Kullervo, son of Kalervo, answered:  “And I also will not be sorry if I hear that thou art dead.  Without any trouble I can find me such a father as thou—­a stone-hearted father, a clay-mouthed father, a berry-eyed father, a straw-bearded father, a father whose feet are made of the roots of the willow tree, a father whose flesh is decaying wood.”  Why does Kullervo use these extraordinary terms?  It is a reference to magic—­out of stone and clay and straw, a phantom man can be made, and Kullervo means to say that his father is no more to him than a phantom father, an unreal father, a father who has no fatherly feeling.  His brothers and sisters all questioned in turn if they will be sorry to hear that he is dead, make the same cruel answer; and he replies to them with the same angry words.  But it is very different when he speaks to his mother.

For to his mother he said—­“Oh my sweet mother, my beautiful nurse, my loved protectress, wilt thou regret me bitterly when thou shalt learn that I am dead, that I have disappeared from the multitude of the living, that I am no longer one of the members of thy family?”

The mother made answer:  “Thou does not comprehend the soul of the mother—­thou canst not understand the heart of the mother.  Assuredly will I regret thee most bitterly when I shall learn that thou art dead, that thou hast disappeared, from among the multitude of the living, that thou hast ceased to be one of the members of my family.  Floods of tears shall I weep in my chamber.  The waves of tears will overflow on the floor.  And upon the stairway lamentably shall I weep; and in the stable loudly shall I sorrow.  Upon the icy ways the snow shall melt under my tears—­under my tears the earth of the roads shall melt away; under my tears new meadow grass shall grow up, green sprouting, and through that grass little streams shall murmur away.”  To this mother, naturally, Kullervo says no unkind words.  He goes away, able at least to feel that there is one person in the world who loves him and one person in the world whom he loves.  But how much his mother really loves him he does not yet know; he will know that later—­it forms the most beautiful part of the poem.

“Kullervo directed his steps once more to the home of his fathers.  Desolate he found it, desolate and deserted; no person advanced to salute him, no person came to press his hand, to give him welcome.

“He drew near to the hearth:  the embers were extinguished.  By that he knew that his mother had ceased to be.

“He drew near to the fire-place, and the stones of the fire-place were cold.  By that he knew that his father had ceased to be.

“He turned his eyes upon the floor of his home; the planks of the floor were covered with dirt and rubbish.  By that he knew that his sister had ceased to be.

“To the shore of the sea he went; the boat that used to be there was there no longer.  By that he knew that his brother had ceased to be.