Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/95

Runo VIII]

Working thus one day, a second,

On the third day likewise working,

But the rocks his axe-blade touched not,

And upon the hill it rang not.

But at length, upon the third day,

Hiisi turned aside the axe-shaft,

Lempo turned the edge against him,

And an evil stroke delivered.

On the rocks the axe-blade glinted,

On the hill the blade rang loudly,

From the rock the axe rebounded,

In the flesh the steel was buried,

In the victim’s knee ’twas buried,

In the toes of Väinämöinen,

In the flesh did Lempo drive it,

To the veins did Hiisi guide it,

From the wound the blood flowed freely,

Bursting forth in streaming torrents.

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,

He, the oldest of magicians,

Uttered words like those which follow,

And expressed himself in this wise:

“O thou evil axe ferocious,

With thy edge of gleaming sharpness,

Thou hast thought to hew a tree-trunk,

And to strike upon a pine-tree,

Match thyself against a fir-tree,

Or to fall upon a birch-tree.

’Tis my flesh that thou hast wounded,

And my veins thou hast divided.”

Then his magic spells he uttered,

And himself began to speak them,

Spells of origin, for healing,

And to close the wound completely.

But he could not think of any

Words of origin of iron,

Which might serve to bind the evil,

And to close the gaping edges

Of the great wound from the iron,

By the blue edge deeply bitten.