Compared to a balanced marriage, between humans but from another clan or another village, that is to saydepending on the societywithin the framework of a well measured endogamy or exogamy, incest transgresses the norm because it is an exaggerated endogamy, and animal marriage transgresses it because it is an exaggerated exogamy. Melville) . [8] Hungarian scholar Endre Bjtar[hu] called it Egle (Silver Pine), the Snake Goddess and Egle (Silver Fir), the Snake Queen. The girl and her mother board up the doors and windows and wait for a sudden storm to pass. "), a mother finds a louse in her house, fattens it and make a pair of shoes for her daughter. The girl becomes a weeping birch and her son a tree branch. Instead of seeing a serpent or a grass snake on the seashore, Egl meets her bridegroom ilvinas, who appears to be a handsome man - the Grass Snake Prince. Jrv, Risto; Kaasik, Mairi; Toomeos-Orglaan, Krri. They found her in the middle of the Red Sea, surrounded by demons, where she was employed in her new role, namely giving birth to a hundred-plus monsters a day, known as lilim. .. To her surprise, the serpent spoke to her in a man's voice and demanded that she promise to become his wife for the return of her clothes. A young maiden named Egl discovers a grass snake in the sleeve of her blouse after bathing with her two sisters. [77], Author August Lwis de Menar[de] collected a variant from the village of Voloitsa (Valyanitsy), on the Soikino peninsula. [65][66], In a Latvian tale from Ansis Lerhis-Pukaitis's (lv) collection, from Jelgava, translated into Hungarian with the title Hogyan lett a kakukk? Some time later, a "troop" of snakes came to the maiden's house to force her to fulfill her promise. That rivers arise in lakes, pools or in caves or spring wells up on mountain sides has made such sites the classical typical den of the legendary dragons of myth. Three years later, the girl visits her family carrying her two children in tow, a son and a daughter. [56], According to scholar Norbertas Vlius, the tale is "more common" in the eastern area of Lithuania, where "more than two thirds" of the variants have been collected. Shahmaran is a mythical creature, half snake and half woman, the first human she encounters is a young man named Camasb (also known as Yada Jamsab, Jamisav, Jamasp in other versions of the story). In 3 volumes]. The storm ends with a loud crash that stirs up the mother and her daughter. For the next week, her mother forbids her to set foot outside their yurt. In the temple of Athena in Athens, a snake held in a cage was believed to be the reincarnation of Erichthonius, an early king in ancient Greece. [16], According to Stith Thompson's reworked folktale classification, tale type AaTh 425M involves a magical formula or incantation to summon the serpent husband. The religious reception ties into this, as does the Freudian interpretation that . He takes her to his underwater castle and marries her. According to some. During the wedding festivities, the snake climbs onto her lap, but the girl shoos him away. "" ": ". In: Kabakova, Galina. Ryujin was thought to appear in people's dreams and briefly in the moment of waking up. [9], The tale was translated into German language as Egle, die Schlangenknigin by German professor Carl Cappeller[sv] in his book of Lithuanian folktales,[10] and as Das Weib des Schlangenmannes ("The Wife of the Snake-Man"), and published in Mitteilungen der Litauischen literarischen Gesellschaft. The elder two leave the lake and, take their garments and go home. Shocked, upset, hesitant (how can she, a person, marry a grass snake? It is also a noun meaning tree species spruce (Latin: Picea) and fir,[4] with cognates in other Baltic languages: Latvian egle 'spruce, fir', and Old Prussian addle 'spruce, fir'.[5]. The girl, dismissing the snake's fanciful notion, agreed to anyway. They are a strong, handsome species who can assume either wholly human or wholly serpentine form and are potentially dangerous but often beneficial to humans. In: . #1 Late Night. Notes for mythology about gods, goddesses, and demi-gods demi gods hercules (herakles or heracles) description achilles perseus orpheus helen best known for his . The fisherman is thankful for the rescue, and asks what he can offer in return; Zaltis says he wants the fisherman's most valuable thing, and promises to grant him fish for hiw whole life. He sets a riddle for any suitors: whoever guesses the right material of both mantles, shall marry the princess. The snakes escorted her out of the house and into her fiance's underwater palace. Kostiukhin, E. A. . "Egl, die Knigin der Nattern. Subcategories This category has the following 7 subcategories, out of 7 total. The girl is wreathing a flower garland that is swept off by the wind and falls on the sea. They served Hades, the god of the Underworld, and Persephone, the goddess of spring and queen of the Underworld. 