And about my voice cry loudly,
Likewise they abuse my grumbling
And they call my songs too lengthy, 590
And they say I sing too badly,
And my song's accented wrongly.

May you not, O friendly people,
As a wondrous thing regard it
That I sang so much in childhood,
And when small, I sang so badly.
I received no store of learning,
Never travelled to the learned.
Foreign words were never taught me,
Neither songs from distant countries. 600
Others have had all instruction,
From my home I journeyed never,
Always did I help my mother,
And I dwelt for ever near her,
In the house received instruction,
'Neath the rafters of my storehouse,
By the spindle of my mother,
By my brother's heap of shavings,
In my very earliest childhood,
In a shirt that hung in tatters. 610

But let this be as it may be,
I have shown the way to singers,
Showed the way, and broke the tree-tops,
Cut the branches, shown the pathways.
This way therefore leads the pathway,
Here the path lies newly opened,
Widely open for the singers,
And for greater ballad singers,
For the young, who now are growing,
For the rising generation. 620

NOTES TO RUNOS XXVI-L

(These are by the translator, when not otherwise stated. K. K. indicates
Prof. Kaarle Krohn, and A. M. Madame Aino Malmberg. For proper names,
refer to the Glossary at page 281.)

RUNO XXVI

129. Literally, "his teeth."

230. In the _Voeluspa_, we read of a Hall of Serpents in Nastroend, one of
the Icelandic hells, composed of serpents wattled together, with their
heads turned inwards, vomiting floods of venom in which wade murderers,
perjurers, and adulterers.

271. Literally, "the toads."

"Seven monarchs' wealth in that castle lies stowed;
The foul fiends brood o'er them like raven and toad." (Scott.)

A diabolical creature, half dragon and half frog, is described in a
well-known Esthonian story.

427. _Tetrao tetrix_, known as the Black-cock and Grey-hen.

555. Virsta, a Russian word naturalized in Finnish.

617. This description recalls the serpents of Indian mythology, such as
those described in the first book of the _Mahabharata_.

619. Such a passage might have suggested to Longfellow the following:

"Bigger than the Big-Sea-Water,
Broader than the Gitche Gumee."