# Folk-Lore/Volume 2/Magic Songs of the Finns, 3

MAGIC SONGS OF THE FINNS.
III.
_________
XXV.— The Origin of Iron.
(a.)
The aerial God himself, Ukko the Creator up above, Rubbed together both his palms upon the end of his left knee. From that originated three maidens — all the three Luonotars, To be mothers of iron ore (F. rust), to be generators of "blue mouth". The maidens walk with swinging gait, the girls advance along the atmospheric rim With swollen breasts, with smarting teats.
They milked their milk upon the ground — caused their breasts to discharge, Milked over lands, milked over swamps, milked over still waters.
One, the eldest of the girls, milked out black milk, The second, the middle one, jetted forth red milk,
The third, the youngest of the girls, poured forth white milk. One had milked black milk, from hers originated soft iron.
One had jetted forth red milk, from hers brittle iron is obtained.
One had poured forth white milk, from hers things of steel are made.
There was a short interval of time.
Iron desired to meet his elder brother, to make acquaintance with fire.
Fire became insolent — grew exceeding terrible. Burnt swamps, burnt lands, burnt great wooded wildernesses,
Was on the point of burning poor iron, his wretched brother. Iron manages to take to flight, to take to flight, to hide himself
In dark Pohjola, in Lapland's wide and furthest bounds, Upon the greatest reach of swamp, on a wild mountain-top, Where swans lay their eggs — a goose hatches its young. Iron lies stretched upon a swamp — lies idly in a watery place, Hid a whole year, hid for a second, forthwith hid for a third.
He did not manage certainly to escape the raging hands of fire. A second time he had to go — to enter rooms of fire
When being made into a weapon, when being forged into a sword. A wolf was running o'er a swamp, a bear was hurrying o'er a sandy heath. The swamp rose under the wolf's feet — the sandy heath under the bear's paws,
Iron bars, balls of steel grew up
On the tracks of the wolf, on the dints of the bear's heel.
{The smith Ilmarinen, the very skilful hammerer
v. Good old Väinämöinen, the time-old soothsayer (tietäjä) (Who) was wending his way, was pursuing his course, Came by chance on the wolf's tracks — on the dints of the bear's heel, Saw the iron sprouts, the balls of steel, On the wolf's huge tracks, on the dints of the bear's heel, (And) to this speech gives utterance : "Alas for thee, unlucky iron, For thou art in a wretched plight — in a lowly situation, In a wolf's footmarks on a swamp, quite in the footsteps of a bear. Wouldst thou not grow beautiful — increase in loveliness, If I extricated thee from the swamp — conveyed thee to a smithy, Forced thee into a fireplace, set thee down in a forge ?"
Poor iron gave a sudden start, gave a sudden start, took sudden fright, When he heard fire mentioned, when he heard speak of raging fire.
Smith Ilmarinen said : "Thou art not, wretched iron, produced, Thy kindred are not formed, thy relatives will not grow up
Without violent fire, without being taken to a smithy. Without being put into a forge, without being blown upon by bellows.
But heed it not, pray do not pay the least regard. Fire will not burn his acquaintance — will not burn a relative.
When thou enterest rooms of fire — the receptacle of coals, Thou wilt grow beautiful — wilt become extremely fair,
(Wilt be made) into trusty swords for men — into terminals for women's belts." Ever since that day iron has been kneaded out of swamps,
Been trampled out of watery spots, been obtained from clay.
The smith himself stood in the swamp, up to his knees in black mire. While digging iron from the swamp, while extracting ore (F. earth) from the mire. He seized the iron sprouts — the balls of steel.
From the huge footprints of the wolf, from the dints of the bear's paws.
The smith Ilmarmen Set up his bellows there, established his forge there. On the huge tracks of the wolf, on the scratches of the bear's heel. He plunged the iron into the fire.
Blew the bellows all night without resting — all day without stopping,
Blew the bellows a whole day, blew them a second, blew them forthwith a third day too.
The iron expands like pap — bubbles like slag,
Expanded like wheaten dough — like rye-meal dough.
In the smith's huge fire, when in the hands of glowing heat
Then smith Ilmarinen looked at the bottom of the forge.
What the forge perchance may yield — what his bellows can squeeze out.
First he obtained brittle iron, then he got slag,
Then let white (iron) trickle from the bellows below.
Then wretched iron shouted out : "Oho ! smith Ilmarinen,
Take me away from here, from the torments of malignant fire."
