Runo XVII: Väinämöinen and Antero Vipunen

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,Had not found the words he wantedIn the dark abode of Tuoni,In the eternal realms of Mana,And for evermore he pondered.In his head reflected ever.Where the words he might discover,And obtain the charms he needed.

Once a shepherd came to meet him,And he spoke the words which follow:"You can find a hundred phrases,And a thousand words discover,Known to Antero Vipunen only,In his monstrous mouth and body.And there is a path which leads there,And a cross-road must be traversed,Not the best among the pathways,Nor the very worst of any.Firstly you must leap along itO'er the points of women's needles,And another stage must traverseO'er the points of heroes' sword-blades,And a third course must be traversedO'er the blades of heroes' axes."

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,Pondered deeply o'er the journey,To the smithy then he hastened,And he spoke the words which follow:"O thou smith, O Ilmarinen,Forge me straightway shoes of iron,Forge me likewise iron gauntlets,Make me, too, a shirt of iron,And a mighty stake of iron,All of steel, which I will pay for,Lined within with steel the strongest,And o'erlaid with softer iron,For I go some words to seek for,And to snatch the words of power,From the giant's mighty body,Mouth of Antero Vipunen wisest."

Then the smith, e'en Ilmarinen,Answered in the words which follow:"Vipunen has long since perished,Long has Antero departedFrom the nets he has constructed,And the snares that he has fashioned.Words from him you cannot hope for;Half a word you could not look for."

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,Started on his way, unheeding,And the first day speeded lightlyO'er the points of women's needles,And the second day sprang nimblyO'er the points of heroes' sword-blades,And upon the third day speededO'er the blades of heroes' axes.

Vipunen in songs was famous,Full of craft the aged hero;With his songs he lay extended,Outstretched with his spells of magic.On his shoulders grew a poplar,From his temples sprang a birch-tree,On his chin-tip grew an alder,On his beard a willow-thicket,On his brow were firs with squirrels,From his teeth sprang branching pine-trees.Then at once did Väinämöinen,Draw his sword and free the ironFrom the scabbard formed of leather,From his belt of lambskin fashioned;Fell the poplar from his shoulders,Fell the birch-trees from his temples,From his chin the spreading alders,From his beard the willow-bushes,From his brow the firs with squirrels,From his teeth the branching pine-trees.

Then he thrust his stake of ironInto Vipunen's mouth he thrust it,In his gnashing gums he thrust it,In his clashing jaws he thrust it,And he spoke the words which follow:"Rouse thyself, O slave of mortals,Where beneath the earth thou restest,In a sleep that long has lasted."

Vipunen, in songs most famous,Suddenly awoke from slumber,Feeling he was roughly treated,And with pain severe tormented.Then he bit the stake of iron,Bit the outer softer iron,But the steel he could not sever,Could not eat the inner iron.

Then the aged Väinämöinen,Just above his mouth was standing,And his right foot slipped beneath him,And his left foot glided onward.Into Vipunen's mouth he stumbled,And within his jaws he glided.

Vipunen, in songs most famous,Opened then his mouth yet wider,And his jaws he wide extended,Gulped the well-beloved hero,With a shout the hero swallowed,Him the aged Väinämöinen.

Vipunen, in songs most famous,Spoke the very words which follow:"I have eaten much already,And on ewes and goats have feasted,And have barren heifers eaten,And have also swine devoured,But I ne'er had such a dinner,Such a morsel never tasted."

But the aged Väinämöinen,Uttered then the words which follow:"Now destruction falls upon me,And an evil day o'ertakes me,Prisoned here in Hiisi's stable,Here in Kalma's narrow dungeon."

So he pondered and reflectedHow to live and how to struggle.In his belt a knife had Väinö,And the haft was formed of maple,And from this a boat he fashioned,And a boat he thus constructed,And he rowed the boat, and urged itBack and forth throughout the entrails,Rowing through the narrow channels,And exploring every passage.

Vipunen the old musicianWas not thus much incommoded;Then the aged VäinämöinenAs a smith began to labour.And began to work with iron.With his shirt he made a smithy,With his shirt-sleeves made his bellows,With the fur he made the wind-bag,With his trousers made the air-pipe,And the opening with his stockingsAnd he used his knee for anvil,And his elbow for a hammer.

Then he quick began to hammer,Actively he plied his hammer,Through the livelong night, unresting,Through the day without cessationIn the stomach of the wise one,In the entrails of the mighty.

Vipunen, in songs most famous,Spoke aloud the words which follow:"Who among mankind can this be,Who among the roll of heroes?I have gulped a hundred heroes,And a thousand men devoured,But his like I never swallowed.In my mouth the coals are rising,On my tongue are firebrands resting,In my throat is slag of iron.

