Ilmarinen's Bride of Gold

After Ilmarinen's wife had been cruelly killed, he wept for three whole days and nights without stopping. Then for three months he did not enter his smithy or even lift his hammer from the ground. As he mourned, he cried: 'Woe is me, for everything is weariness and sorrow now that my dear wife is gone, and there is no rest for me in my home.'

When the three months of mourning had passed, Ilmarinen went out and dug up a great quantity of gold and silver, and cut down thirty sled-loads of birch trees, which he burned to charcoal. He placed the charcoal at the bottom of his furnace, laid a large piece of gold and an even larger piece of silver on top, then closed the furnace and started the fire. He set his workmen to blowing the bellows, but the men were lazy and let the fire go out. So Ilmarinen drove them all away and began to blow the fire using only his magic spells. For three days he worked the bellows with his magic, and on the evening of the third day he looked inside the furnace, hoping to see an image rising from the melted gold and silver.

A lovely lamb, all gold and silver, came forth, and everyone admired its beauty except Ilmarinen, who said: 'Get back into the furnace, for I only desire a beautiful bride, born of the melted gold and silver.' He threw the lamb back into the furnace and added more gold and silver and other magic metals, then set his workmen to blow the bellows again. But they were lazy once more, so he had to use his magic spells to blow the fire. Again he looked into the furnace on the evening of the third day, and this time a colt with hoofs of shining copper arose, all gold and silver. Everyone admired the beautiful colt except Ilmarinen, who threw it back into the furnace.

He added more gold and silver and set the workmen to blow the bellows, but they neglected their work again. Then he blew the fire with magic and cast other spells over the furnace, so that the gold and silver would grow into a lovely maiden. When he looked into the furnace on the evening of the third day, he saw at last the figure of a maiden rising from the flames, but she had no feet, no hands, and no ears. So Ilmarinen took her from the fire and worked without stopping, forging feet, hands, and ears until she was complete. Now the maiden was the most beautiful anyone had ever seen, yet she could not walk, talk, see, or hear.

Ilmarinen carried the golden maiden out of the smithy and took her to the bath-room, where he washed the golden and silver image and then laid it in his couch, in his wife's place. That night he heaped bear-skins and rugs of all kinds on top of the bed, hoping that the image would come to life from the warmth, but it was all in vain. He himself was almost frozen when he rose the next morning. Then he said to himself: 'Surely this lovely maiden was not meant to be my bride. I will take her to Wainamoinen, and perhaps she may come to life for him.'

So he went off and offered the beautiful image to Wainamoinen, telling him that he had brought a lovely maiden to be Wainamoinen's bride in his old age. But Wainamoinen, after praising the image's beauty, said: 'My dear brother Ilmarinen, it is better to throw this image back into your furnace, and to forge from the melted metal a thousand useful trinkets. For I will never wed an image made of gold and silver.'

And then Wainamoinen turned to those of his people who were standing near by, and said to them: 'Never bow to any image made of gold or silver, for they cannot see, nor hear, nor speak, and they will only bring you sorrow.'