• This is part of my "Kalevala series" in which I tell the epic folklore poetry of Finns as a series of short stories, one rune at a time.

• Don't know what Kalevala is? Check my introduction post of it: Kaleva: An epic folklore of Finns - A source of inspiration for Tolkien's mythology

• Want to start from the beginning? Go to: Part 1: The birth of Väinämöinen

• Previous part: The Birth of the Iron
  (NSFW-ish)

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With his recovered knee Väinämöinen harnessed his stallion and headed back to the boreal forests of Kalevala.

He sang a spruce up towards the sky, spread it so that the stars of Big Bear seemed like they were attached to its branches.

~

Eventually he encountered Ilmarinen who wondered where he had been and what he had done.

Väinämöinen explained he had spent a week in the North and tried to lure Ilmarinen:

"One is maiden far in the North, in the village of frostbite's coldness,
one who doesn't accept proposals, doesn't get fond to men of goodness."

"But you blacksmith Ilmarinen, forger eternal get on to
forging of the colored Sampo. Get it exchanged for a maiden,
paid from the Mistress of the North, for your work you shall go get her."

But Ilmarinen suspected something:

"Have you o' great Väinämöinen promised me for the murky North,
as a ransom for your own head?"

"Never ever shall you see such absurd day when you see me leave
to the desperate sinking lands, destroyer of men's drowning dreams."

Väinämöinen turned to his plan B:

He told Ilmarinen about the weird obscure he saw by the field.
Ilmarinen was, again, suspicious about him.

"As you won't believe in my words, we shall go and witness by ourselves,
whether a truth is told or a lie."

They walked beside the field to the spruce in where Väinämöinen pointed to the Moon and the stars of Big Bear which, falsely, appeared to be attached to the spruce.

By Väinämöinen's enouragement Ilmarinen climbed to the spruce to grab the Moon...

Then Väinämöinen canturreared his song to the wind and built a rage into the air with his word:

"Come, o' wi'ind, take on your sail, carry on your yacht, your boat to,
move him, roll to the dark cold North."

Thus, the wind rose building its wrath and took Ilmarinen carrying him to the distant North along its routes of air above the Moon, under the stars.

~

Louhi, the Mistress of the North came in to the hut with news:

"My maiden, my belo'oved child! Put the best finery on you.
Smith Ilmarinen has arrived, forger eternal to work on
with the forging of the Sampo."

Ilmarinen was introduced with the rooms of the North and accepted Louhi's offer to forge the Sampo for her daughter as a reward when he saw her walking in with golds on her chest, silvers on her head, astounding by her eyes, cheerful by her cheeks, eager by her ears, phenomenal by her face.

But there was no forge in the North so he went to find a rock in which he could make one.

With the help of slaves heating up the furnace, Ilmarinen began his work:

On the first day a crossbow was forged. While being fancy it was evil and demanded a victim every day. Thus it was destroyed and thrown back in to the furnace.

On the second day a ship was created. But it was also only going to demand lives by going to war so Ilmarinen broke it into peaces and threw it back in to the heat.

On the third day a cow, a metallic heifer with golden horns and a star on its forehead, was emerged. But it only lied on the ground and wasted its milk so it was thrown back into the furnace.

On the fourth day a plough was created but it destroyed the fields already planted and thus, was also destroyed.

Ilmarinen conjured the wind from all points to blow into the raging forge.

With skill he hammered the Sampo into a mill:
on one side a flour refiner,
a salt mill to another,
and a gold mill to the third.

Louhi was thrilled by the artifact and locked it securely under a hill but for Ilmarinen's unfortune, Louhi's daughter refused to marry him:

"If I little chicken was gone, lost and digressed from her mother,
birds would flee their songs would fade away, from these lands where I shall still work,
otherwise would berries rotten, nature be left without my songs."

...and he was disappointingly left with nothing.

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• Part 11: Lemminkäinen's quest for a wife

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Pics: 1, 2, 3