Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/211

Runo XVII]

And from earth all herbage sprouted.

Then he sang the moon’s creation,

Likewise how the sun was fashioned,

How the air was raised on pillars,

How the stars were placed in heaven.

Vipunen, in songs the wisest,

Sang in part, and sang in fulness.

Never yet was heard or witnessed,

Never while the world existed,

One who was a better singer,

One who was a wiser wizard.

From his mouth the words were flowing,

And his tongue sent forth his sayings,

Quick as legs of foals are moving,

Or the feet of rapid courser.

Through the days he sang unceasing,

Through the nights without cessation.

To his songs the sun gave hearing,

And the golden moon stayed listening,

Waves stood still on ocean’s surface,

Billows sank upon its margin,

Rivers halted in their courses,

Rutja’s furious cataract halted,

Vuoksi’s cataract ceased its flowing,

Likewise, too, the river Jordan.

When the aged Väinämöinen

Unto all the spells had listened,

And had learned the charms in fulness,

All the magic spells creative,

He prepared himself to travel

From the wide-spread jaws of Vipunen;

From the belly of the wise one,

From within his monstrous body.

Said the aged Väinämöinen,

“O thou Antero Vipunen hugest,

Open thou thy mouth gigantic,

And thy jaws extend more widely.

I would quit for earth thy body,

And would take my journey homeward.”

Vipunen then, in songs the wisest,

Answered in the words which follow: