Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/103

Runo IX]

Perhaps you might become outrageous,

And commit some furious action.

Perhaps you might attack your brother,

And your mother’s child might injure.'

“Therefore swore the Iron unhappy,

By the oaths of all most solemn,

By the forge and by the anvil,

By the hammer and the mallet,

And it said the words which follow,

And expressed itself in this wise:

‘Give me trees that I can bite them,

Give me stones that I may break them,

I will not assault my brother,

Nor my mother’s child will injure.

Better will be my existence,

And my life will be more happy,

If I dwell among companions,

As the tools of handicraftsmen,

Than to wound my own relations,

And disgrace my own connections.’

“Then the smith, e’en Ilmarinen,

He, the great primeval craftsman,

From the fire removed the Iron;

Laid it down upon the anvil,

Welded it till it was wearied,

Shaped it into pointed weapons,

Into spears, and into axes,

Into tools of all descriptions.

Still there was a trifle wanting,

And the soft Iron still defective,

For the tongue of Iron had hissed not,

And its mouth of steel was formed not,

For the Iron was not yet hardened,

Nor with water had been tempered.

“Then the smith, e’en Ilmarinen,

Pondered over what was needed,

Mixed a small supply of ashes,

And some lye he added to it,

To the blue steel’s smelting mixture,

For the tempering of the Iron.