Scene 4: The story of the creation
The Earth is formed
Another time, Laimdota read anew:-
"In the beginning nothing was. But plain
There shone an endless light, from which all grew.
No start or ending marked God's perfect reign.
He was the world's pure soul, good spirits' kin.
The Devil still obeyed his God in all,
Beside him stood and knew not stain of sin,
Although his mind was close before the fall."
"To make the world, God asked of him one thing:
To fly deep down, primordial ooze to view,
To find there slime, a handful back to bring.-
The Devil found the slime when down he flew,
But wondered why God had for it a plan.
To copy God he thought some slime to save,
A handful placed inside his mouth's broad span.
The other handful then to God he gave."
"'Earth, form!' God cried, and down the slime He threw,
And from this handful formed the level plain.
Within the Devil's mouth the other too,
Became so large he spat it out again,
Where from the ground it raised the hills up soon!-
From His own substance God a handful chose,
And shaped it saying: 'Form now, Sun and Moon!'
To light the Earth their gold and silver rose."
"Such was the beauty of the Sun and Earth,
God loved them both and gave the Gods' Sons life,
And to the Daughters of the Sun gave birth.
The largest one the Moon took as his wife:
The many thousand stars their children are.-
The Gods' first Sons were godlike heroes all,
And Earth's broad lands divided near and far,
Among themselves they took them in their thrall."
"The sons of Perkons -five stout youths all told-
Then built the spirits' beautiful abode.
He fashioned for the Sun fine steeds of gold,
Which through the sky from dawn to dusk it rode,
Then in a boat returned to morning shore;
Sailed through the night, and in the dawning rose,
The while the sea its horses swimming bore
-Which Antrimps as his dwelling-place now chose."
The Devil rebels against God
"Soon Patrimps gave the Earth its verdant loam,
And springtime's spirit added flowers and grains;
The way paved Pakols to the soul's last home.-
But many things changed through the Devil's pains,
And were not as they had been at the start.-
All stones were soft and God gave firm commands
To shun them while He gave them form apart,
And shaped them all at once from shifting sands."
"But here the Devil sought his Lord to mock,
To find out through what means God would condemn,
If he should tread upon the yielding rock.
He sought great stones and firmly stepped on them,
And in that moment all the rocks grew hard!-
Upon the Daugava's bank yet stands a stone,
That still today the folk can clear regard,
And as the 'Devil's Footprint' now is known."
"In ancient times, on trees no branches lay,
With only trunks, straight standing they were made.
The Devil had a scythe for reaping hay,
While Perkons' sons forged God a chisel blade.
God took this scythe one day-the Devil slept-
And with it hay in masses in He brought.-
Not knowing God had scythed, with tool inept
To use a chisel too the Devil sought."
"The grass still stood.-Unfit as reaping hook,
The chisel was in anger cast away.
The blade then struck a tree and hold firm took.
Since then strong branches all the trees display."
"The Devil had fine cattle but unhorned,
With rounded solid hooves and bluish hair.
God built himself a byre; the Devil scorned:
'What use a byre when yet no cows are there?'
God answered then that cows he would provide!
Next night he took them from the Devil's lair,
And gave them all sharp horns, and coloured hide,
And cloven hooves-the Devil's pen was bare."
"The Devil went and God's new byre soon found.
The cows were there, but strange he found the sight
Of cloven hooves, bent horns, and all around
Were spotted cows and beasts with faces white!"
"God wanted then a dog, and to the Devil said:
'Up to the mountaintop this stout staff bear;
From clay a creature shape with snout and head,
Two eyes, two ears, four legs, a tail and hair;
And three times strike it with this staff, cry bold:
'God made you!' and the thing will straightway live."
The Devil struck three times as he was told,
The dog sprang up, its homage God to give."
"The Devil now himself desired a pet,
But bigger far than God's, with darker pelt.
Hairs of his own above its eyes he set,
Cried out, as with the staff a blow he dealt:
'The Devil made you!' But it lacked life's zest.
When 'God has made you!' were the words he said,
The creature lived, and nuzzled to his breast.
'Hail, wolf,' he cried as to the woods it fled."
At last God chose to make the human race;
To do this from the Earth He took pure clay.
One eye and ear alone possessed the face,
Though arms and legs the body could display.
