Kullervo's Sister

Kullervo's Sister is the elder daughter who vanished from her family and later appears as a maiden travelling on a snow-sledge. Her brief account connects a childhood disappearance to a sudden, unresolved leap into a river, making her return a moment of recognition and loss rather than a settled reunion.

Identity and Family

Her mother recalls having two sons and two daughters, but says that the elder son and elder daughter have long been absent. The son departed for war; the daughter’s departure is remembered differently, through the ordinary purpose of going out to gather berries. The family’s account thus places Kullervo's Sister among those lost from the household, without suggesting that her mother knows where she went afterward.

The Mother’s Recollection

Asked where the daughter journeyed, the mother says that she went to the woods for berries and also went to the mountains. These details preserve the scale of the disappearance: it begins as an excursion into familiar natural places, not as a declared journey or a known separation. The recollection gives her a family history before the later encounter, but does not explain how she came to be travelling on a snow-sledge.

The Maiden’s Account and Leap

During the later encounter, the maiden is asked about her race, origin, and kindred. Her answer begins by rejecting the idea that she came from a primeval lineage and describes her people as neither the largest nor the smallest. The account also presents her as having blossomed like a flower, knowing neither pain nor sorrow; this image of sheltered youth stands in sharp contrast to the action that follows.

Scarcely has she spoken when she bounds from the snow-sledge and rushes into the rolling river. The passage places no explanation between her answer and her leap, and the action ends the encounter abruptly. It establishes that she leaves the sledge and enters the river, but does not state her subsequent fate or give a motive for the leap.