--- title: The Famine — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · full text with trees description: The Famine, «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: Sad were the days and joyless were the months in the Land of Heroes. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/32/) [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 Famine # The Famine The Famine of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin: the whole text, 75 sentences and 1095 words. The small number after every sentence leads to its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. Sad were the days and joyless were the months in the Land of Heroes.[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") The sky was cloudless and gray and the ground was parched and dry for long lack of rain.[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") In the fields the crops failed and the cattle died.[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") In the forest there was no game for the huntsmen.[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") In the sea the fishes had fled to other waters, leaving the fishermen to toil in vain.[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") In Wainola the children were crying for food and the men and women were sitting on their doorsteps, silent, with stony faces, hopeless, helpless, despairing.[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") Then one day a little boat came creeping into the harbor with but one man on board.[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") Many of the people saw the lone sailor as he moored his vessel to the shore, but none had the courage to go and meet him.[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") He walked slowly up the deserted pathway to the village, looking at the barren fields and the fruitless trees, the empty barns and the gloomy houses, the many signs of poverty and distress.[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics") His eyes wandered onward to the ruined farmhouse, and past it to the smokeless smithy which had once been the joy and the pride of the hero, Ilmarinen.[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics") “Ah, me\![11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") Can this be Wainola, the village once so happy and prosperous?” he said to himself.[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics") “Can this be the smithy, can this be the home which echoed to the merry sounds of love and peace?”[13](13/ "tree and pragmatics") Then from out of the shadows an old man, feeble and tottering, came to meet him.[14](14/ "tree and pragmatics") It was Wainamoinen, pale with fasting, gaunt with hunger, but brave and steadfast as in former days.[15](15/ "tree and pragmatics") “Hail, stranger!” said the Minstrel.[16](16/ "tree and pragmatics") “Welcome to Wainola and to the best that its people can offer!”[17](17/ "tree and pragmatics") “Hail, friend and brother!” answered the stranger heartily and with gentleness.[18](18/ "tree and pragmatics") He lifted the cap which had concealed his forehead, he loosed the broad scarf that had been well drawn up about his chin and cheeks.[19](19/ "tree and pragmatics") His ruddy face was wrinkled with sorrow although for the moment it was wreathed in smiles.[20](20/ "tree and pragmatics") The Minstrel old and feeble uttered a cry of joy.[21](21/ "tree and pragmatics") “O Ilmarinen\![22](22/ "tree and pragmatics") Ilmarinen\![23](23/ "tree and pragmatics") Have you returned?[24](24/ "tree and pragmatics") We had mourned you as dead\![25](25/ "tree and pragmatics") We had given you up as lost!”[26](26/ "tree and pragmatics") And the next moment each was locked in the other’s arms.[27](27/ "tree and pragmatics") “Now, tell me, my young brother, where have you been since you departed from Wainola and the Land of Heroes?[28](28/ "tree and pragmatics") Word came to us that you had perished, that you had gone to dwell in Tuonela; and when this great blight of famine and sorrow came upon the land, we were fain to believe that it was indeed so.[29](29/ "tree and pragmatics") Why did you leave us?[30](30/ "tree and pragmatics") Where have you been?”[31](31/ "tree and pragmatics") “I went away from Wainola because of my sorrow,” answered Ilmarinen sadly.[32](32/ "tree and pragmatics") “I went to the far North Land, to Pohyola’s shores, because the voice of my dear lost Maid of Beauty seemed to call me thither.[33](33/ "tree and pragmatics") For twelve months—yes, for two long, sorrowing years—I sought her in that land.