Eglė, the queen of the adders
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Eglė, Queen of the Adders , or Eglė, Queen of Snakes ( Lithuanian Eglė žalčių karalienė ) is one of the most famous Lithuanian legends and folk tales. The story is one of the most original and archaic of its kind and probably the one with the most varied allusions to Lithuanian mythology . The different versions of the story that have been collected in writing differ only in details. Their multifaceted mythological background has always drawn researchers into the early culture and mythology of the Indo-European peoples. Among the interesting details of the legend compared to similar fairytale tales is that it describes not only the permanent transformation of a human into a reptile, but also the permanent transformation of humans into trees.
Eglė is on the one hand a very popular Lithuanian female given name, on the other hand also the Lithuanian word for the conifer spruce . The snakes of the narrative are called in Lithuanian žaltys , ie grass snake , a harmless and land-dwelling reptile, but since they in the story at the bottom of the Baltic Sea life, it can be assumed that probably more mythical "water snakes" than in the concrete sense biologically classified Grass snakes are meant.
Synopsis
The plot can be broken down into sections, each corresponding to different narratives, but the way they are put together is unique.
After bathing in the sea with her sisters, Eglė finds a snake in her discarded clothes. She speaks with a human voice and only gives her clothes when Eglė promises her marriage. As a result, a multitude of snakes appear again and again in the parents' court, demanding the surrender of the bride, but each time being deceived by a disguised animal (first a goose, then a goat, and finally a cow). When leaving, however, the fraud is always betrayed by a cuckoo, so that the snakes return. When they return for the third time, they threaten to set fire to the courtyard, whereupon the parents surrender Eglė. The vipers bring Eglė to the sea.
There the original snake awaits her in human form and reveals himself to her as Žilvinas, the snake prince. Eglė now agrees to marry him and they have three sons, Ąžuolas, Beržas and Uosis and a daughter Drebulė. They live in a palace under the sea. Finally, Eglė asks her husband for permission to visit her parents. He confronts them with three tasks: Remove a pair of iron shoes, spin an endless pile of silk, and bake bread without having a water container. Eglė always seeks advice from an old sorceress and masters all the tasks, so that Žilvinas has to let her and the children go. He gives them a spell to call him to the seashore to be able to return.
Eglė's family of origin now wants to prevent her from returning to her husband. They threaten the children in order to be able to summon Žilvinas and kill him. Despite the use of force, the sons remain silent, but the daughter reveals the magic spell. The Eglės brothers call Žilvinas ashore and kill him with blows and sickles. When they return to the sea, the magic shows that Žilvinas had been killed, whereupon Eglė and her children turn into trees out of mourning: Ąžuolas into an oak, Beržas into a birch, Uosis into an ash and Drebulė into an aspen, Eglė in a grief-stricken spruce.
literature
- Yvonne Luven : The cult of the house snake. A study on the religious history of the Latvians and Lithuanians. Cologne 2001. ( ISBN 3-412-10300-4 ). Product type: book. ISBN 3-412-10300-4 . Published by Böhlau. 2001, number of pages: 499, scope / format: XIX, 409 pages, 24 cm.