The Berry-Gatherer’s Good Company

There once lived a wife who went picking berries in the forest. She was approached by a fine gentleman dressed all in black and the gentleman inquired, ‘Are you not afraid, say, woman?’ And the wife replied, ‘What to be afraid of when there is the four of us here – for I am here

The Ferryman and the Lord in the Tophat

Once there was a ferryman who lived nearby the Ķeizardārzs Gardens.  Around the midnight hour, he heard someone knocking on his door and the stranger on the other side of the door requested to be ferried over to the Švarcs manor. The ferryman did not want to undertake the endeavour in the dead of the

The Little Girl Lost in the Woods

It was years forty ago perchance and not far from our parish where, according to my grandmother’s tales, the following occurred and all the folk were talking of it.  A servant wife had arrived at the neighbouring household to assist in the crop-harvesting and she had brought along her daughter of five years. The child

The Spirits of the Grove and the Holy Man

In the olden times, on the Ķirka Hill, there was a birch grove where spirits dwelt.  The people could never see the spirits and their holy man alone knew to find them and to speak to them. The man summoned the folk and together they rolled a large boulder to the top of the hill

The Blue Cows

The holy maidens come into our world to shepherd their beauties – their blue cows. If one crept unnoticed close to the holy maidens and threw over them most any cloth, the holy maiden was then to stay captured within this realm. The ‘Kuikas’ household folk (and that is by Dundaga bounds at the far

Of Treating the Holy Maiden Spots

By tree-stumps or by any other half-rotten wood – there grow the yellow cropping up all over their flesh and those spots spread like plague when left untreated. Moistened they must never be and healed they should be soon enough. The ‘holy maidens’ are treated with hellebores (Nieswurz) and sour cream or lard, as well

The Untimely Deceased Maiden

Once upon a time – when the people were still forced to perform their unpaid labour duties on the baron’s lands, there was a nifty, nimble maiden and she went spinning – all week long in the baron’s manor. Yet the girl was not too weary to keep spinning through the Sunday, as well, in

Holy Maidens’ Dwellings

The holy maidens dwell within the household – between the stove and its inglenook. When the people skim the foam off the pot-top – into the holy maidens’ abode the foam must never be thrown, not to enrage the holy maidens. If it chances to sprinkle of such over them, it is at once the

Protecting Laima’s Pente

Many times, inside of the walls and all such household nooks and crannies, there would be the sound of a spinning wheel heard chirping and screeching. And those are the holy maidens spinning there. Some women’s hair – the holy maidens would spin them into a tangled knot and that is then called a ‘pente’*

The Holy Maidens

Index Protecting Laima’s Pente Holy Maidens’ Dwellings The Untimely Deceased Maiden Of Treating the Holy Maiden Spots The Blue Cows If you enjoyed the tales and you would like to thank the translator, please, consider donating to animal welfare organizations!