Smith Ilmarinen said: "If I took thee from the fire
Perhaps thou wilt grow terrible—wilt begin to grow extremely mad,
Wilt also cut thy brother, wilt lacerate thy mother's child."
Then miserable iron swore—swore his solemn oath
Upon the forge, upon the anvil, upon the hammers, upon the sledge-hammers.
"I shall not touch flesh, I shall not cause blood to flow.
There is wood for me to bite—a fallen tree for me to munch,
A young fir for me to nip, a stone's heart for me to eat,
So that I shall not cut my brother—shan't lacerate my mother's child.
'Tis better for me to be—more pleasant for me to live
As comrade to a traveller, as a weapon in a wayfarer's hand.
Than touch a kinsman with my 'mouth', than injure my own kith and kin."
Then smith Ilmarinen, the time-old hammerer.
Snatched the iron from the fire, set it on the anvil
To make it malleable, to hammer it into sharp implements.
Into axes, into spears, into every sort of implement.
He hammers with repeated blows, cling, clang resounds repeatedly,
But iron will not take a point, an edge of steel is not produced.
{The iron does not harden, the iron edge is not durable.
v. Iron does not take an edge without being dipt in water.
Smith Ilmarinen accordingly keeps pondering in his mind
What could be procured, what could be brought
To form a toughening-fluid for steel—a hardening-water for
iron.
He prepared a little ashes, he dissolved some lye,
Tried it with his tongue, tasted it with intelligence,
Expressed himself in words: "These are not food for me
As toughening-fluid for steel, as a substance for preparing iron."
A bee rose from the ground, a "blue-wing" from a knoll,
Keeps flying round, keeps hovering around the smithy of the smith.
Smith Ilmarinen ordered it to Metsola To bring honey from Metsola, virgin honey from a virgin honey wood.
For the steel about to be made, for the iron about to be prepared.
A hornet, "Hiisi's bird", a "bird of Hiisi", "Lempo's cat".
Was flying round the smithy, offering for sale its sicknesses,
Keeps flying round, keeps hstening to the smith's clear words
Concerning the steel about to be made, the iron about to be prepared.
It was nimble of wing, it was very swift on its pinions.
It managed to get on in front.
It caught up Hiisi's horrors, bore off a snake's poison,
The black venom of a "worm", the itch-causing fluid of an ant,
The hidden poison of a frog,
{As toughening-fluid for steel, as hardening water for iron.
v. To the door of the smith's forge, and upset it into the hardening water.
Smith Ilmarinen himself, the incessant hammerer,
Believes, keeps supposing that the bee has returned.
That it has brought honey—has fetched virgin honey.
He uttered a speech, and spake thus: "Lo I these are good for me
As toughening-fluid for steel, as a substance for preparing iron."
He dipt the poor iron into it, into it plunged the steel
When he had extracted it from the fire—had taken it from the forge.
Therefore steel became evil—iron began to go raging mad.
Cut his wretched brother, touched with his "mouth" his relative,
Caused blood to flow, caused foaming blood to bubble forth.
(b.)
Certainly I know the genesis of iron, I guess the origin of steel.
Formerly the winds blew otherwise, formerly storms whistled otherwise,
The heads of birches tore up the ground, young shoots of pine (tore up) the fields.
Then it blew for six years, stormed for seven summers.
The wind broke off the heads of oaks — smashed branching sallows (raita),
Knocked off a hillock from the ground, conveyed it to the sea.
From it an isle was formed by spells upon the clear and open sea.
A lovely wood (is) on the island, a smooth meadow in the
wood,
v. a young girl near the wood, On this two girls grew up, all three brides.
Well, the maidens walk along to a nameless mead,
Sat with their breasts to the east, with their heads to the south.
They milked their milk upon the ground, their paps' contents upon the mead.
The milk began to flow, flowed over swamps, flowed over lands,
Flowed over sandy fields run wild, flowed into a hillock on a swamp.
Into a honeyed knoll, into the golden turf.
Hence poor iron originated, hence originated and appeared
Within a swamp, on a knoll of earth, on ground of medium height,
Sprouts of iron grew up, the height of a human being's thumb.
Good old Väinämöinen, a soothsayer as old as time,
Was wending his way, was pursuing his course,
Found the sprouts of iron — the steely shoots of growing corn.
He looks about, turns here and there, uttered a speech, spake thus :
"What sort of growing corn is this, and what these budding shoots ?
Something would come from them at a dexterous hammerer's."
He gathered them into his pouch, he carried them into a smith's hands.
