cy waters and was never
seen again alive, but her lifeless body floated down to the black river
of Tuoni.
But Kullervo unharnessed his steed from the sledge and galloped off home
and there related to his mother all that had occurred, and how he had
unknowingly been the cause of his sister's death, and when he had
finished his story, he added: 'Woe is me that I did not die long ago.
But now I must hasten off to gloomy Pohjola, there to slay the wicked
Untamo, and myself be also slain.' Having said this he also made ready
his armour and ground his broadsword until it was as sharp as a razor.
But before he went, he asked his father and brother and sister and
mother if they would grieve when they heard of his death. And all but
his mother told him that they would never sorrow over the death of such
an evil fellow. But his mother alone said that, in spite of all the evil
he had done, her mother's love was still strong and that she would weep
over him for years to come.
Thereupon Kullervo went forth on his journey to the icy Northland, but
before he had gone far a messenger came and told him that his father was
dead and asked Kullervo to come back and help bury him, but he would
not come. And a little later he was told of the death of his brother and
then of his sister, and last of all of his mother. Still he refused to
come to bury any of them, only, when the news of his mother's death
reached him, he mourned that he had not been with her in her last
moments, and bade the servants bury her with every possible honour and
respect.
Now as he neared the home of Untamo's tribe, he prayed to Ukko to endow
his sword with magic powers, so that Untamo and all his people might be
surely slain. And Ukko did as he had asked, and with the magic sword
Kullervo slew, single-handed, all Untamo's people, and burned all their
villages to ashes, leaving behind him only dead bodies and smoking
ruins.
Then he hastened home, and found that it was only too true that all his
family had died while he was away; and he went out to his mother's grave
and wept over it. But as he wept, his mother spoke to him from the grave
and bade him let their old dog lead him into the forest to the home of
the wood-nymphs, who would care for him. So Kullervo set off, led by the
faithful dog. But on the way they came to the grassy mound where
Kullervo had met his long-lost sister, and there he found that even the
grass and the flowers and the trees were weepi
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