Kultapyörä

Soini

Names: Soini (no region known)
Solki
Sollu , ?

Soini or Sollu is mentioned as a son of Kaleva. It is possible that he is the same as Kullervo, but this is not certain.

Scoundrel since childhood

The son of Kaleva was noticed to be strong when he broke his swaddling bands at the age of three nights old. By Carl Eneas Sjöstrand.

Soini is generally described as a giant (in one instance he is even mixed with his father, Kaleva). He is sometimes called "beautiful son of Kaleva" just like Kullervo, but there is an instance when the word kalkki is used instead of beautiful. Kalkki is an odd word which Christfried Ganander wrote meant the same as Swedish skalk "scoundrel". However, if I may do some Original Research myself, I noticed that in Proto-West Germanic, skalk means "serf, servant, slave".

After Soini had been born, it was noticed that he was very strong and therefore, was sold as a slave to Karelia to a smith named Köyretyinen or Köyrötyinen. However, he was not a good underling at all: when asked to look after a child, he kills it with a disease and burns the cradle. When told to build a fence, he tied full grown spruces together with snakes and lizards. When fishing with a net, he gets bored after three days and ruins the net and pushes fishermen into the water. When he is going to herd cattle, the smith's wife gives him a piece of bread he is only to eat when the cattle is coming back home. However, he cuts the bread earlier and finds that a stone has been baked into it. Enraged, he wanted to enact revenge on his mistress so he fed the cattle to bears and led bears and wolves to the smith's home with an instrument he made out of a cow's horn. He orders he beasts to rip apart the smith's wife's thigh, getting his revenge.

Summoning a herd of bears and wolves. By Akseli Gallen-Kallela.

Life in North Ostrobothnia

According to folklore, Soini built his home in North Ostrobothnia on the spot where now stands the Church of Liminka (suggesting the building of churches on top of pagan holy sites). Together with his brother Hiisi, he created swiddens in North Ostrobothnia and Kainuu, and the two of them could make them faster than a group of ten men. With one shout, he was able fell as many trees as one person could in a week, and this is how the meadows of Liminka were formed.

Sometimes he visited Hiisi, who lived in Sotkamo, Kainuu. In order to do this, he was able to row the Oulujärvi river upstream with his great strength. He used to rest on a cape in the Oulujärvi lake which was later named Soininniemi "cape of Soini".

Folklore does not explain what happened to him after this. If he is the same person as Kullervo, he went to wars with his children and died on the battlefield.

Etymology

Soini Theorized to come from Old Swedish sveinn "young man".
Solki Means "brooch". He is called Solki-kulta "darling Solki", which could also be solkikulta "gold of a brooch".

Runosongs of interest

Only in Finnish, sorry. This is the source material.