Smith Ilmarinen seeks for a place for his forge.
Found a tiny bit of ground — an extremely small dell,
Where he set up his bellows, where he established his forge.
But wretched iron does not grow, the genus steel is not
produced
In a doorless smithy, on a fireless forge.
The iron-smith had lack of wood, the iron-hammerer of fire.
He gets wood, he fetches fire, but still iron is not produced
Unless there be a bellows-man — a man to press the bellows.
He took a servant to blow — a hireling to press them,
Looked underneath the forge — at the edge of the bellows.
Already the production (F. birth) of iron had taken place, the
Genus steel had appeared.
(c.)
The genesis of steel is known, the origin of iron is guessed.
Water is the eldest of the brothers, iron the youngest.
Paltry fire the middle one.
Water is the outcome of a mountain, fire's genesis is from the sky,
Iron's origin from iron-ore (F. rust).
Fire became violent, worked itself into a fury.
Evil fire burnt much land, much land, much swamp,
Burnt sandy fields run wild, burnt sandy heaths.
Wretched iron lay concealed from his malignant brother's face.
Where did poor iron hide, where did he hide and save himself
In that prodigious year of drought, that summer bad for forest fires?
Poor iron did not hide in old Väinämöinen's belt,
In his tripartite scabbard — not there certainly.
Poor iron did not hide
Inside a youthful maiden's paps, under a growing maiden's arm,
Upon a long bank of cloud, upon an oak tree's level head.
Iron did not hide there, nor yet in yonder place
Inside a blue ewe, in the belly of a copper sheep.
In the bosom of a blue [v. red] pig.
It certainly did not hide in the sea, under deep billows.
Inside a blue guiniad, in the bosom of a red salmon.
Nor yet exactly in the sky, above six speckled firmaments,
{Inside a blue fox, inside a golden tall-crowned hat,
v. in the belly of a golden cock.
There, then, iron hid, both hid and saved itself,
In the interval between two stumps, under a birch tree's triple root.
{On a land devoid of knolls, on a land wholly unknown,
v. In dark Pohjola, in Lapland's widely reaching bounds,
Where a hazel grouse keeps her nest — a hen rears her young.
A wolf raised mould from a swamp, a bear dug some from a heath.
Iron-ore (F. rust) sprang up there, a bar of steel grew
From where the wolf has raised its foot, from the dint of the bear's heel.
It may have been brought to a smithy — may have been cast into a forge fire.
Then iron was produced from it — steel was undoubtedly obtained.
(d.)
Formerly much land was burnt, much land, much swamp,
In a summer bad for forest fires, in a hapless conflagration year.
A little bit remained unburnt
On a wild mountain top, on the greatest reach of swamp.
One wretched man remained upon the spot unburnt.
Already a little of him was burnt.
His knees were burning, the flesh of his thighs was scorched,
The narrow portions of the heels, the toes of the left foot.
The tip of his toes were badly burnt, the nails had burnt into soot.
He ran to a pool in his distress.
Scraped off the soot, scratched off the scabby crust
Into an unfrozen pool.
Hence iron ore (F. rust) originated — ordinary black mire,
In an unfrozen pool, in a bubbling spring.
(e.)
Whence originated wretched iron, whence originated and was produced ?
Hence originated wretched iron, hence originated and was produced.
A golden fish spawns, a salmon plunges close at hand
In an unfrozen pool, in a bubbling spring.
Four maidens were engendered— all three brides.
From the spawn of the golden fish, from the natural aperture of the salmon,
To be mothers of iron ore (F. rust), to be generators of "blue mouth".
The maidens stood in a dell, the "tin-breasts" lay powerless
On a little bank of land, on a narrow piece of ground.
There they made (F. built) iron, and by degrees formed steel,
Pulverised iron seeds, pounded lumps of steel.
God happens to arrive at the place where the iron seeds were.
Found the pounded bits of iron, the manufactured lumps of steel,
Carries them to the smithy of a smith — under the forge of Ilmarinen.
Then smith Ilmarinen
Thrust them into the fire, shoves them under his forge.
From the forge (they are taken) to the anvil.
He hammers with repeated blows, keeps striking with incessant clang.
Sweat trickled from the Creator's head — dew from the face of God
While forging iron, while making steel.
Hence originated wretched iron, wretched iron, useless slag.
It originated in the smithy of a smith— under the forge of Ilmarinen.
Variants.
1-6 Jesus has two hands, both uniform.
He rubbed together both his palms — ground together his two hands.