"Go thou forth to wander, strange one,Pest of earth, at once depart thou,Ere I go to seek thy mother,Seek thy very aged mother.If I told it to thy mother,Told the aged one the story,Great would be thy mother's trouble,Great the aged woman's sorrow,That her son should work such evil,And her child should act so basely.

"Still I hardly comprehend it,Do not comprehend the reason,How thou, Hiisi, here hast wandered,Why thou cam'st, thou evil creature,Thus to bite, and thus to torture,Thus to eat, and thus to gnaw me.Art thou some disease-createdDeath that Jumala ordains me,Or art thou another creature,Fashioned and unloosed by others,Hired beforehand to torment me,Or hast thou been bribed with money?

"If thou art disease-created,Death by Jumala ordained me,Then I trust in my Creator,And to Jumala resign me;For the good the Lord rejects not,Nor does he destroy the righteous.

"If thou art another creature,And an evil wrought by others,Then thy race would I discover,And the place where thou wast nurtured.

"Once before have ills assailed me,Plagues from somewhere have attacked me,From the realms of mighty sorcerers,From the meadows of the soothsayers,And the homes of evil spirits,And the plains where dwell the wizards,From the dreary heaths of Kalma,From beneath the firm earth's surface,From the dwellings of the dead men,From the realms of the departed,From the loose earth heaped in hillocks,From the regions of the landslips,From the loose and gravelly districts,From the shaking sandy regions,From the valleys deeply sunken,From the moss-grown swampy districts,From the marshes all unfrozen,From the billows ever tossing,From the stalls in Hiisi's forest,From five gorges in the mountains,From the slopes of copper mountains,From their summits all of copper,From the ever-rustling pine-trees,And the rustling of the fir-trees,From the crowns of rotten pine-trees,And the tops of rotten fir-trees,From those spots where yelp the foxes,Heaths where elk are chased on snowshoes,From the bear's own rocky caverns,From the caves where bears are lurking,From the furthest bounds of Pohja,From the distant realms of Lapland,From the wastes where grow no bushes,From the lands unploughed for ever,From the battle-fields extended,From the slaughter-place of heroes,From the fields where grass is rustling,From the blood that there is smoking,From the blue sea's watery surface,From the open sea's broad surface,From the black mud of the ocean,From the depth of thousand fathoms,From the fiercely rushing torrents,From the seething of the whirlpool,And from Rutja's mighty cataract,Where the waters rush most wildly,From the further side of heaven,Where the rainless clouds stretch furthest,From the pathway of the spring-wind,From the cradle of the tempests.

"From such regions hast thou journeyedThence hast thou proceeded, Torment,To my heart of evil guiltless,To my belly likewise sinless,To devour and to torment me,And to bite me and to tear me?

"Pine away, O hound of Hiisi,Dog of Manala the vilest,O thou demon, quit my body,Pest of earth, O quit my liver,Let my heart be undevoured,Leave thou, too, my spleen uninjured,Make no stoppage in my belly,And my lungs forbear to traverse,Do not pierce me through the navel,And my loins forbear to injure,And my backbone do not shatter,Nor upon my sides torment me.

"If my strength as man should fail me,Then will I invoke a greater,Which shall rid me of the evil,And shall drive away the horror.

"From the earth I call the Earth-Queen,From the fields, the Lord primeval,From the earth I call all swordsmen,From the sands the hero-horsemen,Call them to my aid and succour,To my help and aid I call them,In the tortures that o'erwhelm me,And amid this dreadful torment.

"If you do not heed their presence,And you will not shrink before them,Come, O forest, with thy people,Junipers, bring all your army.Come, O pinewoods, with your household,And thou pond with all thy children,With their swords a hundred swordsmen,And a thousand mail-clad heroes,That they may assail this Hiisi,And may overwhelm this Juutas!

"If you do not heed their presence,And you will not shrink before them,Rise thou up, O Water-Mother,Raise thy blue cap from the billows,And thy soft robe from the waters,From the ooze thy form of beauty,For a powerless hero's rescue,For a weakly man's protection,Lest I should be eaten guiltless,And without disease be slaughtered.

"If you will not heed their presence,And you will not shrink before them,Ancient Daughter of Creation,Come in all thy golden beauty,Thou the oldest of all women,Thou the first of all the mothers,Come to see the pains that rack me,And the evil days drive from me,That thy strength may overcome them,And perchance may free me from them.

"But if this not yet should move you,And you will not yet draw backwards,Ukko, in the vault of heaven,On the thundercloud's wide border,Come thou here, where thou art needed,Hasten here, where I implore thee,To dispel the works of evil,And destroy this vile enchantment,With thy sword of flame dispel it,With thy flashing sword-blade smite it.

"Go thou horror, forth to wander,Curse of earth depart thou quickly,Here no more shall be thy dwelling,And if thou such dwelling needest,Elsewhere shalt thou seek thy dwellings,Far from here a home shalt find thee,In the household of thy master,In the footsteps of thy mistress.

