Kullervo's story in the Kalevala

Kullervo's story is told in cantos 31 to 36 of the 1849 Kalevala. Each canto page gives the Finnish text with W. F. Kirby's English translation line by line, a summary of each passage, and the folk songs that share lines with it.

Start Kullervo's story: Canto 31.

The six cantos

Canto 31 Kasvatti emo kanoja
Untamo wages war against his brother Kalervo, overthrows Kalervo and his army, sparing only a single pregnant woman of the whole clan. She is carried away to Untamo's people, and gives birth to her son Kullervo. Kullervo resolves in his cradle to take revenge on Untamo, and Untamo attempts several times to put him to death, but without success. When Kullervo grows up, he spoils all his work, and therefore Untamo sells him as a slave to Ilmarinen.
Canto 32 Kullervo, Kalervon poika
The wife of Ilmarinen makes Kullervo her herdsman and maliciously bakes him a stone in his lunch. She then sends him out with the cattle, after using the usual prayers and charms for their protection from bears in the pastures.
Canto 33 Kullervo, Kalervon poika
While Kullervo is in the pasture in the afternoon he tries to cut the cake with his knife which he completely spoils, and this goes to his heart the more because the knife was the only remembrance left to him of his family. To revenge himself on the mistress, he drives the cattle into the marshes to be devoured by beasts of the forest, and gathers together a herd of wolves and bears, which he drives home in the evening. When the mistress goes to milk them she is torn to pieces by the wild beasts.
Canto 34 Kullervo, Kalervon poika
Kullervo escapes from the homestead of Ilmarinen, and wanders sorrowfully through the forest, where he meets with the Old Woman of the Forest, who informs him that his father, mother, brothers and sisters are still living. Following her directions he finds them on the borders of Lapland. His mother tells him that she had long supposed him to be dead, and also that her elder daughter had been lost when gathering berries.
Canto 35 Kullervo, Kalervon poika
Kullervo attempts to do different kinds of work for his parents, but only succeeds in spoiling everything, so his father sends him to pay the land-dues. On his way home he meets his sister who was lost gathering berries, whom he drags into his sledge. Afterwards, when his sister learns who he is, she throws herself into a torrent, but Kullervo hurries home, relates his sister's terrible fate to his mother, and proposes to put an end to his own life. His mother dissuades him from suicide, and advises him to retire to some retreat where he may be able to recover from his remorse. But Kullervo resolves before all things to avenge himself on Untamo.
Canto 36 Kullervo, Kalervon poika
Kullervo prepares for war and leaves home joyfully, for no one but his mother is sorry that he is going to his death. He comes to Untamola, lays waste the whole district, and burns the homestead. On returning home he finds his home deserted, and no living thing about the place but an old black dog, with which he goes into the forest to shoot game for food. While traversing the forest he arrives at the place where he met his sister, and ends his remorse by killing himself with his own sword.

The scenes, and the song types that tell them

The song types are the ones the archives use. A type is named at a scene when its songs tell that scene or share its lines.

Canto 31

A mother rears a brood of chickens and swans; an eagle and a hawk scatter them, and three brothers grow up apart: one becomes a merchant in Russia, one is Kalervo in Karelia, and the one left at home is Untamo. Lines 1–18 Kasvatti emo kanoja, Haukka hajotti emon lapset, Emo erotti muista lapsista, Kalervo ja Untamo, Kullervon jaksoa
Untamo and Kalervo quarrel over a catch of fish and a field of oats; Untamo's war band kills Kalervo's people and burns his house, and carries off a single pregnant girl, whose son is named Kullervo. Lines 19–82 Kalervo ja Untamo, Kullervon jaksoa
In his cradle the boy tears his swaddling bands, and at three months old he vows to avenge his father; Untamo tries to kill him in a barrel on the water, on a pyre and on a tree, but he survives each time, and Untamo rears him as a slave. Lines 83–202 Kalervo ja Untamo, Kullervon jaksoa
He spoils every task Untamo gives him: he maims and kills the child he is to mind, spoils the forest he is to clear, builds a fence without a gate up to the clouds and threshes the rye to chaff, so Untamo sells him to the smith Ilmarinen for a few worn-out kettles, scythes and hoes. Lines 203–374 Kalevanpojan kosto

