Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/73

Runo XXX]

Thou may’st freeze the stones when heated,

And the slabs of stone when glowing,

Thou may’st freeze the iron mountains,

And the rocks of steely hardness,

And the mighty river Vuoksi,

Or the Imatra terrific,

Stop the course of raging whirlpool,

Foaming in its utmost fury.

“Shall I tell you of your lineage,

And shall I make known your honours?

Surely do I know thy lineage,

All I know of thine uprearing;

For the Frost was born ’mid willows,

Nurtured in the sharpest weather,

Near to Pohjola’s great homestead,

Near the hall of Pimentola,

Sprung from father, ever crime-stained,

And from a most wicked mother.

“Who was it the Frost who suckled,

Bathed him in the glowing weather?

Milkless wholly was his mother,

And his mother wholly breastless.

“Adders ’twas the Frost who suckled,

Adders suckled, serpents fed him,

Suckled with their pointless nipples,

Suckled with their dried-up udders,

And the Northwind rocked his cradle,

And to rest the cold air soothed him,

In the wretched willow-thicket,

In the midst of quaking marshes.

“And the boy was reared up vicious,

Led an evil life destructive,

But as yet no name was given,

To a boy so wholly worthless;

When at length a name was given,

Frost it was they called the scoundrel.

“Then he wandered by the hedges,

Always dancing in the bushes,

Wading through the swamps in summer

On the broadest of the marshes,