d of the Origin of Death) with the
tale of sorrow to the maiden's mother, and from the mother's tears flow
rivers of water, and therein are isles with golden hills where golden
birds make melody. As for the old, the imperturbable Runoia, he loses
his claim to the latter title, he is filled with sorrow, and searches
through all the elements for his lost bride. At length he catches a fish
which is unknown to him, who, like Atlas, 'knew the depths of all the
seas.' The strange fish slips from his hands, a 'tress of hair, of
drowned maiden's hair,' floats for a moment on the foam, and too late he
recognises that 'there was never salmon yet that shone so fair, above the
nets at sea.' His lost bride has been within his reach, and now is
doubly lost to him. Suddenly the waves are cloven asunder, and the
mother of Nature and of Wainamoinen appears, to comfort her son, like
Thetis from the deep. She bids him go and seek, in the land of Pohjola,
a bride alien to his race. After many a wild adventure, Wainamoinen
reaches Pohjola and is kindly entreated by Loutri, the mother of the
maiden of the land. But he grows homesick, and complains, almost in
Dante's words, of the bitter bread of exile. Loutri will only grant him
her daughter's hand on condition that he gives her a sampo. A sampo is a
mysterious engine that grinds meal, salt, and money. In fact, it is the
mill in the well-known fairy tale, 'Why the Sea is Salt.' {169}

Wainamoinen cannot fashion this mill himself, he must seek aid at home
from Ilmarinen, the smith who forged 'the iron vault of hollow heaven.'
As the hero returns to Kalevala, he meets the Lady of the Rainbow, seated
on the arch of the sky, weaving the golden thread. She promises to be
his, if he will accomplish certain tasks, and in the course of those he
wounds himself with an axe. The wound can only be healed by one who
knows the mystic words that hold the secret of the birth of iron. The
legend of this evil birth, how iron grew from the milk of a maiden, and
was forged by the primeval smith, Ilmarinen, to be the bane of warlike
men, is communicated by Wainamoinen to an old magician. The wizard then
solemnly curses the iron, _as a living thing_, and invokes the aid of the
supreme God Ukko, thus bringing together in one prayer the extremes of
early religion. Then the hero is healed, and gives thanks to the
Creator, 'in whose hands is the end of a matter.'

Returning to Kalevala, Wainamoinen se