United States or Macao ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
And while they ate, the others, who had been old Louhi's guests, began to arrive, and soon there was a great feast going on, almost as great a one as there had been before at Louhi's. While they were all feasting, Wainamoinen arose and began to sing again.
And in a very short time Lemminkainen saw that he must either flee or else be killed if he remained. Lemminkainen hastened from Louhi's house and looked around for his sledge and steed to escape from the Pohjola men. But both had disappeared, and in their place he found only a clump of willows.
'Yes, replied Ilmarinen, 'I have forged the Sampo, with its lid of many colours. Louhi has the wondrous Sampo, but I have lost the beauteous maiden. 'Ah! said little Mimi, 'old Louhi's daughter was just as mean as could be, and of course she didn't keep her promise, because Lapps never can be good people.
The first day he built the chimney and started a fire; the second day he made his bellows and put them in place; the third day he finished his furnace, and had all ready to begin his work. Then Ilmarinen made a magic mixture of certain metals and put them in the bottom of the furnace. And he hired some of Louhi's men to work the bellows and keep putting fuel on the fire.
When she saw the troubled look in his face, she guessed that some great danger threatened him, and began to ask him if it were this, or that, or the other that troubled him, but to all her questions he answered 'no. At length she bade him tell her, then, what his trouble was, and he replied: 'All the men of Northland are sharpening their swords and spears to kill thy unlucky son Ahti, for I have slain the host of Pohjola, Louhi's husband, in a quarrel, and the men of Northland will soon come hither to avenge it.
Then Wainamoinen saw that he must use some other means, so he took out a piece of flint from his tinder-box and dropped it into the water, saying as he did so: 'Rise up from the bottom of the sea into a mighty mountain, so that Louhi's ship may be dashed to pieces. And suddenly a mountain of rock sprang up out of the water, and before Louhi could stop her ship it had hit upon the rocks and was wrecked.
Then he told her the truth, that he was going to woo the Rainbow-maiden, Louhi's daughter, and then Annikki knew that he spoke the truth.
This he rubbed between his hands and breathed on it, and it changed into a whole flock of sheep, on which the bear and the wolf jumped and left Lemminkainen to pursue his journey in peace. In a very short time he had reached Louhi's house. But there he found the great wall of iron and the fence of spears and the horrible snakes and lizards that his mother had told him of.
Soon they drew near to Louhi's dwelling, and the watchdogs began to bark more loudly than they had ever done before. Louhi's husband told his daughter to go and see what the trouble was, but she replied that she was busy grinding barley, and could not go. Then he told his wife to go, but she was too busy cooking dinner.
So Ilmarinen cast the maid of gold into a corner of his smithy and harnessed up his sledge and drove off to the dismal Northland, to ask Louhi to give him another of her daughters in marriage. Three days he journeyed, and on the evening of the third he reached old Louhi's home.
Word Of The Day