By the foot of the pedestal there is a young woman wrapped in bearskin, symbolising Maiden of Finland.

She is holding a laurel wreath and an inscription with the words of three verses of the Finnish national anthem in Runeberg's native language Swedish.

No rising hill, or mountain grand, No sloping dale, no northern strand, There is, more loved, to be found, Than this — our fathers’ ground.

from Swedish by Anna Krook, 1904) The memorial offers no evidence of the identity of the person it depicts, since it was considered to be self-evident at the time.

[1] A year after the poet's death, a committee with Zacharias Topelius as secretary commissioned a memorial from Walter Runeberg.