Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/269

Runo XLVIX]

Hereupon the bird spoke language,

And the hawk at once responded:

“What is this, O smith, thou makest,

What, O blacksmith, art thou forging?“

Thereupon smith Ilmarinen

Answered in the words that follow:

“Tis a neck-ring I am forging,

For the aged crone of Pohja,

That she may be firmly fettered

To the side of a great mountain.”

Louhi, Pohjola’s old Mistress,

Old and gap-toothed dame of Pohja,

Felt on this her doom was coming,

On her head the days of evil,

And at once to flight betook her,

Swift to Pohjola escaping.

From the stone the moon released she,

From the rock the sun released she,

Then again her form she altered,

And to dove herself converted,

And her flight again directed

Unto Ilmarinen’s smithy,

To the door in bird-form flying,

Lit as dove upon the threshold.

Thereupon smith Ilmarinen

Asked her in the words which follow:

“Why, O bird, hast thou flown hither?

Dove, why sit’st thou on the threshold?”

From the door the wild bird answered,

And the dove spoke from the threshold:

“Here I sit upon the threshold,

That the news I now may bring thee.

From the stone the moon has risen,

From the rock the sun is loosened.”

Thereupon smith Ilmarinen

Hastened forth to gaze around him,

And he stood at door of smithy,

Gazing anxiously to heaven,

And he saw the moon was gleaming,

And he saw the sun was shining.

vol. ii.