[34](34/ "tree and pragmatics") But Tuoni holds her captive in his castle beside the river of silence.[35](35/ "tree and pragmatics") She cannot come to me, but I can go to her.[36](36/ "tree and pragmatics") I am even now seeking the road to Tuonela.”[37](37/ "tree and pragmatics") “You need not go far to find it,” said the Minstrel.[38](38/ "tree and pragmatics") “Look around you and see your neighbors starving, dying—hear your neighbors’ children moaning, crying.[39](39/ "tree and pragmatics") The road to Tuonela is here, and many are the feet that are travelling in it.[40](40/ "tree and pragmatics") But tell me, was it thus in Pohyola?[41](41/ "tree and pragmatics") Have they a famine there also?”[42](42/ "tree and pragmatics") “A famine\![43](43/ "tree and pragmatics") Far from it,” answered Ilmarinen.[44](44/ "tree and pragmatics") “Never was there a more prosperous people than those of Pohyola.[45](45/ "tree and pragmatics") They plough, they sow, they reap in great abundance.[46](46/ "tree and pragmatics") Of grain and fruit there is no end, and no man nor woman, child nor dog, knows the meaning of hunger.”[47](47/ "tree and pragmatics") “How strange that a land of mists and fogs, a land so dreary and forbidding, should be so blessed with plenty!” said the Minstrel.[48](48/ "tree and pragmatics") “Is it by some power of magic that this is so?[49](49/ "tree and pragmatics") Why is it that you, the prince of wizards, cannot find some way to bless and save our own kinsmen, our own people?”[50](50/ "tree and pragmatics") “Do you remember the Sampo?” said the Smith.[51](51/ "tree and pragmatics") “Do you remember the magic mill which I made for Dame Louhi many years ago?[52](52/ "tree and pragmatics") That mill is still grinding in Pohyola, its lid of many colors turns and turns and turns forever.[53](53/ "tree and pragmatics") Safely locked in a stony cavern, still it grinds wealth and food and clothing without end.[54](54/ "tree and pragmatics") The soil draws richness from it, the fields of grain thrive upon its grindings, the fruit trees send their roots downward and suck up the wealth which it pours out.”[55](55/ "tree and pragmatics") “The Sampo, the Sampo!” said the Minstrel, feebly as in a dream.[56](56/ "tree and pragmatics") “If only we might bring it to our own country, how quickly we could save our people!”[57](57/ "tree and pragmatics") “It was I that forged the wonderful mill, I, the prince of smiths and wizards,” said Ilmarinen with a far-off look in his eyes.[58](58/ "tree and pragmatics") “Never can another be made that is like it.”[59](59/ "tree and pragmatics") “And if you forged it, why is it not your own?” queried Wainamoinen, wise though feeble.[60](60/ "tree and pragmatics") “I forged it for another,” answered Ilmarinen.[61](61/ "tree and pragmatics") “I made it for wise old Louhi, the Mistress of Pohyola; and the reward which she ought to have given me, I obtained by other means.[62](62/ "tree and pragmatics") Neither gold nor silver nor aught else have I ever received for my labor.”[63](63/ "tree and pragmatics") “Then surely you have a valid claim upon the Sampo,” said Wainamoinen.[64](64/ "tree and pragmatics") “O my friend and brother, we must hasten to Pohyola and seize that mill of plenty, that we may bring it to our own sweet land.[65](65/ "tree and pragmatics") We must save our starving people.”[66](66/ "tree and pragmatics") “Nay, nay, it cannot be,” returned the Smith.[67](67/ "tree and pragmatics") “The mill is securely stored away in a stony cavern beneath a hill of copper.[68](68/ "tree and pragmatics") Nine heavy doors shut it in, and nine locks of strongest metal make each door fast and safe.[69](69/ "tree and pragmatics") No man nor men can seize the mighty Sampo.”[70](70/ "tree and pragmatics") But the Minstrel persisted.[71](71/ "tree and pragmatics") All that night he held the Smith’s strong hand and talked of naught but the Sampo and how, by it, they might save the lives of their famishing friends and neighbors.[72](72/ "tree and pragmatics") At length Ilmarinen ceased objecting.[73](73/ "tree and pragmatics") “You are wise, my elder brother,” he said, “much wiser than I. The task is a mighty one, but for the sake of our people and our country I will not shrink from it.[74](74/ "tree and pragmatics") None but women say, ‘I cannot,’ none but cowards say, ‘I dare not.’”[75](75/ "tree and pragmatics") - ← previous: [The Golden Maiden](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/31/) - next →: [The Weeping Ship](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/33/) - ↑ back to [The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/)