Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/33

“Noble mother, who hast borne me,
Luonnotar, who me hast nurtured;
Send me powers from out the ocean:
(Numerous are the powers of ocean)
So that they may fell the oak-tree,
And destroy the tree so baneful,
That the sun may shine upon us,
And the pleasant moonlight glimmer.”110
Then a man arose from ocean,
From the waves a hero started,
Not the hugest of the hugest,
Nor the smallest of the smallest.
As a man’s thumb was his stature;
Lofty as the span of woman.
Decked his head a helm of copper,
On his feet were boots of copper,
On his hands were copper gauntlets,
Gloves adorned with copper tracings;120
Round his waist his belt was copper;
In his belt his axe was copper;
And the haft thereof was thumb-long,
And the blade thereof was nail-long.
Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,
Deeply pondered and reflected:
"While he seems a man in semblance,
And a hero in appearance,
Yet his height is but a thumb-length,
Scarce as lofty as an ox-hoof."130
Then he spoke the words which follow,
And expressed himself in this wise:
“Who are you, my little fellow,
Most contemptible of heroes,
Than a dead man scarcely stronger;
And your beauty all has vanished.”
Then the puny man from ocean,
Hero of the floods, made answer:
“I’m a man as you behold me,
Small, but mighty water-hero,140
I have come to fell the oak-tree,
And to splinter it to fragments.”