Hence originated two maidens — all the three Luonnotars.
(f.)
Ho ! thou wretched iron, wretched iron, useless slag.
Certainly I know thy stock, thy stock and thine origin.
Thou are Vuolankoinen's [v. Vuolahainen's] son — wast brought forth by Vuolahatar?
4 Thy father is from the knolls (napa) of Vuojala thy mother from the well of Lempi. Thine origin is from swamp knolls, from swamp knolls, from earth knolls in a swamp.
Thy father is from a swamp, thy mother from a swamp,
All thy other relatives are from a swamp.
A rust-coloured sedge grew on a swamp — in a pool purple melic grass,
Rocked by Tuuletar, swung to and fro by Lännetär [v. Lemnietär].
Hölmä comes from Tuonela—Manala's son from under the ground,
Found the rust-coloured sedge on the swamp— in the pool the purple melic grass,
Carries it to the smithy of a smith— under Ilmarinen's forge
To be forged into iron, to be made into steel.
Variants.
4 Mother iron is Ruopahatar,
4 Thy mother is from Aijö's pen.
The greater part of (a) will be found in the Kalevala, ix, 39-266, with occasional differences.
xxvi.— The Origin of Arrows.
(a.)
A tall fir grew upon a heath, on the summit of the Hill of Pain (Kipu-vuori).
From it a sorcerer (noita) formed arrows— an "archer" evil instruments.
He made a single-feathered arrow out of the lowest boughs.
Made a double-feathered arrow of boughs from the middle of the tree,
Made a triple-feathered arrow out of the highest boughs.
The sorcerer shot his arrows— angrily launched his pointed shafts
Anywhere, wherever he could.
For a sorcerer cares nothing at all
Whether they enter a human skin or the body (F. hair) of a beast (kave).
(b.)
Annikki, the Island maiden, went to the war of Istero A tin plug fell down, a silver terminal slipt off
Into the space between two rocks.
A sorcerer seized it in his hands
Before it had time to reach the ground, before its contact with the earth.
He took it to a forge of smiths — a smith formed out of it a tool.
Forged from it a sorcerer's arrows — an " archer's" evil instruments.
The sorcerer shot his arrows — shot an arrow at the sky.
The sky was like (F. wished) to split — the aerial vaults to break,
Portions of the air to rend, the aerial canopy to slant
From the torment of the " fiery" arrow, from the pointed shaft of Aijö's son.
The arrow receded thither where nought was ever heard of it again.
Then he shot another arrow into the earth under his feet.
14 The earth was like to go to Mana — the hills to break up into mould,
Sandy ridges to split, sandy heaths to break in two
From the torment of the " fiery" arrow, from the burning pain (F. sparks) of the red wood.
The arrow constantly receded thither where nought was ever heard of it again.
Forthwith he shot a third, a final and malignant arrow.
Through lands, through swamps, through deep gloomy forest tracts.
Against a steel [v. silver] mountain, against an iron [v. stony] rock.
The arrow rebounded from the stone — recoiled against the rock,
Entered a human skin — the body of a wretched man.
The shaft may be extricated, the arrow can be drawn out
By virtue of the word of God, through the mercy of the Lord always.
Variants.
14 The earth was about to ignite — to sparkle with fiery sparks.
xxvii. — The Origin of the Boat.
Good old Väinämöinen, the soothsayer as old as time,
Made a boat by (magic) knowledge, prepared a skiff by means of song
From the fragments of a single oak, from the breakage of a brittle tree.
He cut the boat upon a mountain — caused a loud clatter on a rock.
He sang a song, he fixed the keel ; he sang another, he joined a plank.
Immediately he sang a third while setting in its place the prow,
While ending off a timber knee, while he was clinching end to end,
While setting up the gunwale boards, while he was cutting at the tholes.
A boat was completely finished that could bowl along with speed,
Both stiff when sailing with the wind and safe when sailing against the wind.
xxviii.— The Origin of the Net.
(a.)
At night flax was sown — by moonlight was ploughed,
Was cleansed, was heckled, was plucked, was rippled,
Was sharply tugged, was violently teazled.
The flax was taken to steep, soon it was steeped.
Quickly was lifted out, hastily was dried.
Then it was brought home — was soon freed from husks,
Was noisily broken on flax-brakes, was diligently swingled,
Was combed out with avidity, was brushed in the hours of dusk.
Immediately it was put on a distaff — in a trice upon a spinning-staff.
Sisters spin it, sisters-in law put it on the netting-needle,
Brothers net it into a net, fathers-in-law attach lines.
