Lesson 6: Kalevala

[HorsegirlDylan]

Since Saturday February 28th, 2009, will be the 160th anniversary of the Finnish national epic Kalevala, this lesson is devoted to it.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalevala

The main hero is Väinämöinen (pronounce: Vaenaemoenen), and the abridged story is 177 pages long, so obviously I won't tell it all.
Basic plot:
At the start of time, there was only water and air. The only living thing was Ilmatar (ilma meaning air, and -tar/-tär being a common end to specify that the person in question is female). Eventually she got bored, and dropped down to the water.
Olipa impi, ilman tyttö,
kave luonnotar korea.
Piti valkoista pyhyyttä,
iän kaiken impeyttä
ilman pitkillä pihoilla,
tasaisilla tanterilla.
(Okay, half those words are words that don't appear in modern Finnish. I'll just add these 'spices' so you get a taste of what the original might've looked like.)
The seabreeze impregnated her, and she couldn't get up back to the air. Nine years later the baby still hadn't been born, and a common goldeneye (sotka) was looking for a place to nest. Ilmatar lifted up her knee, and the common goldeneye made its nest there, laying six golden eggs and one iron one.
Lentelevi, liitelevi,
päähän polven laskeuvi.
Siihen laativi pesänsä,
muni kultaiset munansa:
kuusi kultaista munoa,
rautamunan seitsemännen.

[HorsegirlDylan]

As the common goldeneye was incubating its eggs, Ilmatar felt as if her knee was on fire, her veins melting; she moved her leg, the eggs falling into the ocean.
From the egg's lower half came the land, from the upper half the sky. The yolk became the sun, the white the moon. What was colorful became the stars, and what was black (or just the rest–I'm not sure) went to be clouds on the sky.
Ei munat mutahan joua, siepalehet veen sekahan.
Muuttuivat murut hyviksi, kappalehet kaunoisiksi:
munasen alainen puoli alaiseksi maaemäksi,
munasen yläinen puoli yläiseksi taivahaksi;
yläpuoli ruskeaista päivöseksi paistamahan,
yläpuoli valkeaista, se kuuksi kumottamahan;
mi munassa kirjavaista, ne tahiksi taivahalle,
mi munassa mustukaista, nepä iman pilvilöiksi.
On the tenth summer, Ilmatar started shaping the shorelines: bays, beaches, paninsulae, islands...
{I'll continue this over the week}