Canto 32

Ilmarinen's wife makes Kullervo her herdsman and bakes him a loaf with a stone inside, which he is not to eat until the herd is in the forest. Lines 1–32 Kalevanpojan kosto, Paimenen kivinen kakku, Kullervon jaksoa
She sends the cattle out to pasture with a long run of prayers and charms, asking God and the spirits of summer and of the forest to guard the herd and give milk, and calling on the bear to keep the peace and leave the cattle alone. Lines 33–548 Karjaa laitumelle laskettaessa, Maito-onnea laitumelle laskiessa, Ehtynyt tai pilattu lehmä lypsäväksi, Karhua vastaan, Sutta vastaan, Karhun synty, Hevonen varataan metsän pedoilta, Haltiain lepyttäminen karjaa laitumelle laskiessa

Canto 33

Kullervo drives the cattle across the marshes, lamenting his lot. He sings to the sun to shine on the poor herdsman, who has only dry bread, and not on the mistress, who eats well, and then to set and send him home; meanwhile the mistress eats butter and cakes and leaves him cold cabbage that the dogs have already eaten the fat from. Lines 1–58 Kalevanpojan kosto, Paista, päivä, paimenille, Mene päivä männikölle, Oljamissa käynti
At supper time he takes out his bread, and his knife, the one thing left to him from his father, breaks on the stone baked inside; he weeps for the knife and asks how he can pay the mistress back. Lines 59–102 Kalevanpojan kosto, Paimenen kivinen kakku, Moni kakku päältä kaunis, Kullervon jaksoa
A crow tells him how to take revenge: he drives the cows into the marsh to be eaten, turns wolves and bears into a herd, makes a horn from a cow's bone and drives the beasts home in the evening. Lines 103–184 Kalevanpojan kosto, Luikku lehmän luusta, Kullervon jaksoa
The mistress goes to milk the herd, and the wolf and the bear tear her; she begs the herdsman to call them off and then prays Ukko to shoot him, but Kullervo prays that Ukko shoot her instead, and she dies in the yard. Lines 185–296 Kalevanpojan kosto, Kullervon jaksoa

Canto 34

Kullervo leaves the smith's house before the news of the death can reach the smith, piping and blowing his horn across the heath; Ilmarinen hears the music, finds his wife dead in the yard and weeps for her. Lines 1–36 Kuolon sanomat, Kullervon sotaanlähtö
Wandering in the forest he laments his fate: who made him to roam under the open sky, why his home is the forest, why the sun shines on the swallow but never on him, and how he was left without father and mother; yet he will not sink into the swamp while he has two hands, five fingers and ten nails to lift himself out. Lines 37–94 Mikä lie minua luonut, Korvessa minun kotini, Älköön Jumala luoko, Älköön Jumala luoko lasta armotonta, Päivä pääskylle tulevi - ei minulle, Liekö tetri tielle tehnyt, Isä jätti iljenelle, Soisit suohon sortuvani, Sinis on leivoista minulla kunis kannan kahta kättä
He resolves to take revenge on Untamo, but an old woman in a blue cloak tells him that his father and mother are alive, on the borders of Lapland, and shows him the way; he finds their house, and no one there knows him. Lines 95–188
His mother greets him as a son she had long mourned as dead, and tells him that her elder daughter was lost when she went to the forest for berries; she searched for the girl, and the hills answered that she would never come home. Lines 189–246 Pilviin kadonnut poika, Vesitieltä pilviin viety neito

Canto 35

Living with his parents, Kullervo never gains a man's sense, having been reared crookedly: he rows the boat to pieces and beats the water so hard that the net is torn to tow and the fish crushed to slime, so his father sends him to pay the land-dues. Lines 1–68 Kalevanpojan kosto
On the way home he asks two girls into his sledge and both refuse him; a third he drags in and wins over with silver and fine cloth. In the morning they tell each other their families: she is Kalervo's daughter, lost long ago in the forest, and she throws herself into the rapids. Lines 69–266 Rutsa
Kullervo leaps from the sledge and weeps that he has wronged his own sister and that it would have been better never to be born; he rides home and tells his mother she should have smothered him in the bath-house smoke when he was two nights old. Lines 267–314 Rutsa, Parempi syntymättä, Ei se surma suorin tehnyt, Oisin kuollut kolmiöisnä, Syntymistään sureva
He tells his mother what has happened and asks where he should go to die; she bids him hide away until the years have calmed his grief, but he will not hide: he will go to war and avenge his father and mother on Untamo. Lines 315–372 Rutsa

