Medeine, Baltic Goddess of the Forest

 Medeinė (derived from medis (tree) ), is one of the main deities in  Baltic mythology, She is a ruler of forests, trees and animals. Medeina is depicted as a young silver-haired woman and a she-wolf;  an unmarried beautiful huntress. Her duty is not to help the hunters, but to protect the forest.

For a long time I wanted to do a painting as resolved as this.Overall, I think it was an excellent exercise in illustration and not as much in character design. I paid particular attention to poses, composition and colour (a great challenge was to avoid  the generic blue-wash looks). Again, haven't used much reference here, only for the skin colour under moonlight.

Didn't have so much fun painting like this in ages! ((:]I hope next character from the Baltic Gods family, will be Telovelis...

The Art of The Baltic Pixie

The Art of the Baltic Pixie by JJ Jolanta Jasiulionyte

I am developing shaders at the moment.

These are examples of some texturing tweaking of the clothing and sub surface scattering shader for Vaiva’s face.

What is Baltic Pixie (Laume)?

 This text is presenting a collection of analyzed sources to reach a degree of clarity about the character of Baltic Pixie (laume). After reading some folk tales one should get a flavor of what Baltic pixie is about. Also, some analysis work of renowned ethnographers helps to deliver the point more accurately. Various works of ethnographers J. Balys, N. Velius, L. Klimka and archeologist M. Gimbutas inform this text.

I was very lucky to get a chance to contact one of today’s most famous ethnographer in Lithuania Norbertas Velius, who directed me to most important sources and analysis works . I’m very grateful for the help.

Female Deities in Baltic Culture
Balts had retained the basic polytheistic religion of ancient Indo-European features. Their faith was important to the forces of nature, sun, moon, thunder. But particularly striking is feminine deity cult, female played an exceptional role in the Baltic culture. Next to image of Mother of the Gods there are numerous other female goddesses responsible for areas of the daily life.


What is a Baltic Pixie (Laume) ?

*from 'Laumiu dovanos ' (pixies gifts), N. Velius*
"One time a stepmother felt great hate to her stepdaughter and worked her off her feet with so much spinning,and weaving work during the nights. At one such nights thre pixies came to her and sayed, ‘as your stepmother makes you work so much, we came to helpt delivering her tasks " And Immediately they sat down and weaved all the stepmother had asked to and smothered her . Then going back to their ways sayed to stepdoughter :" She won’t badger you anymore’ . In the morning the stepmother was found dead."


Baltic Pixie (laume)is a nocturnal creature. They are protectresses of human morality: help people of good morality and excessively punished grabbers, and condemn the sloth. Etymologists argue that Baltic Pixie name means a being encouraging growth. According to J. Balys, Pixies are in fact a spiritualized image of nature - forests, mountains and rivers. They are mediators between earth and sky spheres. Pixie character is more mundane than any other Baltic goddesses. They’re often found lurking around people’s environment. Earthly Pixie’s are very temporal : beautiful, attractive, sexy, impulsive, irrational, longing for motherhood. They enjoy invading people’s homes for a visit, games and cause all kinds of villainy. The leading Pixie is of magical beauty and known as Laumu Laume Vaiva, she lives on the river bank in a sputtering slough.

S. Eidrigevicius Illustration

Laume, a dual being.
On one hand a wonderful worker - good at all women jobs, washing their endless fabrics in lakesides, sowing but especially weaving. The most diligent pixie-weavers weave rainbow which is called Vaiva Strip. Sometimes they are portrayed as tall giants forming mountains, excavating lakes, rivers, leaving imprints. Pixies often help poor women give them material goods.
However it is hard for them to stop the work , for example if they are weaving at peasant woman’s house, they ask for more and more weaving wool and if she finally lacked to bring any, pixie can weave her hair, intestines, till there’s only little nails left. While helping the woman with her baby having a bath, they can accidentally boil the child to death for pixies tend to be butter-fingered sometimes. They clip peasants sheep, swap or even kill children, trick men to follow them and then maul them, and in general act as pests intruding peasants space if they are not careful. Pixies can be dangerous especially to people of bad traits.

S Eidrigevicius Illustration

Pixie’s Appearances
In some descriptions, they have hands with long fingers and sharp stone nails. Teeth wide and long as a sword, and shaggy, unbrushed long hair. However, pixies are varying from cannibal and witch-like ones to beautiful woman-looking ones.
Some are similar to bears, brown cats, hairy brown mares. Or are much like beautiful girls with long hair and golden, white dresses, but is she was to take it off it would appears that her body and skin is like chicken’s , with chicken or rooster’s feet. Sometimes their head has goat's horns sticking out. There are pixies, whose lips are as thick, as sledge runners. Instead of clothing some pixies use hay straws.

