Runo XLVIX.—False and True Moons and Suns
Argument
Ilmarinen forges a new moon and sun but cannot make them shine (1-74). Väinämöinen discovers by divination that the moon and sun are hidden in the mountain of Pohjola, goes to Pohjola and conquers the whole nation (75-230). He sees the moon and sun in the mountain, but cannot enter (231-278). He returns home to procure tools with which to break open the mountain. While Ilmarinen is forging them, the Mistress of Pohjola, fearing that it may go ill with her, releases the moon and sun (279-362). When Väinämöinen sees the moon and sun reappear in the sky, he salutes them, hoping that they will always go brightly on their course, and bring happiness to the country (363-422).
Still the sun was never shining,
Neither gleamed the golden moonlight,
Not in Väinöla’s dark dwellings,
Not on Kalevala’s broad heathlands.
Frost upon the crops descended,
And the cattle suffered greatly,
And the birds of air felt strangely,
All mankind felt ever mournful,
For the sunlight shone no longer,
Neither did there shine the moonlight.10
Though the pike knew well the pike-deeps,
And the bird-paths knew the eagle,
And the wind the vessel’s journey,
Yet mankind were all unknowing
If the time was really morning,
Or if perhaps it still was night-time,
Out upon the cloudy headland,
And upon the shady island.
And the young men then took counsel,
And the older men considered20
How to live without the moonlight,
And exist without the sunlight,
In that miserable country,
In the wretched land of Pohja.
