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| "Egle, Queen of Serpents" by Arvydas Algminas |
How do you feel about snakes? Most people are pretty creeped out by them, on the other hand, many people love snakes. Snakes do have an elegant slithery beauty about them, all sorts of shapes and colors and it's pretty impressive how far they've come without any limbs. Though, I do hate it when a snake crawls out from under something I'm standing on, especially if I'm not wearing shoes.
When it comes to folklore snakes do get a bad rep. You've got the Biblical story of Eve and the Serpent, Medusa and Lamia from Greece and the term "Snake in the Grass" is used to describe traitors and other untrustworthy folk. Then you have the rags to riches to nature tale of Egle in Lithuania, here the serpents come out a bit better in a Romeo and Juliet plot kind of way.
Once upon a time, Egle, a farmer's daughter went to bathe in the sea with her sisters one day. When she went to get dressed she found a snake in her clothes! Keeping relatively calm Egle tried to persuade the snake to leave but to no avail, the serpent refused to leave until Egle promised to marry him, finally she promised to marry the snake so that she could get dressed. A few days later a band of snakes came to the farm with a wagon to collect the serpent's bride.
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Understandably, Egle did not want to go with the snakes so the farmer and his family tricked them into taking a goose dressed in Egle's clothes. On the way back from whence they came, a meddling cuckoo bird called out to the snakes and told them they'd been tricked. The snakes went back to the farmer and demanded the true bride. Twice more the farmer tried to trick the snakes by substituting farm animals, twice more the cuckoo warned the snakes that they'd been tricked. Thus Egle had to go with the band of serpents, who took her to the sea to meet her groom. Much to Egle's surprise the snake that refused to leave her blouse was actually a handsome young man named Žilvinas. The two were married and went to live on an island as King and Queen. Egle and Žilvinas had three sons and a daughter.
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| Egle statue in Glebe Park, Canberra |
As the years past Egle became homesick. She begged her husband to go back to her homeland and Žilvinas set her three "impossible" tasks to complete - spin a never-ending amount of silk, wear out a pair of iron shoes, and bake a pie without any kitchen utensils - before he would grant her request. With the help of a wily old woman, Egle accomplished the tasks and took her children home with her to visit. Egle's family was overjoyed to see her again, so much so that they refused to let her go home. Egle's twelve brothers forced Egle's children to tell them the secret of how to find the Serpent King. The three boys refused to give up their father even when their uncle's beat them. But Egle's daughter soon became so frightened she told them the chant that Žilvinas had taught them. With the magic chant Egle's brothers went to the sea and summoned Žilvinas. When the King of Serpents appeared the twelve brothers set upon him with scythes and chopped him into tiny pieces and threw him back into the sea. When Egle tried to summon her husband the waves returned to her red as blood and she knew her beloved was murdered. In her grief Egle transformed her children and herself into trees. Her three sons became Oak, Ash and Birch and her daughter became a weeping willow (or shaking aspen), finally, Egle transformed herself into a fir tree.
And they all lived - well, as trees. So Egle's sons continued to stand tall and strong even as trees because they refused to give up their father while the willow still quivers and shakes just as Egle's daughter did before her uncles, giving up her father. So maybe snakes aren't all so bad. Maybe we need to watch out for trees...
You can find another longer, more detailed version of Egle's tale here.
Special Thanks to Josef DeSade for sharing the family story of Egle, Queen of the Serpents with Lore Underground.
Other Resources:
Seignovert, Romain. "Lithuania – Eglė the Queen of Serpents". Europe's Not Dead. Web. 26 Jan 2015. http://europeisnotdead.com/disco/books-of-europe/european-fairy-tales/lithuania-egle-the-queen-of-serpents/
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