e the eagle and the dwarf were still remaining, and told her husband
how she had found the dwarf, who was no larger than Kalev's thumb, under
the wing of the eagle. The islander asked the dwarf if he would fell the
oak-tree, and he consented at once, on condition that he should be
released from his captivity; he was also given a dish of pure gold.

The dwarf went out and took a good look at the oak-tree, and then he
himself began to grow, first by ells, and then by fathoms. Having thus
become a giant, he began to hew at the tree, and he hewed at it for
three days, till it fell, covering half the island and half the sea with
its branches. The trunk was used to make a great bridge, with two arms,
reaching from the island to Finland on the one side, and to Esthonia on
the other. Large ships were built of the summit, merchant-vessels from
the trunk, towns from the roots, rowing-boats from the branches, and
children's boats from the chips. What remained was used to make shelters
for weak old men, sick widows, and orphan children, and the last
branches left were used to build a little room in which the minstrel
could sing his songs. Strangers who came now and then across the bridge
stopped before the minstrel's hut to ask the name of the city with the
magnificent palace; and the minstrel replied that there was nothing
there but his poor hut, and all the splendour they beheld was the light
of his songs reflected from heaven.

[Footnote 45: In the _Kalevala_ (Runo 34) an old woman directs Kullervo
to the house of his parents.]

CANTO VII

THE RETURN OF THE KALEVIDE

The Kalevide slept till the following morning, and when at length he
awoke he tried in vain to recollect the events of the day before. He
could not remember whether he had been in Finland or on the island, or
whether he had been engaged in battle. He had no remembrance of having
slain the smith's son; but he got up half-dazed, and walked on without
stopping till he reached the seashore on the third day afterwards. Here
he found the sorcerer's boat; so he stepped into it, hoisted sail, and
set off homewards.

Kalev's offspring was not weary,
For his back was like an oak-tree,
And his shoulders gnarled and knotted,
And his arms like trunks of oak-trees,
And like elm-trees were his elbows,
And his fingers spread like branches,
And his finger-nails like boxwood,
And his loins like hardened iron.

The Kalevide was now in