"When you reach your destination,And your journey you have finished,In the realms of him who made you,In the country of your master,Give a signal of your coming,Let a lightning flash announce it,Let them hear the roll of thunder,Let them see the lightning flashing,And the yard-gate kick to pieces,Pull a shutter from the window,Then the house thou soon canst enter,Rush into the room like whirlwind,Plant thy foot within it firmly,And thy heel where space is narrow,Push the men into the corner,And the women to the doorposts,Scratch the eyes from out the masters,Smash the heads of all the women,Curve thou then to hooks thy fingers,Twist thou then their heads all crooked.

"Or if this is not sufficient,Fly as cock upon the pathway,Or as chicken in the farmyard,With thy breast upon the dunghill,Drive the horses from the stable,From the stalls the horned cattle,Push their horns into the dungheap,On the ground their tails all scatter,Twist thou then their eyes all crooked,And their necks in haste then break thou.

"Art thou Sickness, tempest-carried,Tempest-carried, wind-conducted,And a gift from wind of springtime,By the frosty air led hither,On the path of air conducted,On the sledgeway of the spring-wind,Then upon the trees repose not,Rest thou not upon the alders,Hasten to the copper mountain,Hasten to its copper summit,Let the wind convey thee thither,Guarded by the wind of springtide.

"But if thou from heaven descended,From the rainless clouds' broad margins,Then again ascend to heaven,Once again in air arise thou,To the clouds where rain is falling,To the stars that ever twinkle,That thou there mayst burn like fire,And that thou mayst shine and sparkleOn the sun's own path of splendour,And around the moon's bright circle.

"If thou art some pest of water,Hither drifted by the sea-waves,Let the pest return to water,Journey back amid the sea-waves,To the walls of muddy castles,To the crests of waves like mountains,There amid the waves to welter,Rocking on the darkling billows.

"Cam'st thou from the heaths of Kalma,From the realms of the departed,To thy home return thou quickly,To the dark abodes of Kalma,To the land upheaved in hillocks,To the land that quakes for ever,Where the people fall in battle,And a mighty host has perished.

"If thou foolishly hast wanderedFrom the depths of Hiisi's forest,From the nest amid the pine-trees,From thy home among the fir-trees,Then I drive thee forth and ban thee,To the depths of Hiisi's forest,To thy home among the fir-trees,To thy nest among the pine-trees.There thou mayst remain for ever,Till the flooring-planks have rotted,And the wooden walls are mildewed,And the roof shall fall upon you.

"I will drive thee forth and ban thee,Drive thee forth, O evil creature,Forth unto the old bear's dwelling,To the lair of aged she-bear,To the deep and swampy valleys,To the ever-frozen marshes,To the swamps for ever quaking,Quaking underneath the footsteps,To the ponds where sport no fishes,Where no perch are ever noticed.

"But if there thou find'st no refuge,Further yet will I then ban thee,To the furthest bounds of Pohja,To the distant plains of Lapland,To the barren treeless tundras,To the country where they plough not,Where is neither moon nor sunlight,Where the sun is never shining.There a charming life awaits thee,There to roam about at pleasure.In the woods the elks are lurking.In the woods men hunt the reindeer,That a man may still his hunger,And may satisfy his craving.

"Even further yet I ban thee,Banish thee, and drive thee onward,To the mighty falls of Rutja,To the fiercely raging whirlpool,Thither where the trees have fallen,And the fallen pines are rolling,Tossing trunks of mighty fir-trees,Wide-extended crowns of pine-trees.Swim thou there, thou wicked heathen,In the cataract's foaming torrent,Round to drive 'mid boundless waters,Resting in the narrow waters.

"But if there you find no refuge,Further yet will I then ban you,To the river black of Tuoni,To the eternal stream of Mana,Never in thy life escaping,Never while thy life endureth,Should I not consent to free thee,Nor to ransom thee be able,Come with nine sheep thee to ransom,Which a single ewe has farrowed,And with bullocks, nine in number,From a single cow proceeding,And with stallions, nine in number,From a single mare proceeding.

"Need you horses for your journey,Or there's aught you need for driving,Horses I will give in plenty,Plenty I can give for riding.Hiisi has a horse of beauty,With a red mane, on the mountain.Fire is flashing from his muzzle,And his nostrils brightly shining,And his hoofs are all of iron,And of steel are they constructed.He can climb upon a mountain,Climb the sloping sides of valleys,If his rider mounts him boldly,Urges him to show his mettle.

