History Literature / TheBirchAndTheStar

'''The Birch and the Star''' is a tale written by Finnish author Zakari Topelius in 1915. The story is set during "Isoviha", or the Greater Wrath, a time of a brutal Russian occupation of Finland in 1713-1721.

'''The Birch and the Star''' is a tale written by Finnish author Zakari Topelius in 1915. The story is set during "Isoviha", or the Greater Wrath, a time of a brutal Russian occupation of Finland (which was still a part of Sweden at the time) in 1713-1721.

'''The Birch and the Star''' is a tale written by Finnish author Zakari Topelius in 1915. The story is most likely set at the time of UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars.

During a time of war and unrest, the story begins, many children lost their parents, and vice versa. Many were never found, but two children, a girl and a boy, being four and six at the time, were sheltered and taken in by a (presumably) Russian family and brought up there for ten years. The children, however, never forgot their homeland, and when the boy was sixteen and the girl fourteen, they pleaded with their foster parents for a return home to their real parents. The foster family scoffs at this, because the children were too small at the time to remember exactly where in Finland they came from. "We have a sign on our home", the brother states: A birch in the farmyard, and a star shining through the birch tree. ''That'' is even more hilarious, and the foster parents will have no more of this nonsense.

But the siblings elope at night, determined to find their way home, and begin a trek for more than a year, WalkingTheEarth and asking everyone they meet for the Birch and the Star, and more precisely, for a direction to Finland.

When they finally come up to Finland, they ask again, for the Birch and the Star, and often get ridiculed for it, although many take pity of them. Fortunately, two birds have guided them all the way, and confident that this is divine guidance, the sister is on the lookout for the birds, until...

They reach spot on! The two birds settle in a birch tree a summer evening, while the first star shines through its branches. Under the tree, the siblings recognize two small graves, and inside, an elderly couple mourns for their lost children. The siblings knock on the door and enter, and after a little confusion, a TearJerker meeting occurs.

!! Tropes occuring in this story

* {{Determinator}}: Both the brother and the sister. They never waver, and only are about to give it up when then reach home.

* GodWasMyCopilot: The two birds are the souls of the two other siblings, buried under the birch three. Lampshaded by the sister almost from the first time the birds are seen.
* ImpossibleTask: Lampshaded more than once by the people who are asked for directions: "But there are many stars in the sky, and many, ''many'' birches in Finland. How can you be sure you ever find the right one?"

* SoProudOfYou: The father marvels at his full grown son, and the mother likewise of his daughter.

* WarIsHell: The premise of the story. The author goes to great detail in describing all the refugee situations that occured at the time, all the lost relatives and so on.
* WhamLine: "You would be at almost the same age as our son and daughter who got lost..."

* GodWasMyCopilot: The two birds are the souls of the two other siblings, buried under the birch three.

'''The Birch and the Star''' is a tale written by Finnish author Zakari Topelius in 1915. The story is most likely set at the time of the NapoleonicWars.

* WhamLine: "You would be at almost the same age as our son and daughter who got lost..."

* {{Determinator}}: Both the brother and the sister. They never wavers, and only are about to give it up when then reach home.