Kalevala shortly #7 - The deal between Väinämöinen and Louhi, the Mistress of the North

• This is part of my "Kalevala series" in which I tell the epic folklore poetry collection 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: Joukahainen's revenge

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Wise old reliable Väinämöinen kept drifting in the endless back of the sea for days of week.

In his pinch a great fiery eagle, bird from Lapland whose wing bevels the sea while its other wing wipes the sky, gliding, winding, saw him:

"Why are you man in the ocean,
in the mercy of its combers?"

Väinämöinen said, like that he called:

"For a virgin in the North I went, maiden in the cold far darkness."

"With a riding stallion over seas, but shot it got, I fell down to
the sea to be drifted by wind, huge gale rampaging the ocean,
in the va'ast open waters, for days and nights here I've floated."

And such is eagle, the bird of air, who took Väinämöinen on his back carrying him along roads of wind to the far end back bottom of the world, to "the North".

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Väinämöinen cried for three days on a shore where the eagle left him knowing he wasn't able to return to his birth land on his own.

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A maiden of the North was doing her chores; when going throwing his motes in the end of an field, she heard a cry. Running back to his mistress she told she heard moaning from the shore.

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"That is not a cry of a child, nor is it a moan of a wife."

"That is a cry of an old man, someone with a beard on his face"

...said Louhi, Mistress of the North, sparse teethed witch, ruler of the dark cold distant place, obscure for its location for the people of Kalevala.

Louhi went to Väinämöinen asking who was he and what was it that shed all the tears out of him.

Väinämöinen answered, said his words:

"I am the great Väinämöinen, at least once upon a time I was,
bringer of joy in every valley, barely do I know myself as,
the great singer in the glades of, fields of Kalevala anymore."

"I sorrow, from there I drifted, in the sea for ages I grieved,
to these lands so stra'ange to me, where no tree survives off the land."

"I wish I could my home land see, hear the birds, cucko'os singing,
there I would be better than here."

Louhi saw a chance to ask for a favor since Väinämöinen would've paid anything for her to get back to home, Kalevala:

"You're gold or silver I don't want, they are only useless junk to me;
Should you forge a Sampo for me, my daughter as price I'll give you."

Väinämöinen answered:

"I'm not one to forge the Sampo, but a blacksmith Ilmarinen,
one who has clanged the shield of sky! Forger eternal I'll put on work,
he shall forge the colored cover, as soon when you send me back home."

Louhi prepared a sleigh for Väinämöinen and send him heading back to his home:

"Do not let the praid grow in you, or a dark day shall come over."

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Part 8: Väinämöinen's accident

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Pics: 1, 2