Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/99

Runo IX]

From the stove the old man mumbled,

Cried the greybeard when he saw him,

“Who among mankind may’st thou be,

Who among the roll of heroes?

Seven large boats with blood are brimming,

Eight large tubs are overflowing

From your knee, O most unhappy,

On the floor in torrents gushing.

Other words I well remember,

But the oldest I recall not,

How the iron was first created,

And the unworked ore was fashioned.”

Then the aged Väinämöinen

Answered in the words that follow:

“Well I know the birth of Iron,

And how steel was first created.

Air is the primeval mother,

Water is the eldest brother,

Iron is the youngest brother,

And the Fire in midst between them.

“Ukko, mightiest of Creators,

He, the God above in heaven,

From the Air the Water parted,

And the continents from water,

When unborn was evil Iron,

Uncreated, undeveloped.

“Ukko, God of realms supernal,

Rubbed his mighty hands together.

Both his hands he rubbed together,

On his left knee then he pressed them,

And three maidens were created,

Three fair Daughters of Creation,

Mothers of the rust of Iron,

And of blue-mouthed steel the fosterers.

“Strolled the maids with faltering footsteps

On the borders of the cloudlets,

And their full breasts were o’erflowing,

And their nipples pained them sorely.

Down on earth their milk ran over,

From their breasts’ o’erflowing fulness,