"But if this is not sufficient,Then may Hiisi make thee snowshoes.Take the alder-shoes of Lempo,Where the thick smoke is the foulest,Skate thou to the land of Hiisi,Rushing through the woods of Lempo,Dashing through the land of Hiisi,Gliding through the evil country.If a stone impedes thy pathway,Crash and scatter it asunder;Lies a branch across thy pathway,Break the branch in twain when passing;If a hero bar thy passage,Drive him boldly from thy pathway.Go thy way, thou lazy creature,Go thou forth, thou man of evil,Now, before the day is dawning,Or the morning twilight glimmer,Or as yet the sun has risen,Or thou yet hast heard the cockcrow!Thou delay'st too long to leave me,Take thy flight, O evil creature,Fare thee forth Into the moonlight,Wander forth amid its brightness.

"If thou wilt not leave me quickly,O thou dog without a mother,I will take the eagles' talonsAnd the claws of the blood-suckers,And of birds of prey the talons,And of hawks the talons likewise,That I thus may seize the demons,Utterly o'ercome these wretches,That my head may ache no longer,Nor my breathing more oppress me.

"Once did Lempo's self flee from me,When he wandered from his mother,When was aid from Jumala granted,Gave his aid, the Great Creator.Wander forth without thy mother,O thou uncreated creature,Wretched dog without a master,Forth, O whelp without a mother,Even while the time is passing,Even while the moon is waning."

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,Answered in the words which follow:"Here I find a pleasant dwelling,Here I dwell in much contentment,And for bread the liver serves me,And the fat with drink supplies me,And the lungs are good for cooking,And the fat is best for eating.

"Therefore will I sink my smithyIn thy heart for ever deeper,And will strike my hammer harder,Pounding on the tenderest places,That in all thy life thou neverFreedom from the ill may'st hope for,If thy spells thou dost not teach me,All thy magic spells shalt teach me,Till thy spells I learn in fulness,And a thousand spells have gathered;Till no spells are hidden from me,Nor the spells of magic hidden,That in caves their power is lost not,Even though the wizards perish."

Vipunen, in songs so famous,He the sage so old in wisdom,In whose mouth was mighty magic,Power unbounded in his bosom,Opened then his mouth of wisdom,Of his spells the casket opened,Sang his mighty spells of magic,Chanted forth of all the greatest,Magic songs of the Creation,From the very earliest ages,Songs that all the children sing not,Even heroes understand not,In these dreary days of evil,In the days that now are passing.

Words of origin he chanted,All his spells he sang in order,At the will of the Creator,At behest of the Almighty,How himself the air he fashioned,And from air the water parted,And the earth was formed from water,And from earth all herbage sprouted.

Then he sang the moon's creation,Likewise how the sun was fashioned,How the air was raised on pillars,How the stars were placed in heaven.

Vipunen, in songs the wisest,Sang in part, and sang in fulness.Never yet was heard or witnessed,Never while the world existed,One who was a better singer,One who was a wiser wizard.From his mouth the words were flowing,And his tongue sent forth his sayings,Quick as legs of foals are moving,Or the feet of rapid courser.

Through the days he sang unceasing,Through the nights without cessation.To his songs the sun gave hearing,And the golden moon stayed listening,Waves stood still on ocean's surface,Billows sank upon its margin,Rivers halted in their courses,Rutja's furious cataract halted,Vuoksi's cataract ceased its flowing,Likewise, too, the river Jordan.

When the aged VäinämöinenUnto all the spells had listened,And had learned the charms in fulness,All the magic spells creative,He prepared himself to travelFrom the widespread jaws of Vipunen;From the belly of the wise one,From within his monstrous body.

Said the aged Väinämöinen,"O thou Antero Vipunen hugest,Open thou thy mouth gigantic,And thy jaws extend more widely.I would quit for earth thy body,And would take my journey homeward."

Vipunen then, in songs the wisest,Answered in the words which follow:"Much I've drunk, and much have eaten,And consumed a thousand dainties,But before I never swallowedAught like aged Väinämöinen.Good indeed has been thy coming,Better 'tis when thou departest."

Then did Antero Vipunen openWide expanding gums grimacing,Open wide his mouth gigantic,And his jaws extended widely,While the aged VäinämöinenTo his mouth made lengthened journey,From the belly of the wise one,From within his monstrous body.From his mouth he glided swiftly,O'er the heath he bounded swiftly,Very like a golden squirrel,Or a golden-breasted marten.

Further on his path he journeyed,Till at length he reached the smithy.Said the smith, e'en Ilmarinen,"Have you found the words you wanted,Have you learned the spells creative,That the boat-sides you can fashion,Spells to fix the stern together,And the bows to deftly fashion?"

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,Answered in the words which follow:"Spells a hundred have I gathered,And a thousand spells of magic,Secret spells were opened to me,Hidden charms were all laid open."

To his boat he hastened quickly,And he set to work most wisely,Set to work the boat to finish,And he fixed the sides together,And the stern he fixed together,And the bows he deftly fashioned,But the boat he built unhammered,Nor a chip he severed from it.