• 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 hunt for the Moose of Hiisi

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With a failure on his back, Lemminkäinen thought whether he should give up or still go after the moose of Hiisi.

He decided to dialect his pray to Ukko:

"O' Ukko the supreme go'od, make me a pair of straight ski'is,
with whom I will ski to the North, across the vague lands of Hiisi,
where the elk is holding its ground."

"Hail the woods, mountains and pine trees, well the spruces and their master!;
wake up, bend under Tapio, lord of forests, king of the woods,
stand up on to your past glory; escort through the Tapiola."

"Mielikki, mistress of the forest, pure in your heart, fair by your form,
let the gold roam, send the silver, shine onto seeker's searching steps.
Use your keys resting on your thigh, unlock the fortress of Tapio,
move the forest's barn on its feet, on my hunting days in your lands."

He rushed skiing with a divine help through swamps and boreals of Hiisi and through deep forests, on the lands of God.

~

Once upon a time the fortress of Tapio - built with wood, bones and stone each for their own - were strong, and the lord, with mistress of the forest, used to carry themselves with pride carrying gold and silver all over them.

But upon Lemminkäinen's arrival he was stunned seeing them in their modesty:

He talked to the mistress, the lord, and their sons and daughters - to all the folks of the forest - to lift their spirits up, to lift the gold onto spruces and the silver to pine trees.

Lemminkäinen spent days among the nation in the forest who were awed by his verses, thus, prividing their help to lead the Moose of Hiisi to him so he could finally claim his prize.

With the moose he went to the Mistress of the North, only to get another mission:

"Then I will give you a maiden, a wife for you as a bounty:
hunt down the Gelding of Hiisi, fiery maned strong jawed brown horse."

Lemminkäinen stepped in to a verdant, beside holy field of Hiisi to look for the colt.
He looked for a day, for two and climbed on top of a hill, when he turned his head under the sun to discover the gelding which mane snapped fire and sprayed smoke.

Again, Lemminkäinen turned to his God and prayed for Ukko:

"O' Ukko holder of the clouds, supreme powered above all else;
open the air, divide the sky, bring a hailstorm ascend cooler,
onto the horse's fiery mane."

Such was the god above the clouds who let the storm crackle, to rip the sky apart sending ice, freeze and iron hails the size of a man's head onto the horses blaze putting out its fire.

Lemminkäinen harnessed the gelding of Hiisi with gold and silver, bridled it and rode with it back to the Mistress of the North, who still wouldn't let Lemminkäinen claim his prize, sending him to a cursed mission to begin with:

"Then I shall give you my daughter: shoot the swa'an from the river,
holy black stream river of death, the bird from underworld, Tuonela."

Thus, Lemminkäinen, beautiful absentmind, aimed his search for the shooting of a swan in the river Tuoni: he stepped to the river across which dead people head to Tuonela.

With a fine crossbow and arrows he searched for the swan, finally getting it on his sight preparing to ambush,

but a cow herder, wethat, blind old man from the North had stalked Lemminkäinen; he picked up a water viper from the waters and thursted it to Lemminkäinen,

penetrating his hearth, exiting through his liver.

"Worst deed I had done when not been prepared for the worst of the days:
Didn't ask my mother how to escape the venom of viper."

"O' my mother one who beared me: Would you feel, would you know where I'm;
guaranteed you'd come for my help, in time let your son out of distress,
from the path onto early death, falling of my fresh blood into sleep."

The wethat, cow herder old man pushed his body into the river along which his body drifted into Tuonela's houses where a bloody son of Tuoni cut Lemminkäinen's body into peaces and threw them into the rapids of the flow, down to the black stream of underworld.

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• Part 15: Lemminkäinen's revival

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Pics: 1, 2, 3, 4