AMBER
There are many gemstones that start with A, but I have always been fascinated by amber, and the memories of the distant past it contains. Around the Baltic Sea, there are many old stories about amber. The most famous among them is the Lithuanian legend of Jurate and Kastytis, but of course I wanted to go and find a less well-known story...
The Legend of the Gauja Bird
Latvia
This legend says that long ago in a distant wilderness by the Baltic sea lived the magic, blue-feathered Gauja bird. In its nest it guarded a necklace of 77 amber pieces. Each stone, when turned to the light, revealed a different image. They showed cities, forests, mountains, orchards, different peoples. The King of Tuscany sent a hunter named Koso to steal the necklace for him. Koso set out into the wilderness and managed to find the Gauja's nest. At first he wanted to shoot the bird, but it proved too big, so Koso waited until it flew away, then climbed the tree and stole the necklace.
However, as he was sailing home on a ship, the bird caught up with him, plucked him up, and threw him into the sea. Koso managed to swim back to the ship, but the necklace fell into the water and sank. Each piece of amber became a seed, and a forest of thees grew at the bottom of the sea. The trees weep for the Gauja constantly; their teardrops turn into amber, which washes up on the seashore. What the greedy king could not obtain, the sea now gives away for free.
The Gauja was never seen again, but a river in Latvia still bears its name.
Sources:
I managed to track this legend back to this book (read online here). It is also mentioned in this book, and on websites here, here, here, and here.
Other tales:
In another Latvian folktale, the sea queen who marries the hero has a castle made of amber under the sea. There is also a Silesian tale titled Amber Mountain, a variant of the Seven Swans / Seven Ravens type. There, the girl rescues her brothers from inside an Amber Mountain by the Baltic Sea by making a deal with the three-headed monster that lives there.
What thoughts, feelings, memories does amber bring to your mind?
All my brain is coming up with for amber is Jurassic Park - sorry 😉. So sad for the Gauja bird though, humans are such arses.
ReplyDeleteTasha
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Jurassic Park is a totally valid answer! :D
DeleteI have always had a fascination with the ability of amber to preserve and showcase things in my weirdly metaphoric brain it is connected to writing and how I want to capture the tiny moments for eternity.
ReplyDeleteI love the details of this story - the necklace with the windows to other places and how the forest grew under the sea. So very poetic.
Great tale! When I think of amber, I think how they preserved rips in space/time in the TV series Fringe. Also, one of my dogs was named Amber :-)
ReplyDeleteRonel visiting for the A-Z Challenge My Languishing TBR: A
Ooh, I loved Fringe :) Such a fun show.
DeleteThat is a great tale! Amber was an excellent beginning, poor Gauja bird.
ReplyDeletehttps://steampunkcowunicorn.wordpress.com/2022/04/01/a-is-for-amnesia/
What a fascinating account and story of a stone I've long admired. Thanks, Csenge!
ReplyDeleteA lovely, sad story. When I think of amber, unfortunately, I think of the sticky resin it came from, and how insects get stuck and are preserved! It's prettier than that image give it!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad Lisa mentioned the sticky resin with insects stuck in it, because that's what I remembered about it, too! The story is lovely and tragic!
ReplyDeleteOh what a fabulous tale - I'll never look at amber again without thinking of it. Amber and honey are linked in my mind. They somehow draw me deep inside themselves, as though inviting me into a beautiful slower-moving world. Amber washed up from the sea is so ancient it feels especially sacred, and I always wonder about what journeys each piece has been on.
ReplyDeleteI feel rather left out in that amber brings to mind only the story "Forever Amber" that I watched as a child on a small black and white tv. Now I want to see some real amber.
ReplyDeleteYour story was exactly the kind of tale we read as children and felt the magic of stories blossom within us. My mother loves amber and I always think of her when I see it, or hear about it.
ReplyDeleteHahaha I am going to echo Jurassic Park because that's where I learnt that amber preserves insects... and that's where they got the DNA to clone the dinosaurs.
ReplyDeleteI have an amber ring. A gift shop in my area used to sell amber jewelry. I remember seeing pictures in a textbook where there were long deceased insects trapped in amber; I can just imagine the amber with images of people and cities trapped within. And then, yes, Jurassic Park.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful story. And you are right: amber is fascinating :-)
ReplyDelete@JazzFeathers
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Amber is such a wonderful color. What a fun story to go with it.
ReplyDeleteAmber has such a calming. loved the story
ReplyDeleteI really like this story of the Gauja Bird. Any chance there's an English translation of it to be found?!
ReplyDeleteThe Russian source I linked can be copy-pasted into Google Translate... :D Otherwise there are several online sources for it in English.
DeleteSuch a great legend. I would have wept, too.
ReplyDeleteAmber immediately makes me think of the awesome historical novel Forever Amber, and then about ancient little animals petrified in amber. It's a very striking color.
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