KALEVALA
Runo XXVI.—Lemminkainen’s Journey to Pohjola
Argument
Lemminkainen, greatly offended that he was not invited to the wedding, resolves to go to Pohjola, although his mother dissuades him from it, and warns him of the many dangers that he will have to encounter (1-382). He sets forth and succeeds in passing all the dangerous places by his skill in magic (383-776).
Ahti dwelt upon an island,
By the bay near Kauko’s headland,
And his fields he tilled industrious,
And the fields he trenched with ploughing,
And his ears were of the finest,
And his hearing of the keenest.
Heard he shouting in the village,
From the lake came sounds of hammering,
On the ice the sound of footsteps,
On the heath a sledge was rattling,10
Therefore in his mind he fancied,
In his brain the notion entered,
That at Pohjola was wedding,
And a drinking-bout in secret.
Mouth and head awry then twisting,
And his black beard all disordered,
In his rage the blood departed
From the cheeks of him unhappy,
And at once he left his ploughing,
’Mid the field he left the ploughshare,20
On the spot his horse he mounted,
And he rode directly homeward,
To his dearest mother’s dwelling,
To his dear and aged mother.
And he said as he approached her,
And he called, as he was coming,
“O my mother, aged woman,
