Kyllikki

Also known as: Flower of Saari / Kylli · Family: Saari · Role: maiden · First appears: Runo XI · Lemminkainen and Kyllikki · Part 1

In Runo XI, the Sun, Moon, and Star wooed Kyllikki for their sons, but she refused to go to Sunland, Moonland, or Starland. Lemminkainen then journeyed to Saari to woo her. She rejected his advances, saying she wanted a graceful, shapely, handsome husband; less than half a month later, he seized her and carried her away. On their journey, she urged him to swear never to join battle again, and they swore that he would not go to battle and she would not seek the village. She also asked to return home to console her weeping mother.

In Runo XII, Lemminkainen and Kyllikki were married and lived quietly for a while. At nightfall, she went to the village to dance with the maidens; she later urged her husband not to go to battle, telling him of a frightening dream. He dismissed her absence from home, saying she could dance and sleep wherever she wished. In Runo XV, Kyllikki found blood oozing from Lemminkainen’s comb and gore from his brush.