The netting-needle turned — the mesh-stick moved backwards and forwards
Before the seine was completed — the yarn lines were attached
During a single summer night, in the middle between two days.
The net was finished, the yarn lines were attached,
A hundred fathoms at the far end, seven hundred fathoms at the sides.
(b.)
At night the flax was sown, at night was heckled,
At night was rippled, at night was steeped in water,
At night was removed from the water, at night the flax was broken in flax-brakes,
At night the threads were spun, at night the nets were woven.
The nets were completely finished, the seine was fitted with lines
During a single summer night, in half another one besides.
The nets were woven by brothers, were spun by sisters.
Were netted by sisters-in-law, were fitted with lines by a father.
They neatly fitted it with sinks, they attached the floats properly.
(c.)
Tuoni's three-fingered girl, Lapland's three-toothed crone
Spun a hundred (fathom) seine during a single summer night.
Lapland's three-fingered old man was the weaver of nets,
The mesh-stick turned in his hand, a knot was formed on the net.
He wove a hundred (fathom) seine — stitched one of a thousand (fathoms)
During a single summer night, in the interval between two days.
xxix. — The Origin of Ague.
I well know ague's genesis, I guess the villain's origin.
Ague was rocked by wind — was put to sleep by chilly air.
Brought by wind, by water drawn, brought forward by hard weather,
Came in the whirlwind of a storm — in the sleigh-tracks of a cold wind
Against us wretched sufferers, against poor unfortunates.
xxx. — The Origin of Cancer.
A furious [v. iron-toothed] old woman,
That moves along with the wind, with the water, with all the fish,
Carried a heavy womb — a belly full of suffering
For thirty summers, for the same number of winters.
Finally she got a malignant boy, an eater of flesh, a biter of bones.
She fashioned him into a cancer.
She reared her boy, she protected her offspring
In bloody clothing, in gory garments.
Then she sent him away to devour, to gnaw.
To lacerate a Christian, to destroy a baptised one.
To cause his flesh to rot, and to gnaw his bones.
xxxi— The Origin of Colic (Gripes).
(a.)
Colic a groaning boy, a second an aggravating boy,
2 A third like a pole.
Are not made of what is good — not of anything exactly valuable.
They are made of swamp — made out of earth,
Composed of coarse sail needle-points, wound up from woman's spinning-whorls,
Scratched up from heaps of twigs,
Broken off from heather, stript off from grasses.
Collected from a rapid's foam, poured out from the sea's froth.
Roughly botched out of feathers,
From the inward parts of Syöjätär, from under the liver of Mammotar.
Variants.
2 A third has a fist [v. throat, v. skin] like a pole.
(b.)
Gripes, the panting, moaning, insolent, stupid boy,
A stay-at-home and good for nothing.
Certainly I know thy stock.
Thou wast made from nothing good, from nothing good, from something bad.
Thou wast gathered from hard wood— made from tar wood
Fashioned out of aspen's fungus, twisted out of birch agaric.
(c.)
A lean Lapp boy
Was making his way beneath the path, travels along beneath the ground,
With a bloody axe on his shoulder.
He struck a man against the heart — cut him sharply on the breast.
From that colic originated — the groaning (boy) was stirred to ire.
xxxii. — The Origin of Rickets, Atrophy (Riisi).
A maiden rose from a dell [v. water] — a "soft skirts" from a clump of grass.
Who was beautiful to behold — the delight of those living in the world.
She pays no regard to suitors — has no fancy for the good men.
There came a giant (turilas) man — a shirt-wearing monster (tursas) of the sea.
The wretch, indeed, had planned a scheme — had thought upon a fine affair.
He sent a nightmare upon her.
He caused the unwilling one to sleep —brought her at last to seek repose
Upon a honey-dropping sward, upon the liver-coloured earth.
He lay there with the girl,
Made the girt parturient, quickened her into pregnancy ;
He himself takes his departure.
The miscreant began to move away — the wretch to wander forth.
The girl becomes oppressed with pain, her womb becomes heavy.
In her sufferings she laments :
"Whither shall I, poor wretch, whither shall I, most luckless, go In these my days of great distress, with cruel torments in the womb ?"
The Creator [v. Jesus] uttered from the sky : "To be confined, O harlot, go.
Into a deep forest, into a wooded wilderness recess.
There other harlots were confined — strumpets [v. mares] dropt their young."
She went thence in another direction — walked ahead with rapid steps,
Strides from stone to stone, sprang from fallen tree to fallen tree.
