the orphan boy

Role: herd-boy · First appears: Canto XII · The Fight with the Sorcerer's Sons

In Canto XII · The Fight with the Sorcerer's Sons, the orphan boy lives on the shores of Lake Peipus, where he works as a herd-boy for the hard mistress, minding her children as well as the sheep and goats. One evening, the wood-nymph takes pity on him and promises him good luck in the morning. Next morning, he finds a lark’s egg and secretly keeps it wrapped against his heart.

Relationship record

Life events

• The wood-nymph takes pity on the orphan boy and promises him good luck in the morning.(Canto XII · The Fight with the Sorcerer's Sons)
  • With: the wood-nymph
  • “He sang sad songs, till at length the wood-nymph took compassion on him, and sang to him one evening from the summit of an oak-tree, telling him that good luck would be his in the morning.”
• The orphan boy finds a lark’s egg and secretly keeps it wrapped against his heart.(Canto XII · The Fight with the Sorcerer's Sons)
  • “Next morning he found a lark's egg hidden among leaves, which he hid in his bosom next his heart wrapped in wool and a strip of linen.”

Canto XII · The Fight with the Sorcerer's Sons

• benefactor: the wood-nymph “He sang sad songs, till at length the wood-nymph took compassion on him, and sang to him one evening from the summit of an oak-tree, telling him that good luck would be his in the morning.”
• employer: the hard mistress “On the shores of Lake Peipus lived a poor orphan boy, who had lost all dear to him by famine, pestilence, and war, and who was now compelled to slave as herd-boy for a hard mistress, and to mind the children as well as to look after the sheep and goats.”

Also listed in Other Figures — Minor Figures

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Extracted from the original text of The Kalevipoeg. Made with Rho MD.