585 ff (trans. In Hindu mythology, snakes have been depicted as both powerful and feared creatures, often associated with divinity, and are believed to have a significant impact on humans. To the princess's surprise, the snake becomes a man at night, and after a year she gives birth to a son. In: Sauka, Leonardas. The girl agrees to come with him to the lake. [50], Other variations lie in the secret code the wife learns from her snake husband, and in the fate of the heroine and their children (sometimes all girls; sometimes all boys): they are either transformed into trees or into birds and disappear forever. The medieval Lamia Lilith could shapeshift, particularly as a snake. [3] [27], Scholar Jack Zipes provided another description of the tale type, wherein, besides the serpent, a seal, a dragon or sea monster may steal the clothes of the bathing maiden. They are known as Nagas, and they played a very important role in shaping the consciousness of this nation and many other cultures. The reptile promises to return her clothes if she agrees to marry her, to which she answers yes so she can get her clothes back. In: Stryczyska-Hodyl, Ewa. In: , [Ryzhakova, Svetlana Igorevna] (2009). Moskva: , 1975. pp. The man's wife goes to the beach and repeats the song to summon her husband, but he does not appear. Legends have it that she was rejected by her father Shiva and husband Jagatkru, and hated by her stepmother, Chandi, who scooped out one of Manasa's eyes. Later, an old woman pays a visit to Jegle in search of her, and she turns into a woman, saying she brings news from Jegle's bridegroom, Zaltis, and bids the girl meets him by the edge of the lake the following day. Jegle goes to the lake to meet Zaltis, who is in human form, and takes her to his underwater palace. When the mother tells him to go away and eat whatever he has for dinner in his lair, he knocks again, saying his bed needs to be made. She made humans one at a time with clay. Throughout art history, snakes have been represented as women. She does and takes her three children with her. The moment she hands down her first garment into the water, the bridge on which she was sitting collapses. One day, he meets a despondent fisherman on the shore, who laments to the sea prince that he has not caught any fishes. In his analysis of Lithuanian folktales (published in 1936), he previously classified the tale as 425D*, alio mona ("The Girl as Wife to a Snake"), with 27 variants reported until then. She leaves for the lake to do her laundry. "Krybikumo proveriai pasakoje "Egl ali karalien"" [Outbreaks of creativity in the tale "Egl - the queen of serpents"]. They live happily for a time, until the day Jegle begins to miss her father and wishes to visit him. "Buto is the Greek name for the town where her worship centered in the Nile Delta" (Babb . His hands were made up of 100 coiled snakes. The snake makes the girl give her ring in exchange for the garments, and slithers back into the water. Le projet du Dictionnaire de motifs et de contes-types tiologiques chez les slaves orientaux. "Veikj ir viet vardai, j kaita Egls pasakoje" [Names of characters and places and their change in the fairy tale "The snake as bridegroom"]. T-shirts, posters, stickers, home deco. Its mythological background has been an interest of Lithuanian and foreign researchers of Indo-European mythology; Gintaras Beresneviius considered it being a Lithuanian theogonic myth. Zuhra goes with the girls to bathe in a nearby lake and leaves her clothes on the shore. On a warm summer evening all three girls decided to go swimming. After pestering her daughter with questions, Zuhra eventually tells her the secret command. The Black Snake then appears and demands Zuhra as his bride. In a furious rage the goblin returns to the lake and through the shrieking storm screams that pierce the soul are heard. Finally, they take the non-fake bride, Egl, to the bottom of the sea lagoon to their king. She was a woman from the waist up with the tail of a serpent in place of legs. "Ados Martinkus studija apie Egl". The snake promises to give it back if she marries it. Crying, the girl becomes a birch near the shore, while her children become trees. Her mother learns the secret command to summon the snake husband (called Isai Isanych) and kills the husband with a scythe. When opening the door the mother finds a tiny head without a body and a tiny body without a head lying in their blood on the doorstep of her hut. The snake crawls, it is cold, it comes silently and suddenly. The serpent frequently appears in myths and legends. . [29] It is also said that the ancient Lithuanians revered the grass snake (altys). He gives in on three conditions: She is not to embrace a single soul, not even her mother; she has to leave the baby behind as a hostage; and she will return by the bells of the evening vespers. Lvena, Ivonne. [121], Similarities can be found in Vodnk, a story written by Czech author Karel Jaromr Erben as a poem in the book Kytice z povst nrodnch ("A Bouquet of Folk Legends"). On the third year, the girl herself visits her family with her children, then returns to the water. She was however raped by the sea god Poseidon in Athena's temple. [11], This tale is classified, in the AarneThompsonUther Index, as tale type ATU 425M, "The Snake as Bridegroom"[12] (formerly "Bathing Girl's garments kept [until promise of marriage with aquatic being]"). When conversing with her mother, the maiden unwittingly revealed her husband's name (Osip) and the incantation to summon him. [81] In addition, in these variants, the mother-in-law is the one that kills the snake husband. In Egyptian mythology, the snake was a personification of the goddess Kebechet, who personified the purification of water in the funeral cult, and the snake was a protector of the pharaohs after death. According