The Story of Kullervo. Verlyn Flieger

      Nor the cherry drive them homeward

      Send thou then thy better servants,

      Send the daughters of Ilwinti

      To guard my kine from danger

      And protect my horned cattle

      For a many are thy maidens

      At thy bidding in Manoine

      And skilled to herd the white kine

      On the blue meads of Ilwinti

      Until Ukko comes to milk them

      And gives drink to thirsty Kēme.

      Come thou maidens great and ancient

      Mighty daughters of the Heaven

      Come thou children of Malōlo

      At Ilukko’s mighty bidding

      O [Uorlen?] most wise one

      Do thou guard my flock from evil

      Where the willows will not ward them

      Out across the quaking marshland

      Where the surface ever shifteth

      And the greedy depths are gulping.

      O thou Sampia most lovely

      Blow the honey-horn most gaily.

      Where the alder will not tend them

      Do thou pasture all my cattle

      Making flowers upon the hummocks:

      With the melody of the mead-horn

      Make thou fair this heathland border

      And enchant the skirting forest

      That my kine have food and fodder,

      And have golden hay in plenty

      And the heads of silver grasses.

      O Palikki’s little damsel

      And Telenda thy companion

      Where the rowan will not tend them

      Dig my cattle wells all silver

      Down on both sides of their pasture

      With your straying feet of magic

      Cause the grey springs to spout coolly

      And the streams that flow by swiftly

      And the speedy running rivers

      Twixt the shining banks of grassland

      To give drink of honey sweetness

      That the herd may suck the water

      And the juice may trickle richly

      To their swelling teeming udders

      And the milk may flow in runlets

      And may foam in streams of whiteness.

      But Kaltūse thrifty mistress

      And arrester of all evil,

      Where the wild things will not guard them

      Fend the sprite of ill far from them

      That no idle hands do milk them

      And their milk on earth be wasted

      That no drops flow down to Pūlu

      And that Tanto drink not of it

      But that when at Kame at milk tide

      Then their milkstreams may be swollen

      And the pails be overflowing

      And the good wife’s heart be gladdened.

      O Terenye maid of Samyan

      Little daughter of the forests

      Clad in soft and beauteous garments

      With thy golden hair so lovely

      And thy shoon of scarlet leather,

      When the cherry will not lead them

      Be their neatherd and their shepherd.

      When the sun to rest has sunken

      And the bird of Eve is singing

      As the twilight draweth closer

      Speak thou to my horned creatures

      Saying come ye hoofed cattle

      Come ye homeward trending homeward.

      In the house ’tis glad and pleasant

      Where the floor is sweet for resting

      On the waste ’tis ill to wander

      Looming down the empty shorelands

      Of the many lakes of Sutse.

      Therefore come ye horned creature

       And the women fire will kindle

      In the field of honeyed grasses

      On the ground o’ergrown with berries.

      [The following lines are offset to indicate a change of tone. Kirby’s edition does not so distinguish them, but notes in the Argument at the head of the Runo that it contains ‘the usual prayers and charms’ (Kirby Vol. 2, p. 78). Magoun gives the lines the heading ‘Charms for Getting Cattle Home, Lines 273–314’ (Magoun, p. 232).]

      Then Palikki’s little damsel

      And Telenda her companion

      Take a whip of birch to scourge them

      And of juniper to drive them

      From the hold of Samyan’s cattle

      And the gloomy slopes of alder

      In the milktide of the evening.

      [As above, these lines are offset to indicate a shift in tone and separate them from those preceding. Kirby’s Argument notes a charm for ‘protection from bears in the pastures’ (p. 78), while Magoun supplies the heading ‘Admonitory Charms Against Bears, Lines 315–542 (p. 232).]

      O thou Uru O my darling

      My Honeypaw that rules the forest

      Let us call a truce together

      In the fine days of the summer

      In the good Creator’s summer

      In the days of Ilu’s laughter

      That thou sleepst upon the meadow

      With thine ears thrust into stubble

      Or conceal thee in the thickets

      That thou mayst not hear cowbells

      Nor the talking of the herdsman.

      Let the tinkling and the lowing

      And the ringing in the heathland

      Put no frenzy yet upon thee

      Nor thy teeth be seized with longing.

      Rather wander in the marshes

      And the tangle of the