--- title: The Golden Maiden — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · full text with trees description: The Golden Maiden, «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: Far away in northern inlets Ilmarinen and his friend the Minstrel were catching salmon for the winter’s store. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/31/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old No…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/) / The Golden Maiden # The Golden Maiden The Golden Maiden of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin: the whole text, 156 sentences and 2663 words. The small number after every sentence leads to its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/31/page/2/) Far away in northern inlets Ilmarinen and his friend the Minstrel were catching salmon for the winter’s store.[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") The days were growing shorter and the nights were getting cold.[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") Ice was beginning to form in the sheltered creeks and coves and frost lay white on the shaded slopes of the hills.[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") Fishes were scarce and shy and the fishermen were disheartened.[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") For five days—yes, for six toilsome days—they had sailed hither and thither, casting first on the landward side and then on the seaward, and still the boat’s hold was far from being filled.[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") “I wish I were at home,” sighed the master Smith.[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") “There is no place so sweet as one’s own fireside,” responded the Minstrel.[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") “I long to see the faces of those whom I love,” said the Smith.[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") “I am impatient to hear their voices.”[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics") “Sweeter than the chirping of song-birds—yes, sweeter than the warbling of meadow larks—is the merry prattling of one’s own home folk,” returned the Minstrel.[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics") They drew in the net.[11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") Not a salmon did it contain.[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics") Naught but seaweed did they get.[13](13/ "tree and pragmatics") “Oh, I am sick of this business,” complained Ilmarinen.[14](14/ "tree and pragmatics") “I am sick of fishing, sick of sailing on these barren waters, sick of life itself.”[15](15/ "tree and pragmatics") “Take heart, brother, take heart,” answered the Minstrel cheerily.[16](16/ "tree and pragmatics") “To-morrow we shall have better luck; we shall make a great catch, and soon we shall sail back to Wainola with a full cargo and great plenty of salmon.”[17](17/ "tree and pragmatics") But on the morrow their bad luck continued.[18](18/ "tree and pragmatics") Their net was broken, they lost their best whalebone hook, their boat was grounded in the shallows, and half the day was wasted.[19](19/ "tree and pragmatics") Suddenly from the shore they heard some ravens calling among the storm-beaten pines.[20](20/ "tree and pragmatics") They listened to the voices of the ill-omened birds.[21](21/ "tree and pragmatics") “See those fishermen,” said one.[22](22/ "tree and pragmatics") “See how they toil in these empty waters.”[23](23/ "tree and pragmatics") “Caw! caw! caw!” answered its mate.[24](24/ "tree and pragmatics") “They are foolish.[25](25/ "tree and pragmatics") They know not what is going on at home.”[26](26/ "tree and pragmatics") “If they were wiser they would spread sail and hasten back to Wainola,” croaked a third.[27](27/ "tree and pragmatics") “Hasten back to Wainola!” echoed the cold, gray cliffs and the ragged rocks on the shore.[28](28/ "tree and pragmatics") “Back to Wainola!” came a voice from the waveless waters.[29](29/ "tree and pragmatics") “To Wainola!” shouted Ilmarinen, as he seized the ropes and hurriedly hoisted the sail.[30](30/ "tree and pragmatics") “Wainola\![31](31/ "tree and pragmatics") Wainola!” sang the ancient Minstrel as he wielded the long rudder and deftly turned the vessel before the wind.[32](32/ "tree and pragmatics") All night, all day, the willing little ship speeded southward, cutting through the waves with lightning swiftness, throwing the foam to the right and the left, leaving a track of boiling waters behind it.[33](33/ "tree and pragmatics") And the word that was oftenest on the lips of Smith and Minstrel was “Home! home! home!”[34](34/ "tree and pragmatics") Three days they sailed, and then—ah, then\![35](35/ "tree and pragmatics") Who shall depict that home-coming?[36](36/ "tree and pragmatics") Who shall describe the dismay, the grief, the heart-breaking of the hero, Ilmarinen?[37](37/ "tree and pragmatics") As the boat neared the shore he shouted a great sky-shaking shout as was his custom when arriving home from a long voyage.[38](38/ "tree and pragmatics") But no answering cry of welcome came to his ears.[39](39/ "tree and pragmatics") He saw no faces of loved ones waiting at the landing-place to greet him.[40](40/ "tree and pragmatics") Quickly, he leaped ashore.[41](41/ "tree and pragmatics") He paused not a moment, but hastened along the silent pathways towards the grove that sheltered his roomy farmhouse.[42](42/ "tree and pragmatics") But ere he reached it his eyes detected many a sign of the fearful scenes that had been enacted there.[43](43/ "tree and pragmatics") The hedges had been torn down, the flower-beds had been trampled and destroyed, the bordering fields were laid waste.[44](44/ "tree and pragmatics") The farmhouse itself had been ransacked from kitchen to attic chamber, and not one article of ornament or use had been left untouched or unbroken.