to historian Joseph Campbell (1904-1987), the Greeks used the Medusa story to justify the destruction of idols and temples of an ancient goddess mother wherever they found them. [43], Although it can be considered a tale type developed in the Baltic area, since most of the variants have been recorded there,[44][45][b] variants are reported by scholar Leonardas Sauka to have been collected in nearby countries: 23 variants in Estonia (near Lake Peipus);[47] 150 Lithuanian versions; 89 Latvian versions; 28 from Russia; 22 from Belarus; 6 in Ukraine; 3 from Poland; 2 from Bulgaria. In this tale, titled Wie die Trauerbirke entstanden ist ("How the weeping birch came to be"), a rich man finds a louse on his daughter's hair, fattens it, kills it and makes a pair of shoes out of its hide. [3] [4] [5] Camasb gets stuck in a cave after he tries to steal honey with a few friends, his friends leave him alone in the cave. The snakes take Mirzhan and disappear with her beneath the waters, as her mother grieves for her lost daughter. The old woman places her grandchildren to bed, and, taking a saber, goes to the lake in the dead of night to summon the Black Snake (the "padishah of the jinn"). The youngest child reveals how they reach their house: their mother goes to the edge of a lake, sings a song and the snake father appears in a boat. The serpent is so large that it can wrap itself around the earth and bite its own tail. She marries the snake. Pasaka par zalkti baltu identitti veidojos ststs" [Spruce the Bride of the Grass Snake. The girl's brothers torture their nephews in the bath house and they tell their uncles the secret command. "Popularno motywu "O onie wa" w folklorze i literaturze Batw". When they leave to get her clothes, the youngest finds a snake on her garments, which promises to return them if she becomes his wife. " . A group of boys overhears the incantation and summons Papa-Water to kill him. Masha's mother is the one to kill the snake husband with a hatchet. The snake takes her to his splendid underwater palace and reveals he must suffer some time under a curse: he is human under the snakeskin. [73], In a tale from the Lutsi Estonians collected by linguist Oskar Kallas with the name Ussiks niutud mees ("The Man Enchanted to be a Snake"), a couple prays for a son, and God gives them a snake. ""Egl ali karalien": pasakos topografijos paiekos" ["Egl - the Queen of Serpents": in search of the tale's topography]. The snake wraps itself around Zuhra, they both dive into the lake and swim until they reach a large gate. Three weeks later, the snake comes to get his bride in a grand golden carriage. She marries the reptile, which lies on the rivers, and she has two children with him when he becomes human. [68] According to Estonian folklorists (who worked in conjunction with the Lithuanians), the Estonian archives registered 34 variants of the tale type,[69] and, at the end of the tale, the serpent's wife becomes a birch or aspen and her children turn into bark or leaves. [55], The tale type is recognized as being "most at home in the Balto-Slavic regions". She then curses her daughter to become a swallow, her son a nightingale and herself into a cuckoo. She tries to summon her husband, but, realizing something is wrong, she finds the snake's body. Facts: Hephaestus made all of the weapons and armor for Mount Olympus. The sea prince tells he will help him, on the condition that the fisherman gives him the first thing that is on the shore (which happens to be the fisherman's only daughter). Once more about the semantics of serpent in European folk-lore]. [128], A literary telling is attributed to Russian author Leo Tolstoy. The uncles go to the beach, summon the sea prince and kill him with spears. Its main head supported 100 snake heads, which made different animal noises. Zuhra accepts him and they marry. pp. Years into their marriage, the snake takes off the snakeskin to become a man, and they have three daughters. Her suitors are to discover what material the shoes are made of (tale type AaTh 621, "The Louseskin"). . Herecles notes mythology herecles notes the greatest and most popular greek heroes. The next day, two snakes come to her house to fetch her to their master. 81-82. Before she was cursed with her terrible new form, she was a powerful but relatively innocent woman. Its mythological background has been an interest of Lithuanian and foreign researchers of Indo-European mythology. He also claimed that this narrative was "a common African variation on the Cupid and Psyche theme". She opens the door and answers to the snake's wishes: to be given food and to sleep next to her in her bed. The next two years, her mother goes to the sea shore and asks about her daughter. "Romeo Moses and Psyche Brunhild? In: This page was last edited on 17 April 2023, at 14:40. . The snake-like head is a symbol of her cunning, a perversion of the matrifocal ancient goddess who the Greeks must destroy. [51][52][53] Some stories mention that the king of the grass snakes was wearing an amber crown or that he lived in an amber palace - a motif that recalls another Baltic fairy tale: Jrat and Kastytis. [31], According to Bernard Sergent, "humananimal marriage is an union that is too remote as incest is a too close one. The exact location of their bathing remains undisclosed. 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