I'm drafting a retelling of the story of Kullervo called The Pearl Of Combat, following Grishka's advice to find a shorter folktale to retell first. This story is dungeon punk (cyberpunk/high fantasy), loosely based on its source, and the country of Kalevala, its setting, is modelled culturally on Karelia and southeastern Finland as portrayed in the Kalevala. (Karjala, Finnish/Karelian for "Karelia" is one of its Northern provinces) It has colonised Pohjola, based on Siberia and southwestern Alaska. The Maiden of Pohjola's culture is based on Siberian and Central Alaskan Yup'ik cultures, and Kullervo's is based on the Aleut. I found out that there is a Karelian Kalevala-metre folk song called "The Revenge of The Kalova Boy" which is the seed of the whole Kullervo story. In brief, the Kalova boy is an orphan living in a blacksmith's house. His master's wife doesn't like him and sends him out to be a cowherd, baking a stone in his loaf of bread. He discovers what she's done when he tries to cut the bread and his knife breaks. He take his revenge, turning all her cows into bears, getting them to maul her when she leaves the house to milk them. I know that one of the lines is "Tuo kaunis, Kalovan poika (The handsome Kalova boy)" but can't find anything else. Does anyone know anything about this song and its lyrics? Could someone help me find a full text with an English translation, if one exists?
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