Dragonflies
Dragonfly is associated with Baltic Pixies because in Baltic languages dragonfly is called Pixie-horse up till these days.

‘Laumberzis’
If you were to roam the woods, you may notice some strange rigmarole of Birch branches. that would be a tree called ‘laumberzis’. Baltic Pixies like to sit in these branch cobwebs.

Circle Dances
When new moon rises over the horizon, two, three or a group of pixies gather at the rivers, lakes, dewy meadows and have fun dancing in large and small circles. Their dance is believed to cause the rain. But woe to the person who will see them while dancing. At first they would start tickling playfully the curious visitor, then tweaking and eventually tearing and devour him, particularly true if the visitor is a man. Pixies are fatal to men.

Swaping infants to ‘Laumykas’
Most pixies are longing for motherhood so their weakness is infants. They steal, or swap cradles of anabaptized babies. Mothers find ‘laumykas’ , a magical bag of hay straws growing into a child-looking creature, instead of their own child. Such Laumykas remains a big eyed dwarf kid with a big head.

S. Eidrigevicius Illustration

Rowan, little fingers, metal ring or friendship

*from 'Laumiu dovanos ' (pixies gifts), N. Velius*
"Few pixies grew into habit visiting this one peasant’s barn. They would gather all and dance and sing all night. The man grew terribly tired from the villainy they cause, but didn’t know how to get rid of them. But not far away from him an old woman was living, she was to give the advice one time. She instructed him to make a hole and stuff it with rowan. Peasant followed her rules waited for the evening to come and see what would happen. Pixies, as usually showed up and were about to settle themselves in the barn. But as they were about to step in they stopped! “Look, the doors are shut”, saidf one of them: “So this isn’t our place no more…’ And all walked their ways. That night since, they’ve never bothered the peasant again. "

Pixies take spray of rowan as a sign they are not wanted in that particular place. So it becomes a way for people to protect themselves from unwanted guests. Carrying Rowan branch, or keep bending the little fingers, so for pixies to leave people alone. They are also afraid of metal rings . Other way is to gain pixies favor . For that to happen women  would leave some soap, or open the doors to bathhouses and so on, to return the favor, pixies leave silk ribbons and other treasures.

Norbertas Velius, a famous ethnographer in the past, was analyzing Baltic characters, and pixies as well. He reaches this summary: ‘ Fantastic odd and unusual creatures, portrayed with all the splendor , are active, threatening and even fatal to humans for they can take their life away. Pixie is personalization of threatening nature, especially water element, to a primeval man. Pixies embody the experience of an elemental and irrational nature and on the other hand, man’s ingenuity and the ability to harness the forces of nature to his own favor. What is exclusive to In Baltic pixies is the feeling of peaceful peasant-worker life and a spirit shaped by large flat lands with little contrasts.” (N. Velius, Laumiu Dovanos).

Having defined the character of Baltic Pixie (laume) now it will be the time to look at some relating visual references and think about extracting the essence for presentation text of Laume.

Baltic Culture; Introduction

this post is mapping characteristics of Baltic culture, including religion and art as well as other considerable and exclusive aspects.

 "The same way that Scandinavians are proud of being descended from the Vikings, the Irish – from the Celts and Germans – from the Germanic peoples, Lithuanians, Latvians and the Old Prussians can be proud of their ancestors – the Balts – and the reflections of their world-views in contemporary culture"  (A. Butrimas; "The Baltic Art" project)

The Balts or Baltic peoples (People who live by the Baltic Sea), defined as speakers of one of the Baltic languages, a branch of the Indo-European language family. For thousands of lakes and swamps in this area contributed to the Balts' geographical isolation,  the Baltic languages retain a number of conservative or archaic features.

Over time, the huge area of Baltic habitation shrank, due to assimilation by other groups, and invasions. So the Old Prussians, Yotvingians, Scalvians, Nadruvians, Galindians and Curonians are now extinct and Among the modern Baltic peoples are Lithuanians and  Latvians.

In ancient written sources Baltic countries were described as swampy, mysterious lands, dotted with wooden castles, ever flaming holy fire, strange traditions.

The Old Baltic Religion

Pre-Christian religions and cults.

Its most characteristic feature –cosmicality, exclusion of human nature. The god for Baltic people was evident in all the phenomena of space and nature, on which humans depended, such as , vegetation, wildlife and life force. In Baltic see the world separated in two poles: Men's - Sky and its effects (light, fire, sound), together with the heavenly bodies (sun, moon, stars) and a female - the Earth, its plants, forests, fields, hills, rocks, water. Interaction between these poles stimulated life. This view gave the base for major Baltic religious ritual forms and mythology.

