"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."