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Everywhere they see destruction;

But a hero need not fear it,

Nor need take extreme precautions.

But let this be as it may be,

Tell me that my ears may hear it,

Tell me the first death that waits me,

Tell the first and tell the last one.”

Then said Lemminkainen’s mother,

Answered then, the aged woman:

“I will tell the deaths that wait you,

Not as you would have me tell them;

Of the first death I will tell you,

And this death is first among them.

When a little way you’ve travelled

On the first day of your journey,

You will reach a fiery river,

Flaming right across your pathway,

In the stream a cataract fiery,

In the fall a fiery island,

On the isle a peak all fiery,

On the peak a fiery eagle,

One who whets his beak at night-time,

And his claws in daytime sharpens,

For the strangers who are coming,

And the people who approach him.”

Answered lively Lemminkainen,

Said the handsome Kaukomieli,

“This is perhaps a death for women,

But ’tis not a death for heroes.

For I know a plan already,

And a splendid scheme to follow.

I’ll create, by songs of magic,

Both a man and horse of alder.

They shall walk along beside me,

And shall wander on before me,

While I like a duck am diving,

Like a scoter duck am diving,

’Neath the soaring eagle’s talons,

Talons of the mighty eagle.

O my mother, who hast borne me,