Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/33

Runo II]

“Noble mother, who hast borne me,

Luonnotar, who me hast nurtured;

Send me powers from out the ocean:

(Numerous are the powers of ocean)

So that they may fell the oak-tree,

And destroy the tree so baneful,

That the sun may shine upon us,

And the pleasant moonlight glimmer.”

Then a man arose from ocean,

From the waves a hero started,

Not the hugest of the hugest,

Nor the smallest of the smallest.

As a man’s thumb was his stature;

Lofty as the span of woman.

Decked his head a helm of copper,

On his feet were boots of copper,

On his hands were copper gauntlets,

Gloves adorned with copper tracings;

Round his waist his belt was copper;

In his belt his axe was copper;

And the haft thereof was thumb-long,

And the blade thereof was nail-long.

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,

Deeply pondered and reflected:

"While he seems a man in semblance,

And a hero in appearance,

Yet his height is but a thumb-length,

Scarce as lofty as an ox-hoof."

Then he spoke the words which follow,

And expressed himself in this wise:

“Who are you, my little fellow,

Most contemptible of heroes,

Than a dead man scarcely stronger;

And your beauty all has vanished.”

Then the puny man from ocean,

Hero of the floods, made answer:

“I’m a man as you behold me,

Small, but mighty water-hero,

I have come to fell the oak-tree,

And to splinter it to fragments.”