 In the old Baltic religion characters' features, their importance and the degree of individualisation is given the order of 7 mythological levels:

The 1st level has ten most important gods:

Ukapirmas and Thunder,

Patrimpas (god of rivers)

Patrimpas and Autrimpas (sea gods)

Pickles / Patrimpas (underworld god)

Pergubris (spring, vegetation god)

Puskaitis (ground elder personification)

Aušautas (survival, the god of life)

Pilvytis (asset-bearer).

Level-III includes creatures performing abstract functions such as happiness, fate, death - or characters that are known primarily from folklore, these would be Sun , Moon, Venus, Celestial blacksmith, Stars and others and so on.

Level V  characters from tales and spirits – forest, water , fields’ spirits and so on. Such examples would be Lauksargis (protector of home), Gabija (personified fire), 

Level VI often un-anthropomorphasized (not resembling a human) spirits. These would be  pixies, witches, giants, mythological bear, wolf, snake images and others.

Level VII - covers mythological hypostasis (underlying essential foundation) of a man . This level encompasses priests (Vaidilas), various symbols and ritual objects, sacred places and temples.

However, there seems to be no understanding of nothingness pass ones death. They believed that when man died, his soul passes into another body in a form of smell, steam, bird, butterfly, calf, and keeps the individual characteristics of the deceased. Or go to a high mountain and live the same life, or become a tree.


7 core principles of Baltic religion :

1.The world is generally alive. Life is understood in its wider form: trees and sun, water, rocks, are seen to be as a live as a man himself.


2.Principle of Harmony (darna). Balts see harmony (darna) prone to extinction , therefore it is vital to continuously reach for harmony.For this  traditional songs play a vital part as mantras for reaching harmony.

An example of such songs is Kulgrinda's Uztekeja Saulala Raudona ( Red sun has risen)







3.Respect to the order of Gods. As described before, there is a system of gods, some to be more important than other, but all of them to be greatly respected. Man can choose deity's, which a closer to his needs and hart.


4.The World is eternal . According to Baltic mythology, the world is constantly recreated by two opposing gods of light and darkness who create and change the proportion of Darna (harmony)


5.The Golden rule of Darna (harmony). The rule is inviting one to behave and act in a way one himself wish to be treated like from others. The rule is aiming to create space for unselfish love, compassion, refusal of revenge and at the end, darna (harmony).


6.Respect for Ancestors. Lots of rituals is dedicated in the name of remembering and thanking the ancestors.


7.Nature is Sacred.
Nowadays Romuva is the Lithuanian Expression of Baltic Faith.

Baltic Art:

To get acquainted with Baltic Art, here is material from  relevant books, websites and museums  presented  :

IV-VII was the centuries of emerging  Baltic applied art: decorative horn mouth, openwork belt switchboard or other details, horse bridles, pins and quotes.

Metal plastics is rich with zoomorphic decorations. Galloping moose, flying or sitting birds, twisting snakes, horses, and sometimes decorated with images of fantasy animals.

Complex ornamental compositions of Animal and human images in Baltic Metal plastics were probably created for magical ritual use.

Daily peasants, both men and women's footwear was bass Wysz 's pint. It is also popular with the birch, alder or similar solid, but lightweight wood-carved clogs. Leather shoes (čeverykos) was considered as a holiday footwear.


Amber

Probably the most distinct feature is the appreciation of 'Sun Stone' - Amber. In 98 AD Tacitus in 'Germania' describes  Baltic tribes living near the Baltic Sea as amber gatherers.Baltic people saw Amber as a magical stone which was connected with their rituals.

When Burnt, Amber is spreading a pleasant fragrance and when taken to hands is always warm. They have created legends around Amber . He was believed to have magical healing powers and to be a protector from evil. It was widely shaped into ornaments, amulets, ritual articles, related to the solar cult.

Traditional Clothing of 19th century

(selection of Lithuanian tribes)

The old Baltic culture has polytheistic religion with a  rich system of gods and deities, where people are invited to show great respect to them and choose gods closer to their needs. Their belief is reflected in their art works with zoomorphic and anthropomorphic ornamenting, ritual-dedicated tools and so on. Amber is particularly appreciated and taking a special place  for  it's spiritual, artistic and economical value . Also, mantra-like songs, such as 'Leliumoj'  are valued  as meditation practices.

Next Posts will be looking closer to Baltic Pixie and analyse some sources to understand the context of this character.

Sources:

The Baltic Art (EN)

Romuva - an Introduction to Baltic Faith (EN)

Amber Park Museum , Palanga (EN)

The History Museum of Lithuania Minor (EN)

Aistians and Germans (LT)

Zoomorphic Iron Age Art (LT)

Spritual Baltic Culture ( LT)