Canto 36

Kullervo makes ready for war; his mother warns him that he is going to war on a goat and will come home on a dog, and he answers that it is a fine thing to die in battle, to the ring of swords. When she asks who will care for his father, his mother, his brother and his sister once he is dead, he answers that they may die. Lines 1–56 Vuohella sotaan, Hyvä on sotahan kuolla
Leaving home, he asks his father, his brother, his sister and his mother in turn whether they will weep when they hear that he has died; only his mother says she will, and, if she cannot weep before people, alone in the bath-house. Lines 57–154 Itketkö sinä minua?, Kuolon sanomat, Itken yksin ollessani
He goes to war making music; messengers overtake him with news that his father, his brother and his sister have died, and he does not turn back, and when he hears that his mother has died he grieves but goes on. He asks Ukko for a sword, and with it he kills Untamo's people and burns their houses, leaving only the hearth-stones and a rowan in each yard. Lines 155–250 Kullervon sotaanlähtö, Kuolon sanomat, Äidin kuolo
He comes home to an empty house: from the cold coals on the hearth he knows that his mother is dead, from the cold stones of the stove his father, from the unswept floor his sister, and from the empty mooring his brother. Lines 251–274 Oljamissa käynti
He weeps for his mother, and she answers him from the grave: take the black dog and go to the forest for food. Lines 275–296 Emon, ison haudalla
In the forest he comes to the place where he lay with his sister; he asks his sword whether it would drink guilty blood, it answers that it would, and he falls on it. Väinämöinen warns that a child reared crookedly never grows to understanding. Lines 297–360 Hirttäytynyt neito

Where these songs were sung

Songs of the types that tell Kullervo's story were written down most often in these places (the most first):

On a map: where each song type was written down (Song Type Geography)

In the Estonian Folklore Archives

Six records in the Estonian Folklore Archives tell scenes like those of cantos 31 to 36. Four are Estonian songs: two of the herder's bread with a stone baked into it, and two of a daughter or a son who comes home and is not known by the family. The other two are one Ingrian singer's song, written down twice by Paul Ariste. The song texts are not shown here; each reference opens the song in the poem reader.

An orphan herder sings that the harsh mistress promised him a bun and a crust of bread, and in their place he found a stone and a bone; the Estonian archive's own description of this song type, Kivi leivas (the stone in the bread), sets it beside canto 33 as a direct counterpart. H II 19, 166/7 (51) — Tõstamaa · 1889
A herding song of the same type: the mistress has baked the herder a little bun with a stone in its middle, and he asks what he can break off from it for his dog. H II 20, 178 (20) — Pärnu · 1889
A married daughter rides home in fine clothes, and her father and mother do not know their own child until she takes off her finery: the motif of Kullervo's homecoming in canto 34, lines 175 to 192, where his family does not know him, and the song's line "Tunne'i ema oma lasta" (the mother does not know her own child) is close to the canto's line 184, "tunne et lastasi omoa". H II 5, 8/13 (7) — Halliste · 1883
A young man comes home from the war after a long time away, and his father, mother and brother do not know him; only his sister knows him, by the gloves she gave him and the shirt from his mother (the same motif as canto 34, lines 175 to 192). ERA II 190, 447/57 (27) — Setumaa · 1938
An Ingrian song, not an Estonian one, written down by Paul Ariste from the Ingrian singer Mikko Pukonen: Untomo's war leaves one son of Kaleva alive, who survives the sea, the gallows and the fire, breaks his father's knife on the stone the smith's wife baked into his bread and drives bears and wolves home in place of her cattle, much of what cantos 31 to 33 tell. TEM 3, 1/5 — Tallinn, välismaa · 1922
A second write-up by Paul Ariste of the same Ingrian song by the same singer, here named Mikko Pukkanen (Pukonen) and given as 83 years old; the Finnish archive's JR collection holds nearly the same text as JR 02600, under the place Narvusi. E 53258/9 — välismaa · 1923

In Lönnrot's Kalevala, Kullervo's sister has no name; the Aino of cantos 3–5 is a different young woman, Joukahainen's sister.

The 2026 film “Kalevala: Kullervon tarina” (“Son of Revenge”) retells this story freely. RunoVerse has no connection with the film or its makers.