Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/40

Was on the point of burning poor iron, his wretched brother.
Iron manages to take to flight, to take to flight, to hide himself
In dark Pohjola, in Lapland's wide and furthest bounds,
Upon the greatest reach of swamp, on a wild mountain-top,
Where swans lay their eggs — a goose hatches its young.
Iron lies stretched upon a swamp — lies idly in a watery place,
Hid a whole year, hid for a second, forthwith hid for a third.
He did not manage certainly to escape the raging hands of fire.
A second time he had to go — to enter rooms of fire
When being made into a weapon, when being forged into a sword.
A wolf was running o'er a swamp, a bear was hurrying o'er a sandy heath.
The swamp rose under the wolf's feet — the sandy heath under the bear's paws,
Iron bars, balls of steel grew up
On the tracks of the wolf, on the dints of the bear's heel.
{The smith Ilmarinen, the very skilful hammerer
v. Good old Väinämöinen, the time-old soothsayer (tietäjä)
(Who) was wending his way, was pursuing his course,
Came by chance on the wolf's tracks — on the dints of the bear's heel,
Saw the iron sprouts, the balls of steel,
On the wolf's huge tracks, on the dints of the bear's heel,
(And) to this speech gives utterance :
"Alas for thee, unlucky iron,
For thou art in a wretched plight — in a lowly situation,
In a wolf's footmarks on a swamp, quite in the footsteps of a bear.
Wouldst thou not grow beautiful — increase in loveliness,
If I extricated thee from the swamp — conveyed thee to a smithy,
Forced thee into a fireplace, set thee down in a forge ?"
Poor iron gave a sudden start, gave a sudden start, took sudden fright,
When he heard fire mentioned, when he heard speak of raging fire.