Pohjola. To
this Ilmarinen replied: 'Why should not all be well in Pohjola? They
have the Sampo there, and until it leaves them they will always
prosper.' And then Wainamoinen asked him of the maiden whom he had gone
to woo. 'I have turned that hateful maid into a seagull,' Ilmarinen
answered, frowning, 'and now she flies shrieking above the rolling
waves, and will never have another suitor.'

[Illustration]

WAINAMOINEN'S EXPEDITION AND THE BIRTH OF THE KANTELE (HARP)

Wainamoinen reflected on what Ilmarinen had said of the prosperity of
the Northland, and at length proposed that they should go and capture
the Sampo and bring it back to Kalevala. But Ilmarinen said: 'It will be
hard to carry off the Sampo, for Louhi has fastened it with nine great
locks, and around it grow three roots, beneath the mountain and the
waters and the sands.'

Still Wainamoinen persuaded him to go, and Ilmarinen went to his smithy
and began to forge a sword for Wainamoinen. And when it was finished, it
was so strong, by the power of the magic spells that had been used in
making it, that it would cut through the hardest flint stones.

Then the two heroes put on their armour and made their sledges ready,
and drove off along the seashore northward. But they had not gone far
before they heard a voice lamenting. They drove up to the spot whence
the voice seemed to come, and there they found a ship lying deserted on
the sands.

Wainamoinen asked the ship what it was lamenting over, and the ship
replied: 'Alas, I weep because I am obliged to remain here idle; for I
was built to be a warship, and I long to sail filled with warriors
against the foe, but I am left here to lie alone and rot to pieces.'
Then Wainamoinen said: 'Thou shalt lie here no longer, but we will sail
in thee against the men of Pohjola. But tell me whether thou art a magic
ship that can sail without wind, or oarsmen, or pilot.' 'Nay,' the ship
replied, 'I cannot sail if the wind or oars do not help me on and some
one guide me with the rudder. But give me these to help me, and I can
sail faster than any other ship in the world.'

Then they left their sledges and launched the ship and stepped aboard.
And Wainamoinen began to sing his wondrous spells, and in an instant one
side of the vessel was filled with bearded warriors, and the other with
lovely maids, and in the middle came powerful gray-bearded heroes. First
he set the young men at the oars, but however hard t