(1917). In some regions, Soini is the protagonist of this story instead of Kullervo. When Soini was only three nights old, he tore his
swaddling. As he was seen to be so strong, he was sold to
Karelia to a smith named
Köyrötyinen. When he was ordered to look after a child, he tore the child's eyes out, killed them with a disease and burned the cradle. He asked for a new job and was told to build a fence. He did by tying full grown spruces together with snakes and lizards. He asked for a new job and was told to herd cattle. The smith's wife gave him a bread which she had hidden a stone into. She told Soini not to eat it before the cattle is coming back home. He did, however, cut into the bread earlier, finding the stone. He was enraged and decided to enact revenge. He fed the cattle to bears, made a horn instrument out of cow bones, and led bears and wolves to the smith's home. He told the bears and wolves to rip apart the smith's wife's thigh, thus getting his revenge against her. A
Kainuu version of the story includes one more failed job: Soini was told to row with a fishnet. After doing this for three days, he grew angry and lifted up a pine tree from the ground with its roots and used it to ruin the net and the water and to push fishermen into the water. The
runic songs call him Soini-kulta ("darling Soini"), or Solki-kulta ("darling Solki"). In a Kainuu runic song, he was able to cut down as much forest with one shout as normal people could after a week's work. This is how he created the meadows of
Liminka. If he wanted to visit his brother, he could row the
Oulujoki river upstream. == In folklore ==