[45](45/ "tree and pragmatics") Frantically the hero ran from one spot to another loudly calling to his mother, to his sister, the maid of the morning, to his wife, the best beloved, the beautiful.[46](46/ "tree and pragmatics") But no voice answered him save the echoes of his own words.[47](47/ "tree and pragmatics") The floor of the farmhouse was reddened with blood; on every side were the marks of cruel teeth, the imprint of sharp and pitiless claws.[48](48/ "tree and pragmatics") In the farmyard, he found the milking stool and the pails, all battered and scarred and broken; and there, too, he found a long lock of blood-covered hair which he knew too well had once belonged to the Maid of Beauty, the mistress of his household and his life.[49](49/ "tree and pragmatics") Then despair took hold of him and hope was dead.[50](50/ "tree and pragmatics") He looked no farther, but sat down upon the ground and gave expression to his overwhelming grief.[51](51/ "tree and pragmatics") Thus, all day and for many days, Ilmarinen mourned and wept.[52](52/ "tree and pragmatics") Through sleepless nights he bewailed his great misfortune, and through all the hated mornings he lamented the loss of his wife, his mother, his sister, his loved household.[53](53/ "tree and pragmatics") In his smithy the fire no longer burned, the anvil no longer echoed his song.[54](54/ "tree and pragmatics") His hammer was idle and his forge was cold.[55](55/ "tree and pragmatics") The beauty of life had departed and he longed to die—to meet the shades of his loved ones in the land of Tuonela.[56](56/ "tree and pragmatics") For two, four—yes, six—long and dreary months he mourned, and his strength waned and he grew weak from sorrow.[57](57/ "tree and pragmatics") He ate little, slept little, talked not at all, mingled never with his friends and neighbors.[58](58/ "tree and pragmatics") Often, in the still hours of midnight, he fancied that he heard the voice of his dear one calling him by name.[59](59/ "tree and pragmatics") Often in fitful dreams he reached his hand out in the darkness thinking to touch hers, but grasping nothing, seizing only empty air.[60](60/ "tree and pragmatics") At length, in his madness, he said to himself: “With gold and magic and smithing skill I will shape a body like hers—beautiful beyond compare—and then perhaps she will return from Tuonela and dwell therein as she did in her former body of flesh and blood.”[61](61/ "tree and pragmatics") And so, from the rocks by the seaside he gathered flakes of gold, scales of gold, nuggets of gold, until he had filled a basket almost as large as himself.[62](62/ "tree and pragmatics") Then from the forest he cut and brought together many logs of willow and white maple and mountain ash, and of these he made charcoal for his smithy.[63](63/ "tree and pragmatics") With much care he prepared his furnace, and in the midst of it he set a magic caldron, large and round and deep.[64](64/ "tree and pragmatics") He heaped the wood around it, he threw on coal, he kindled the fire; and all the while he sang runes and songs of wizardry and power which no lesser man would have dared to recite.[65](65/ "tree and pragmatics") Then he called loudly to his slaves and working men: “Now, my faithful ones, start the bellows to blowing.[66](66/ "tree and pragmatics") Make it roar like a storm at sea, like a whirlwind in a mountain valley.[67](67/ "tree and pragmatics") Blow, blow, and cease not until I command you.”[68](68/ "tree and pragmatics") The men obeyed.[69](69/ "tree and pragmatics") With their bare hands they laid hold of the long lever, they put their naked shoulders against it and worked steadily with might and main.[70](70/ "tree and pragmatics") And Ilmarinen stood by his magic caldron, throwing into it great handfuls of gold, smaller handfuls of silver, cakes of fine sugar from the red mountain-maple, honey and honeycomb, daisies, buttercups, wild flowers of every hue, and a hundred strange and potent articles the names of which I have not the courage to pronounce.[71](71/ "tree and pragmatics") For a brief hour the workmen toiled and paused not.[72](72/ "tree and pragmatics") Then one said, “I am tired,” and slunk away in the darkness; and the second said, “I am faint with the heat,” and let his hands fall from the bellows; and the third said, “The work is too hard for one man alone to perform,” and he, too, abandoned his post.[73](73/ "tree and pragmatics") The bellows ceased blowing, the fire was fast dying down.[74](74/ "tree and pragmatics") “Blow, my men, blow!” cried Ilmarinen, and then, lifting his eyes, he saw that he was alone in the smithy.[75](75/ "tree and pragmatics") Angry and half-despairing, he seized the lever of the bellows in his own hands, he put his own naked shoulder to the work, and again the flames leaped up, the fire glowed, the caldron quaked and trembled in the terrible heat.[76](76/ "tree and pragmatics") For hours and hours he toiled, till the sweat poured in torrents from his brow, and his hands were blistered and his fingers cramped with grasping the long, unyielding lever of iron.[77](77/ "tree and pragmatics") At length he paused from his labor and looked down into the furnace.[78](78/ "tree and pragmatics") He lifted the lid from the caldron and sang a wild, weird song, every word of which was a word of enchantment.[79](79/ "tree and pragmatics") And what do you think arose from the mixture in the vessel, from the gray clouds of vapor which filled it?[80](80/ "tree and pragmatics") **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/31/page/2/) - ← previous: [A Dreadful Vengeance](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/30/) - next →: [page 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/31/page/2/) - ↑ back to [The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/)