostrils.'
So Lemminkainen went off, taking with him a golden bridle to put on the
horse. For three days he wandered without catching sight of the
Hisi-horse, but on the third day he climbed to the top of a very high
mountain, and from thence he spied the steed on the plain amongst the
fir-trees, breathing smoke and flames from his mouth and nostrils and
eyes.
When Lemminkainen saw him he prayed to great Ukko to send a shower of
icy hail upon the fiery Hisi-steed, and presently a great shower of hail
rained down, and every hailstone was larger than a man's head. After
the hail was over, Lemminkainen came up to the fiery horse and coaxed
him to let the golden bridle be slipped over his head. Then off they
went like the wind, the horse obeying Lemminkainen perfectly, and in a
very short time they arrived at Louhi's house. When he had given the
Hisi-horse to Louhi, Lemminkainen asked again for the hand of her
fairest daughter. But Louhi told him she would not give him her daughter
until he had killed the swan that swam on Tuoni's river, which flows
between the land of the living and the dead.
Then Lemminkainen started off fearlessly to seek the graceful swan of
Tuoni, and journeyed on and on until at length he came to the coal-black
river. There the old shepherd of Pohjola, Nasshut, was waiting for him,
and, though blind, he heard Lemminkainen's footsteps, and sent a serpent
from the death-river to meet him. The serpent stung Lemminkainen just
over the heart, so that he fell down dead almost instantly, only having
time to call upon his ancient mother to help him.
And Nasshut cast his body into the dismal river Tuoni, where it was
washed down through the rapids to the Deathland, Tuonela. There the son
of the ruler of the Deathland took the body, and cutting it into five
portions, cast them back into the stream, saying: 'Swim there now, O
Lemminkainen! float for ever in this river, so that thou mayst hunt the
wild swan at thy leisure.'
And thus the handsome Lemminkainen died, and was cast into the river of
Tuoni, that flows along the Deathland.
[Illustration]
LEMMINKAINEN'S RESTORATION
Lemminkainen's mother began to grow uneasy at his long absence, and to
fear that some trouble had befallen him. At last one day, as his wife,
the fair Kyllikki, was in her room, she noticed that drops of blood had
begun to flow from the bristles of Lemminkainen's hair-brush. Then she
began to weep and mourn, and ran and told his mother, who came and saw
the blood oozing from the brush, and cried out:
'Woe is me, for my son, my hero, is in some terrible distress; some
awful misfortune has happened to him.' Saying this she hurried off, and
went straight to Louhi's house. There she asked what had become of her
son, but Louhi only replied that she did not know, that he had driven
off long ago in a sledge she had given him, and perhaps the wolves or
bears had eaten him.
'Thou art only telling falsehoods,' replied Lemminkainen's mother, 'for
no bears or wolves can devour him; he would put them to sleep with his
magic singing. Now, tell me truly, O Louhi, whither thou hast sent my
son, or I will destroy all thy storehouses and even thy magic Sampo.'
And then Louhi said that she had given him a copper boat, and he had
floated off on the river; perhaps he had perished in the rapids below.
But Lemminkainen's mother answered: 'Thou art still speaking falsely.
Tell me the truth this time, or I will send plague and death upon thee.'
Then Louhi answered the third time: 'I will tell thee the truth. I sent
him to fetch me the Hisi-reindeer, and then after the fire-breathing
horse, and last of all, after the swan that swims the death-stream,
Tuoni, that he might gain the hand of my fairest daughter. He may have
perished there, for he has not come back since to ask for my daughter's
hand.'
No sooner had Louhi said this than the anxious mother hurried off to
hunt for her son. Over hills and valleys, through marsh and forest, and
over the wide waters she went, but looked for him in vain. Then she
asked the Trees if they had seen him but they answered: 'We have more
than enough to think of with our own griefs. We are cut down with cruel
axes and burned to death, and no one pities us.'
So she wandered on and on, and finally she asked the Paths if they had
seen her son pass by. But the Paths replied: 'Our own lives are too
wretched to think of other people's sorrows. We are trodden under foot
by beasts and men, and the heavy carts cut us in pieces.'
Next she asked the Moon, but the Moon replied: 'I have trouble enough of
my own. I have to wander all alone in both summer and winter nights, and
have no rest.'
Next she questioned the Sun, and he was kinder than the rest, and told
her how her son had died in the gloomy river Tuoni.
Then she hastened to Ilmarinen, the wondrous smith, and bade him make a
huge rake for her out of copper, with teeth a hundred fathoms long and
the handle five hundred fathoms. Ilmarinen quickly forged a magic rake,
and she hurried off with it to the gloomy river Tuoni, praying as she
went: 'O Sun, whom Ukko hath created, shine for me now with magic power
into the kingdom of death, into dark Manala, and lull all the evil
spirits there to sleep.'
