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Runo XLVIX]
Moons and Suns
251

And the lot spoke words most faithful,
And the signs made answer truly,
For they said the sun was hidden,
And the moon was also sunken,
Deep in Pohjola’s stone mountain,
And within the hill of copper.110
Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,
Uttered then the words which follow:
“I to Pohjola must journey,
On the path of Pohja’s children,
And will bring the moon to shining,
And the golden sun to shining.”
Forth he journeyed, and he hastened
Unto Pohjola’s dark regions,
And he walked one day, a second,
And at length upon the third day120
Came in view the gate of Pohja,
And appeared the rocky mountains.
Then with all his strength he shouted,
As he came to Pohja’s river,
“Bring me here a boat directly
Which shall take me o’er the river.”
As his shouting was not heeded,
And no boat for him provided,
Wood into a heap he gathered,
And the dead twigs of a fir-tree.130
On the shore he made a fire,
And thick clouds of smoke rose upward;
To the sky the flame rose upward,
In the air the smoke ascended.
Louhi, Pohjola’s old Mistress
Came herself unto the window,
And, at the sound’s opening gazing,
Then she spoke the words which follow:
“What’s the flame that’s burning yonder,
Where the Sound of Saari opens?140
For a camp too small I think it,
But ’tis larger than a fisher’s.”
Then the son of Pohja’s country
Hurried out into the open,