Ilmarinen forges the sky and makes a new moon and sun, but neither shines. Väinämöinen discovers that Louhi has imprisoned the true celestial bodies inside a northern hill, and her fear of his attack finally releases them.
Ilmarinen Forges the Sky
Ilmarinen forged the heavens and pounded out the vault of the sky without a ground plan or a piece of string. He was an eternal smith, skilled enough to make the firmament. Later, the northern lands lost the moon’s pale light and the sun’s brightness. The young took counsel, the middle-aged considered how people could live without them, and the maidens went to Ilmarinen’s smithy. They asked him to rise and forge a new moon and a new sun.
Ilmarinen rose from the wall and from behind the stone stove. He forged a moon of gold and a sun, but neither body shone. The people remained in darkness. Through divination, Väinämöinen learned that the moon and sun were inside a hill at North Farm. He travelled there, fought the people of North Farm, and defeated them. He reached the hill but could not enter it or release the imprisoned bodies.
Väinämöinen returned home in a downcast state. Lemminkäinen said that, if Väinämöinen had taken him as a magician, the locks would have opened and the moon and sun would have been freed. Väinämöinen replied that charms, enchantment, touch, and force of arms could not break the bolts. He went to Ilmarinen and asked him to forge a three-tined cultivator hoe, twelve ice picks, a large set of keys, and spear points. Ilmarinen made the tools.
While working at the smithy, Ilmarinen said that he was forging a neck ring for the mistress of North Farm, so that she would be fastened to the lower slope of a great mountain. Louhi, the gat-toothed mistress of North Farm, sensed the coming trouble. She flew home, released the moon from the stone, and let the sun loose from the rock. She changed herself into a pigeon and flew to Ilmarinen’s smithy. The moon and sun were freed from the hill, while the new bodies Ilmarinen had made remained without light.
Ilmarinen Catches the Pike
The iron-taloned eagle struck at the enormous pike in the river of Death’s Domain. Its talon slipped from the stone and slid off the crag. The pike dived away, leaving marks on its ribs and rips across its shoulders. The eagle attacked again. Its wings flashed like flame and its eyes shone like fire. On its third attempt, it seized the fish in its talons and pulled it from beneath the deep waves to the surface of the clear water.
Ilmarinen had forged the eagle for this task. The mistress of North Farm had promised him her daughter if he caught the big, scaly pike from the lower parts of the Abode of the Dead. He was forbidden to use a seine, a net, or a landing net. A hundred men had already gone after the fish, and none had returned. Troubled by the task, Ilmarinen went to the maiden’s room. She told him not to lose heart and advised him to forge a fiery eagle, a flaming griffin.
The eagle carried the pike from the river. Its scales covered the water, so that it no longer seemed like water. Its feathers filled the air, so that the air no longer seemed like air. Ilmarinen took the fish to the mistress of North Farm and said that he had caught it in the river of Death’s Domain, in the lower parts of the Abode of the Dead. He asked whether she was now ready to give him the maiden.
The mistress replied that he had handled the fish badly. He had struck off its head, cut through its stomach, torn its breast, and tasted the stomach. Ilmarinen answered that game did not come undamaged, even from better places, and that this fish had come from the river of Death’s Domain. The mistress then granted him the maiden as his lifelong companion and comfort.
Ilmarinen Forges a Golden Bride
Ilmarinen wept over his dead wife every evening. He wept through the nights and during the days. For two months and then three, he mourned. In the fourth month, he gathered gold from the sea and silver from the waves. He collected thirty sled loads of logs, burned them to charcoal, and forced the coals into his forge.
He put the gold and silver into the furnace and set the slaves and hired men to work the bellows. They worked poorly, so Ilmarinen worked the bellows himself. A colt then emerged from the forge with a golden mane, a silver head, and a copper body. The others rejoiced, but Ilmarinen thrust the colt back into the fire. He said that he wanted a golden sweetheart and a silver spouse. He added more gold and silver and began again.
He hammered the image through the night and continued during the day. He made legs, but they did not rise. He shaped hands, but they did not turn to embrace him. He forged ears, but they heard nothing. He fashioned a mouth and eyes, but the figure could not speak or look at him. Ilmarinen said that it would have been a pretty girl if it had speech, a mind, and a tongue. He placed it beneath a gauzy net, on soft pillows and a silky bed. He prepared a bath, washed himself, and lay beside the golden bride. In the morning, he found the side against which he had slept cold.
Ilmarinen offered the golden bride to Väinämöinen. Väinämöinen rejected it and told him to pound it up for other uses or take it to other lands for suitors who wanted gold. Ilmarinen threw away the golden image. He then set out for North Farm to seek the younger sister of his dead wife. She answered him with abusive words, so he abducted her and set out for home. During the journey, she reviled him. His anger grew, and he sang her into a seagull. Ilmarinen returned home and told Väinämöinen about North Farm's carefree life through the Sampo and about his failed courtship.
