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Runo XXX]
Lemminkainen and Tiera
57

“Can I find another hero,
Find a man, and find a swordsman,
Who will join in Ahti’s battle,
And with all his strength will aid me?
“Well is Tiera known unto me,
Well with Kuura I’m acquainted,50
He will be a second hero,
He’s a hero and a swordsman,
He will join in Ahti’s battle,
And with all his strength will aid me.”
Through the villages he wandered,
Found his way to Tiera’s homestead,
And he said on his arrival,
Spoke the object of his coming:
“O my Tiera, faithful comrade,
Of my friends most loved and dearest,60
Thinkest thou on days departed,
On the life we lived aforetime,
When we wandered forth together,
To the fields of mighty battles?
There was not a single village
Where ten houses were not numbered,
There was none among the houses,
Where ten heroes were not living,
There was none among the heroes,
Not a man, however valiant,70
None who did not fall before us,
By us twain who was not slaughtered.”
At the window worked the father,
And a spear-shaft he was carving;
By the threshold stood the mother,
Busy as she churned the butter;
At the door the ruddy brothers,
And they wrought a sledge’s framework;
At the bridge-end stood the sisters,
And the clothes they there were wringing.80
From the window spoke the father,
And the mother from the threshold,
From the door the ruddy brothers,
From the bridge-end spoke the sisters,