Kullervo

thumb|''Kullervo's Curse by the Finnish painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela from 1899. It depicts a scene from the [[Kalevala in which Kullervo curses beasts from the woods to attack his tormenter, the Maiden of the North.]] Kullervo () is a hero in Finnish and Estonian mythology. He is often called a son of Kaleva. He also appears as an ill-fated character in the epic Kalevala'' by Elias Lönnrot.

==In runic songs== Runic songs of Kullervo mention him as a son of Kaleva. Sometimes, his father is called Kalervo, but this is a later variation which morphed from Kaleva. Ingrian and Karelian runic songs further tell of the fight between two families, the other being the family of Kaleva or Kalevainen, who ruin each others fields and possibilities to survive. Kalevainen and his family were exterminated but an unborn child survives and continues the family feud, bakes a stone inside the bread of a mean mistress of a house, and ends up committing incest. In a different runic song from Ilomantsi, after killing Kaleva, the enemies try to kill his son by throwing him into a large bonfire. However, he had the ability to control fire. To avenge his family, he asks Ilmarinen to forge him a sword and goes to war. Other songs tell he was later defeated on the battlefield. In a runic song written down in the 1700s from an unknown location, it is Kullervo himself who is killed (on the battlefield) but has an unborn child who is later thrown into fire, who is able to control fire.