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172
Kalevala
[Runo XLII

For the roots were rooted firmly
In the depths nine fathoms under.
There was then a bull in Pohja,
Which had grown to size enormous,
And his sides were sleek and fattened,
And his sinews of the strongest;
Horns he had in length a fathom,
One-half more his muzzle’s thickness.150
So they led him from the meadow,
On the borders of the ploughed field,
Up they ploughed the roots of Sampo,
Those which fixed the pictured cover,
Then began to move the Sampo,
And to sway the pictured cover.
Then the aged Väinämöinen,
Secondly, smith Ilmarinen,
Third, the lively Lemminkainen
Carried forth the mighty Sampo,160
Forth from Pohjola’s stone mountain,
From within the hill of copper,
To the boat away they bore it,
And within the ship they stowed it.
In the boat they stowed the Sampo,
In the hold the pictured cover,
Pushed the boat into the water,
In the waves the hundred-boarded;
Splashed the boat into the water,
In the waves its sides descended.170
Asked the smith, said Ilmarinen,
And he spoke the words which follow:
“Whither shall we bear the Sampo,
Whither now shall we convey it,
Take it from this evil country,
From the wretched land of Pohja?“
Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,
Answered in the words which follow:
“Thither will we bear the Sampo,
And will take the pictured cover,180
To the misty island’s headland,
At the end of shady island,