Into the homes of those "dogs", as far as (the abodes) of "woolly whelps".
There she discharged her womb — gave birth to her progeny,
Produced a son of evil sort — the boy Rickets that causes pining away.
That gnaws the roots of the navel — keeps cutting into the backbone.
They sought for one to christen him — one to baptise the gnawing boy
At the well of Kaleva's son, upon the props of a little hand-sleigh.
But no place was found there,
Not in ten villages, not at seven door-hinges. However, Rickets was baptised, the ill-omened boy was christened
31{On a beach, on a water-girt stone,
v. On a stone upon the open sea,
32 Passed over by a wave, lightly touched by a wave.
Was the water clean with which Rickets was baptised ?
The water was not clean, that water was commixed with blood.
Harlots had washed (in it) their linen caps — bad women their shirts.
Their jackets ragged at the edge, their smelling petticoats.
Therein Rickets was baptised — the ill-omened boy was christened,
A name was given to the evil boy — the name of Rickets to the wretch.
Variants.
31, 32 In the bloody house of Hiitola, while swine were being slaughtered.
32 On the water-lily leaf of a pond.
In a doorless room, entirely windowless.
(b.)
How was Rickets possessed — the "evil snail" sent.
The "bloody dog" (sent) to eat — "Hiisi's cur" to lacerate?
Thus was Rickets possessed — the "evil snail" sent
To devour, to gnaw, to bite, to irritate.
A raven fluttered in the sky, blood spirted from its beak
Down on the end of a small pine (bench), down on the end of an iron bench.
From that filthy Rickets originated — the evil offspring set itself
To derange the veins, to lap up blood-broth,
To eat the substance of the heart,
To burrow into the navel, to bore into the navel's root.
To rack with pain the spinal bone,
To bore through the sides, to lacerate the groin,
To cause the eyes to run with tears, to nip the organs of sight,
To swell beneath the temples
Either of a girl or of a boy.
xxxiii. — The Origin of Scabs.
A brown, scabby crone [v girl, v. lord], the evil mother [v. housefather] of boils,
Gave birth to a scabby son, screeched over an ill-tempered one
With one foot (F. root), with eight heads, upon a scabby bed,
(A son) begotten of a scabby sire
Out of a scabby dam — a mother covered with boils.
She flung her malignant son
Against a human being's skin, at the body (F. body hairs) of a woman's (kapo) son.
John Abercromby.
* ↑ The Thunder God.
* ↑ blue-edged steel.
* ↑ I.e., a human being, as man also owed his origin to the Luonnotars.
* ↑ F. "manufacture-fluid".
* ↑ The forest home.
* ↑ Or. pains".
* ↑ Ruheva [v. ruteva], see Folk-Lore, II (xxii, a, "rutimon raita").
* ↑ Salmo l. Corregonus lavaretus.
* ↑ All these three names are mentioned by Ganander (p. 109). Vuolahatar = Mrs. Vuolahainen.
* ↑ Also written Vuojela. Among the variants in the Old Kalevala (6.5) vuojela is substituted for luotola also written luotela, an alias of Pohjola, and both have väinölä (Väinämöinen's home) as a parallel word in the following line.
* ↑ The Being that excited love. Elsewhere in the Loitsurunoja p. 46$^a$) this well seems to be called the "maidens'" (impi) well.
* ↑ Ruoste-heinä. This word is applied to purple melic, mat grass, and various sedges.
* ↑ Teräs-heinä translates the Swedish staal-gräs, steel grass purple melic grass.
* ↑ West Wind's daughter.
* ↑ The goddess of love.
* ↑ Mentioned by Ganander (p. 18), who quotes this and the following lines. The word means "stupid fool, simpleton".
* ↑ From ruopa, "mud, bog earth". She seems to be the same as Ganander's Ruojuatar.
* ↑ An arrow feathered on one side only.
* ↑ Elsewhere this man's name appears in the form Isversko, which Lönnrot derives from the Russian izverg, "a monster," an untimely birth.
* ↑ Was like to die.
* ↑ The sisters that helped Väinämöinen to make a net (Kalevala, xlvii, 322). The whole of (a) is in the Kalevala (xlviii, 35-68).
* ↑ See Folk-Lore, i, 45, note.
* ↑ I.e., harlots.
* ↑ Short wooden props fitted into runners to support the bottom of the sleigh.
* ↑ Or sinews.
* ↑ Or tumours.
* ↑ Or abscesses.