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Updated: June 3, 2025
But a raven came flying up and offered to attempt it, and Wainamoinen promised him the most beautiful plumage if he should succeed, but the raven tried and failed. Then came a duck, and Wainamoinen made it the same promise.
After Wainamoinen had prayed thus to Ukko, he took a magic balsam and rubbed it over all those that were ill, and sang magic spells over them, and then prayed once more to Ukko for success, and at length he drove out the nine diseases and saved his people from dying.
And Wainamoinen answered that he had left them for the birds to build their nests on, and for the eagle to rest on, and for the sacred cuckoo to sit in and sing. The eagle was so pleased at this that he kindled a fire amongst the other trees for Wainamoinen, and they were all burnt except the birches.
They gave way before him, and in a moment he was out in the courtyard, where he could have room to fight fairly. All the warriors rushed at him with drawn swords and lifted spears, and the fire flashed from their weapons. But Wainamoinen was more than a match for all of them, and in a very short time he had stretched them all lifeless on the ground.
No sooner was Wainamoinen cured of his wound than he put his sledge in order and drove off at lightning speed towards Kalevala. For three days he journeyed over hills and valleys, over marshes and meadows, and on the evening of the third day he reached the land of Kalevala once again. There, on the border line he halted, and began a magic song.
And when the evening of the eighth day came and still no land was in sight, he began to grow tired and to despair of ever getting out alive. But just then he spied an eagle of wonderful size flying towards him from the west. And the eagle flew up to him and asked who he was and how he had come there in the ocean. And Wainamoinen replied: 'I am Wainamoinen, the great singer and magician.
Then he cast loose from the shore and sailed off towards the west, singing as he went: 'Fare ye well, my people. Many suns shall rise and set on Kalevala until the people shall at length regret my absence and shall call upon me to come back with my magic songs and wisdom. Fare ye well. Thus Wainamoinen, in his magic boat of copper, left Kalevala.
Inside he saw the Sun and Moon prisoners, but though he tried with all his strength and all his magic spells to open the door, it still remained tightly shut, and he could not budge it so much as an inch. Wainamoinen began to despair of ever succeeding in liberating the Sun and Moon, and he hastened off home to ask for Ilmarinen's help.
Slowly, slowly he felt himself sinking into a quicksand, and all his struggles to escape were in vain. When he had sunk up to his waist he began to beg for mercy, and cried out: 'O great Wainamoinen, thou art the greatest of all magicians. Release me, I beg, from this quicksand, and I will give thee two magic bows.
This was the ransom that Wainamoinen had been waiting for, for Aino was famous for her beauty and loveliness of character, and so he released poor Youkahainen and gave him back his sledge and everything just as it had been before. And when it was all ready Youkahainen jumped into it and drove off home without saying a word.
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