Then the lively Lemminkainen
Left his vessel in the ice-floes,
Left his captured ship of battle,
And proceeded on his journey; 320
Tiera too, the other hero,
Followed in his comrade's footsteps.
O'er the level ice they wandered,
'Neath their feet the smooth ice crunching,
And they walked one day, a second,
And at length upon the third day,
Then they saw a cape of hunger,
And afar a wretched village.
'Neath the cape there stood a castle,
And they spoke the words which follow: 330
"Is there meat within the castle,
Is there fish within the household,
For the worn and weary heroes,
And the men who faint with hunger?"
Meat was none within the castle,
Nor was fish within the household.
Spoke the lively Lemminkainen,
Said the handsome Kaukomieli:
"Fire consume this wretched castle,
Water sweep away such castles!" 340
He himself pursued his journey,
Pushing onward through the forest,
On a path with houses nowhere,
On a pathway that he knew not.
Then the lively Lemminkainen,
He the handsome Kaukomieli,
Shore the wool from stones in passing,
From the rocks the hair he gathered,
And he wove it into stockings,
Into mittens quickly wrought it, 350
In the mighty cold's dominion,
Where the Frost was freezing all things.
On he went to seek a pathway,
Searching for the right direction.
Through the wood the pathway led him,
Led him in the right direction.
Spoke the lively Lemminkainen,
Said the handsome Kaukomieli,
"O my dearest brother Tiera,
Now at length we're coming somewhere, 360
Now that days and months we've wandered,
In the open air for ever."
Then did Tiera make him answer,
And he spoke the words which follow:
"We unhappy sought for vengeance,
Recklessly we sought for vengeance,
Rushing forth to mighty conflict
In the gloomy land of Pohja,
There our lives to bring in danger,
Rushing to our own destruction, 370
In this miserable country,
On a pathway that we knew not.
"Never is it known unto us,
Never known and never guessed at,
What the pathway is that leads us,
Or the road that may conduct us
To our death at edge of forest,
Or on heath to meet destruction,
Here in the abode of ravens,
In the fields by crows frequented. 380