happened afterwards.

[Illustration]

ILMARINEN FORGES THE SAMPO

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 as he
sang a fir-tree began to grow from the earth, and kept on growing until
its top had grown up above the clouds and reached to the stars. When the
tree had finished growing, Wainamoinen sang another magic song, so that
the moon was caught fast in the tree's branches and obliged to shine
there until Wainamoinen should reverse his spell. And then by another
spell he made the stars of the Great Bear fast in the tree-top, and
then jumped into his sledge and drove on again to his home, with his
cap set awry on his head, mourning because he had promised to send
Ilmarinen back to the Northland, to forge the magic Sampo as his ransom.

As he drove on he came to Ilmarinen's smithy, and he stopped and went in
to him. Ilmarinen welcomed him and asked where he had been so long, and
what had happened to him.

Then Wainamoinen told him of his journey to the Northland, and all the
dangers he had gone through, and he added: 'In a village there I saw a
maiden, who is the fairest in all the Northland. All there sing her
praises, for her forehead shines like the rainbow and her face is fair
as the golden moonlight. She is more beautiful than the sun and all the
stars together, but she will not marry any suitor. But do thou go, dear
Ilmarinen, and see her wondrous beauty; forge the magic Sampo for her
mother and then thou shalt win this lovely maiden to be thy wife.'

But Ilmarinen replied: 'O cunning Wainamoinen, I know that thou hast
promised me as a ransom for thyself. But I will never go to that gloomy
country, nor do I care for thy beautiful maiden; I will not go for all
the maids in Pohjola.'

Wainamoinen answered: 'But I can tell thee of still greater wonders,
for I have seen a giant fir-tree growing on the border of our own
country; its top is higher than the clouds, and in its branches shine
the moon and the Great Bear.'

'I will not believe thy wonderful story,' replied Ilmarinen, 'until I
see the tree with my own eyes and the moon and stars shining in it.'

'Come with me,' said Wainamoinen, 'an