Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/166

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To receive the golden bridle,

With the bit of shining silver.

Thus did lively Lemminkainen

Bridle Hiisi’s mighty courser,

In his mouth the bit adjusted,

On his silver head the bridle,

On his broad back then he mounted,

On the back of that good courser.

O’er the horse his whip he brandished,

With a willow switch he struck him,

And a little way he journeyed

Hasting onward through the mountains,

Through the mountains to the northward,

Over all the snow-clad mountains,

Unto Pohjola’s bleak homestead.

From the yard the hall he entered,

And he said on his arrival,

Soon as Pohjola he entered:

“I have reined the mighty courser,

Brought the foal of Hiisi bridled,

From the green and open meadows,

And the sacred field beyond them,

And I tracked the elk on snowshoes,

On the distant plains of Hiisi.

Give me now, old dame, your daughter,

Give the youthful bride I seek for.”

Louhi, Pohjola’s old Mistress,

Answered in the words which follow:

“I will only give my daughter,

Give the youthful bride you seek for,

If the river-swan you shoot me,

Shoot the great bird on the river.

There on Tuoni’s murky river,

In the sacred river’s whirlpool,

Only at a single trial,

Using but a single arrow.”

Then the lively Lemminkainen

He the handsome Kaukomieli,

Went and took his twanging crossbow,

Went away to seek the Long-neck,