The Sun came and sat upon a birch-tree near the river of Tuoni, and
shone upon the Deathland, Tuonela, until all the spirits fell asleep.
Then he rose, and hovering over them, warmed them into a yet deeper
slumber, and then hurried back to his place in the sky.
Meanwhile Lemminkainen's mother had raked a long time in the coal-black
river, but could find nothing. Then she waded in deeper and deeper,
until she could reach into the deepest caverns with her rake. First, she
found his jacket, and then the rest of his clothing; and finally, the
third time she swept her rake along, it brought up Lemminkainen's body,
but the hands and arms and head were still missing. Still she went on
with her search, and at length all the pieces were gathered together.
When she had laid them beside each other, in their proper positions, she
began to pray to the goddess of the veins, Suonetar, and the maiden of
the ether, to come and join the different parts together, and to sew up
the wounds and make him whole. And then she prayed to the mighty Ukko to
help them, and to heal every part that was wounded or bruised, to touch
them with his magic touch, and restore Lemminkainen to life.
And Ukko did so, and Lemminkainen lived once more, but he was still
blind and deaf and dumb. But his mother considered deeply how she might
restore these senses to him, and at length she called the little bee to
her, and bade it go out and collect honey from the healing plants in
the meadows. So the bee flew away and returned very soon laden with
honey from all the healing plants, and she anointed her son with this,
but it only gave him his sight, and still left him deaf and dumb.
Again the mother sent off the bee, telling it to go across the seven
oceans, and to alight on an enchanted isle in the eighth. There it would
find magic honey to bring back. The bee did as it was told and found the
magic honey-balm in tiny earthen vessels, and flew back with seven
vessels in its arms and seven on each shoulder, all filled with the
magic honey-balm. Lemminkainen's mother anointed him with this, and he
could hear, but still remained speechless.
Then the mother bade the bee fly up to the seventh heaven and to bring
down from thence the honey of Ukko's wisdom, which was so abundant
there. When the bee declared that it could not fly so high, she told it
the way and sent it off. So the bee flew up and up, and at the end of
the first day it rested on the moon. At the end of the second day it
reached the shoulders of the Great Bear, and on the third day it flew
over the Great Bear's head and reached the seventh heaven of Ukko. There
it found three golden kettles, and in the first was a balm that gave
ease to the heart, and the balm in the second gave happiness, but the
balm of the third kettle gave life. So the bee took some of the
life-giving balm and hastened back to earth.
Then Lemminkainen's mother anointed him with this magic balm, speaking a
magic spell as she rubbed him with it, and immediately he awoke, and his
first words were: 'Truly I have been sleeping long, but yet my sleep was
a sweet one, for I knew neither joy nor sorrow.'
When his mother asked how he had gone thither and who it was that had
harmed him, he told her all--how Louhi had sent him for the swan, and
how old Nasshut, the blind Northland shepherd, had sent the serpent
against him and killed him, for he did not know the charm to cure the
sting of serpents. Then his mother upbraided him for his ignorance, and
told him how the serpent was born from the marrow of the duck and the
brain of swallows, mixed with Suojatar's saliva, and she told him too
what the spell was to use against them. Thus his mother brought him back
to life and health, and he was wiser and handsomer than ever, but still
he was downhearted.
His mother asked him the reason of this, and he replied that he was
still thinking of Louhi's daughter and longing for her as his bride, but
that first he must shoot the wild swan. But his mother answered: 'Do
not think of the wild swan, nor yet of Louhi's daughters. Return with me
to Kalevala to thy home, and thank and praise thy Maker, Ukko, that he
hath saved thee, for I alone could never have saved thee from dismal
Manala.'
So Lemminkainen hastened home with his mother,--back again to his
pleasant home in Kalevala.
* * * * *
Every one expressed satisfaction that Lemminkainen had been restored to
life--'for, you see,' said Mimi, 'though he was really a bad man, he did
so many wonderful things that you just can't help wishing for him not to
be killed.'
But now it had grown quite late, nearly nine o'clock, and so they all
ate their supper and then Erik and Father Mikko sat smoking and talking
while Mother Stina and the little ones went into the other room to
bed,--for Erik had actually two rooms in his house,--and it isn't every
Finnish country cabin that has that, you know. They talked of their
country, for that was the dearest subject to both of them,--they were
intelligent men for their class,--and when Father Mikko told how the
Russian Tsar was taking their liberties away from them, and was
beginning to break all his oaths and promises and would no doubt end up
by making them as badly off as the people on the south side of the
Finnish Gulf--when Father Mikko related all this, Erik's eyes flashed
and he longed to be able to draw the sword to defend his beloved
country's liberty.