'No evil see, nor hear, nor do,' He praised,
'And walk a righteous path avoiding strife,
True virtue show, from endless Godhead raised.'-
With His own breath then breathed it into life."
"The human being slept while breathing light:
'Here wait for morning,' God contented spoke.
'The rising sun will wake you from the night.'-
The morning sun into the world awoke
Of all creations yet, the one most fine;
With freedom's spirit filled and with free will,
So noble that it strives to grow divine,
To seek the good, and highest goals fulfil."
"But now the Fiend God's creature would enslave,
And in the night another eye and ear,
Another nostril too the human gave,
And of his essence breathed in-hate and fear.
Then said: 'Now evil you can see and speak,
And henceforth not just lofty good will know,
But stumbling helpless, blind the path will seek,
And good and evil, both directions go.'"
"God saw the human, dangerous and wild,
In treachery that falls on other folk,
And kills, destroying all the good and mild,
And in His heart a mighty anger broke.
He could not bear the Devil in his sight,
And drove him forth to Hell's forbidding shore.
He cursed the Devil to an endless blight,
And banished him from Heaven evermore."
"The Devil gave foul fiends and dragons life,
And on the good a bitter war he waged.
All gods and Gods' Sons faced him in the strife,
And fighting too, both Earth and Heaven raged.-
From Perkons thunder roared, vast whirlwinds blew,
And, spitting lightning, down the mountains sank.
The rising sea up to the heavens grew,
And soon engulfed the mountain's lofty flank."
"Though, beaten, to the boundless pit now run,
Still man's corruption seeks the demon pack,
Trapped in the web of evil they have spun.-
But Perkons sees them, strikes and drives them back."
The tasks of humankind
One evening, thus Laimdota spoke in turn:
"Bearslayer, now the Guardian's words well heed,
He wrote them that we understand and learn;
These ancient wisdom's teachings I will read."
Aloud Laimdota read to him this view:
"Time is eternal. Thus it brings no peace
To seek beyond, and endless life pursue.
Time comes, time goes, and rolls on without cease."
"This satisfies the gods, the Earth, the Sun,
But sates not us, who fleeting moments live.-
Yet human life will through the ages run,
For who its count of years the day can give,
Since first upon the world gazed human eyes,
And who can know when last these eyes will close?
Our kind survives though each of us soon dies,
And will so long the Earth existence knows."
"To help the great undying human race
To prosper and a perfect state achieve;
To live and die to give it lofty place,
This is our task, ere worldly life we leave.
And like each person, too, our human kind
To godlike wisdom's state itself can raise.-
But then to ancient gods it soon grows blind,
Who made the Earth for it in bygone days."
"With higher gods, new faith the old amends,
The old alone as heresy holds sway.
This is the mighty task for mankinds' friends,
To stand and guard the folk from evil's way,
Which, fair disguised, will freedom's spirit break.-
But from the gods derives the people's mind.
Inspired by this, their laws themselves they make,
And for these laws their chiefs and rulers find."
"But should these laws the leaders not fulfil,
For their own gain the people sore oppress,
Like all bad servants here the people's will
Can drive the rulers out and end distress.
For freedom's lovers clear the task at hand:
To make just laws that goods and life protect,
On lofty human morals firmly stand,
And nature's deathless wisdom give respect."
"Then in the folk all hate will fade at length,
If they acknowledge nature's perfect law,
And recognize its hidden wondrous strength.
This is the task for those whose gifts are pure:
With glowing ardour strive with spirit vast,
Respect great nature, love the countryside,
Part wide the misty curtain of the past,
New form themselves and build the future's pride."
"Who striving seek the highest good, each one
Will earn great fame and honour with the best.
Their mourning friends, when once their course is run,
Will weeping lay them to their final rest.
And, cradled safe in Mother Nature's womb,
From people's hearts their names will never fade.
In realms of light they soar above the tomb,
Whom Gods' bold Sons eternal life once gave."
Then, silently, Laimdota closed the tome,
And placed it in a chest with others too,
And said: "These chests to more are dusty home,
A task for many years to read them through.
Perhaps in later age some humans bold
Will bring them to the sunlight, in them pore,
And teach the folk the wisdom that they hold,
About the past, its knowledge and its lore."