THE PLANTING OF THE TREES

Wainamoinen lived for many years upon the island on which he had first
landed from the sea, pondering how he should plant the trees and make
the mighty forests grow. At length he thought of Sampsa, the first-born
son of the plains, and he sent for him to do the sowing. So Sampsa came
and scattered abroad the seeds of all the trees and plants that are now
on the earth,--firs and pine-trees on the hills, alders, lindens, and
willows in the lowlands, and bushes and hawthorn in the secluded nooks.

Soon all the trees had grown up and become great forests, and the
hawthorns were covered with berries. Only the acorn lay quiet in the
ground and refused to sprout. Wainamoinen watched seven days and nights
to see if it would begin to grow, but it lay perfectly still. Just then
he saw ocean maidens on the shore, cutting grass and raking it into
heaps. And as he watched them there came a great giant out of the sea
and pressed the heaps into such tight bundles that the grass caught fire
and burnt to ashes. Then the giant took an acorn and planted it in the
ashes, and almost instantly it began to sprout, and a tree shot up and
grew and grew until it became a mighty oak, whose top was far above the
clouds, and whose branches shut out the light of the Sun and the Moon
and the stars.

When Wainamoinen saw how the oak had shut off all the light from the
earth, he was as deeply perplexed how to get rid of it, as he had been
before to make it grow. So he prayed to his mother Ilmatar to grant him
power to overthrow this mighty tree, so that the sun might shine once
more on the plains of Kalevala.

No sooner had he asked Ilmatar for help than there stepped out of the
sea a tiny man no bigger than one's finger, dressed in cap, gloves, and
clothes of copper, and carrying a small copper hatchet in his belt.
Wainamoinen asked him who he was, and the tiny man replied: 'I am a
mighty ocean-hero, and am come to cut down the oak-tree.' But
Wainamoinen began to laugh at the idea of so little a man being able to
cut down so huge a tree.

But even while Wainamoinen was laughing, the dwarf grew all at once
into a great giant, whose head was higher than the clouds, and whose
long beard fell down to his knees. The giant began to whet his axe on a
huge piece of rock, and before he had finished he had worn out six
blocks of the hardest rock and seven of the softest sandstone. Then he
strode up to the tree and began to c