xxiii.—The Origin of Trees.
(a.)
1The boy Sampsa Pellervoinen slept in summer on a hard plain
2In the middle of a cornfield,[1] in the bosom of a grain-ship;
He put six grains of corn, seven seeds,
Into a martin's skin, into the skin of a summer squirrel's leg,
And started off to sow land—to scatter seed thickly.
He sowed land with stooping back, sowed land, sowed swamps,
Sowed sandy clearings, planted places full of stones.
He sowed hillocks to become fir-clumps, sowed hills to become clumps of spruce,
Sandy heaths to become clumps of heather, valleys to be filled with young saplings,
Sowed birches in humid dells—alder trees on loose earth,
Sowed bird-cherry trees on moist land—rowans on holy ground,
Willows on flooded land, sallows on meadow boundaries,
Junipers on sterile land, oaks along a river's banks.
14The trees began to shoot up, the young saplings to rise,
While rocked by windy gusts, while swung by chilly wind,
Bushy-headed firs grew up, branching-headed pines spread out,
Birches rose up in humid dells, alders on loose earth,
Bird-cherry trees on moist land, rowans on holy ground,
Willows on flooded land, sallows on moistish soil,
Junipers on sterile land, oaks along a river's banks.
Variants.
1 The field-boy[2] Pellervoinen, the tiny little boy Sampsa,
1, 2 Ahti,[3] the boy Pellervoinen sowed land formerly,
1, 2 Old Väinämöinen himself, the time-old soothsayer (tietäjä),
1, 2 The aerial God himself, Nature's omnipotent creator,
1, 2 Kunerva, Kanerva's[4] son, sowed land formerly,
14 A lime tree began to grow, a lovely (F. clean) to shoot up.
