Vipunen, in songs most famous,
Suddenly awoke from slumber,
Feeling he was roughly treated,
And with pain severe tormented.
Then he bit the stake of iron,
Bit the outer softer iron,90
But the steel he could not sever,
Could not eat the inner iron.
Then the aged Väinämöinen,
Just above his mouth was standing,
And his right foot slipped beneath him,
And his left foot glided onward.
Into Vipunen's mouth he stumbled,
And within his jaws he glided.
Vipunen, in songs most famous,
Opened then his mouth yet wider,100
And his jaws he wide extended,
Gulped the well-beloved hero,
With a shout the hero swallowed,
Him the aged Väinämöinen.
Vipunen, in songs most famous,
Spoke the very words which follow:
"I have eaten much already,
And on ewes and goats have feasted,
And have barren heifers eaten,
And have also swine devoured,110
But I ne'er had such a dinner,
Such a morsel never tasted."
But the aged Väinämöinen,
Uttered then the words which follow:
"Now destruction falls upon me,
And an evil day o'ertakes me,
Prisoned here in Hiisi's stable,
Here in Kalma's narrow dungeon."
So he pondered and reflected
How to live and how to struggle.120
In his belt a knife had Väinö,
And the haft was formed of maple,
And from this a boat he fashioned,
And a boat he thus constructed,
And he rowed the boat, and urged it
Back and forth throughout the entrails,
Rowing through the narrow channels,
And exploring every passage.
Vipunen the old musician
Was not thus much incommoded;130
Then the aged Väinämöinen
As a smith began to labour.
And began to work with iron.
With his shirt he made a smithy,
With his shirt-sleeves made his bellows,
With the fur he made the wind-bag,
With his trousers made the air-pipe,
And the opening with his stockings
And he used his knee for anvil,
And his elbow for a hammer.140
Then he quick began to hammer,
Actively he plied his hammer,
Through the livelong night, unresting,
Through the day without cessation
In the stomach of the wise one,
In the entrails of the mighty.
Vipunen, in songs most famous,
Spoke aloud the words which follow:
"Who among mankind can this be,
Who among the roll of heroes?150
I have gulped a hundred heroes,
And a thousand men devoured,
But his like I never swallowed.
In my mouth the coals are rising,
On my tongue are firebrands resting,
In my throat is slag of iron.
"Go thou forth to wander, strange one,
Pest of earth, at once depart thou,
Ere I go to seek thy mother,
Seek thy very aged mother.160
If I told it to thy mother,
Told the aged one the story,
Great would be thy mother's trouble,
Great the aged woman's sorrow,
That her son should work such evil,
And her child should act so basely.