Laurukainen

Laurukainen is a white-haired hero known for his cunning against his enemies. He is known from stories from Northern Ostrobothnia, Tavastia and Karelia. In Finnish stories his enemies are Russians or Karelians.

Laurukainen is best known from stories where he has been forced to be a guide to a group of attackers but is able to destoy the entire group with his cunning. In one story he guides the enemies' boat to a rapid, himself jumping off to the shore at the last second. The boat shattered to pieces and the enemies drowned. In another one he lures his enemies to an island to eat berries and escapes in secret with all the boats, leaving the attackers to starve on the island.

Laurukainen takes the boats of the enemy
Enemies captured Laurukainen, forced him to be their guide and bullied him in many ways. After stealing some property they buried Laurukainen alive under a pile of rocks and took a wife as their prisoner. Then they left to sleep on an island.

The husband of the captured wife and a group of other men went after the enemies and came to the place where Laurukainen had been buried. They heard him making noices under the rockpile and saved him. Laurukainen knew where the enemies had gone to and that they had a guard in the tree. The men rowed there early in the morning when it was still dark, and killed the guard. They saved the wife, took the weapons of the enemies, put them in boats, pushed the boats away from the shore, and jumped in.

This is when the enemies woke up. Noticing that they didn't have weapons or boats they tried to appease Laurukainen. They promised to repay Laurukainen with fine food if he brought them a boat. Laurukainen's men never brought them boats though, and eventually the enemies died of starvation.

Laurukainen in other regions
Laurukainen is also known to Karelians and the Sámi people. Karelians know him as Larikka, in Northern Sámi his name is Lavrukas, and in Skolt Sámi it's Laareek or Laarikaz. In Sámi stories, the enemies come from the east or south-east just like in the Finnish ones, but they are usually Karelians or "Chudes" (Finns). In Northern Karelia, the aforementioned island is an island in the Kuohattijärvi lake.