Lauma
Laumas . Pl ( lett . Lauma Sg .; lit . Laume ; Pl. LAUMES ) are in the Baltic mythology fairy beings that sometimes occur in form of a bird, or at least have bird feet. They can also be called Svētās meitas "Holy Virgins". In later folklore, they can be mixed with the ragana .
The laumes are popular fairies in folklore who appear in the wake of Laima , the goddess of fate . They spin, weave and wash and show themselves to be helpful to good people, while bad and lazy women are punished by them. If they are angry, they shear the wool from the sheep, confuse the horses' manes or milk the cows empty. Sometimes they also kill the children of lazy mothers and eat them up.
They show themselves to men as beautiful, naked women with lush breasts who live near bodies of water and do laundry on the banks of the river. Men who want to fool the Laumas hunt them to death. If you marry someone, you are a good wife and mother. But the marriage lasts only a short time.
In Lithuanian, laumės juosta »Laumes sash« refers to the rainbow , laumės žirgas »Laumes horse« the blue dragonfly and laumės šluota »Laumes broom« the mistletoe , which is also known in German as "witch's broom".
literature
- Jonas Balys, Haralds Biezais : Baltic mythology. In: Hans Wilhelm Haussig , Jonas Balys (Hrsg.): Gods and Myths in Old Europe (= Dictionary of Mythology . Department 1: The ancient civilized peoples. Volume 2). Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1973, ISBN 3-12-909820-8 .