The Snake Queen - Eastern European Myth - Extra Mythology
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2020
- Watch Extra Mythology ad-free on Nebula! go.nebula.tv/extramythology
In Lithuania, there's a story about how the trees got their names. There's the mighty oak, the regal birch, and the small and timid Aspen. It's also a story of snakes, songs, and secrets. Let us tell you the story of how a young farm girl named Egle became the Queen of Snakes, lost her husband, and cursed her children forevermore.
Join our Patreon! / extracredits
___________
Thanks for participating in this week's discussion! We want you to be aware of our community posting guidelines so that we can have high-quality conversations: becausegamesmatter.com/extra-...
Contribute community subtitles to Extra Mythology: th-cam.com/users/timedtext_cs_p...
Talk to us on Twitter (@ExtraCreditz): bit.ly/ECTweet
Follow us on Facebook: bit.ly/ECFBPage
Watch us play games and have fun on bit.ly/ECtwitch
Listen to our podcast: becausegamesmatter.com/podcast
Follow us on Instagram: bit.ly/ECisonInstagram
Follow us on Tumblr: bit.ly/EConTumblr
___________
♪ Music: "Extra Mythology Theme" by Big Giant Circles
www.biggiantcircles.com/
A small bonus, Eglė made the promise to stand by her children for all time and continues to do so as she too became a tree. Eglė is the word for a spruce tree :)
Extra Credits were the people named after the trees or were the trees named after the people?
@@megaagentj2248 the trees for the people, supposedly. And usually the sons are three (oak, ash, and birch) - all traditionally considered sources of strong woods for their strength in oath
"all the tree kids get to join us for myths every week"...[looks at campfire]...YOU MONSTERS!
@@megaagentj2248 the trees after the people , I'm Lithuanian this myth is Lithuanian so you can trust me.
some of these parts are not true
"Aspen you messed up so you shall be cursed to become a tree. You two didn't mess up so you will be cursed to be cool trees."
"Yall gon turn into fine quality trees....welp now to.
make MAHOGANY"
Sounds like Over the Garden Wall but Lithuanian.
Tree
vs
The Cooler Tree
Cue quaking aspens being a really cool colonial species
Sunquad virgin tree vs Chad tree
PEACE WAS NEVER AN OPTION
~The goose
ah I thought you wrote peach, as in peach tree. damn.
@@HisameArtwork Peach is always an option when it's fully ripe
Bear didn't put it in.
Maybe that was the "Peach was never an option" goose
The goose: PEACE IS AN OPTION, PEACE. IS. AN. OPTION! SPARE MY LIFE U SNAKES
"All the tree kids get to join us for myths every week"
While sitting next to a FIRE.
Man, how can you be so cruel?
You might as well have thrown a screaming log onto the fire when you said that.
I mean that fits the tone of a lot of folk stories :P
Make sure it doesn't poop candy.
You had a similar thought to me, I see. Except I figured they already were in the fire :p
Maybe they use coal.
Probably not, but maybe.
Edit: I checked. It looks like wood.
They're sitting on a log too.
I'm sad the goose didn't have a bigger role to play in this, but that was still a curiously fascinating little tale! How strange and specific mythology can be!
Untitled Goose Game : Snake Marriage DLC
Take Crown
I mean. There was a chad snake. That’s enough
The Goose wrote executed and observed this Greek mythological drama. Behold.. The Goose.
I'm sure the goose was horrible and definitely won't appear in any Greek myths whatsoever.
3:46 They would grow up to be brilliant minds in the Pokémon community.
nice
Brilliant
Tree-rific!
I’ll see my self out.
Except Aspen. She still failed.
"Her new home was to be his underwater palace. They were wed." Captions: 'They were wet.' True too.
Thorondor lol
Captions also said ugly instead of her name lol🤣😅
The version that I grew up with has a slightly different ending. Eglė didn't curse her children out of anger. But because she didn't have anywhere to go back to. And her word to Aspen were "Let the rain wash your face and the wind brush your hair". And then Eglė turned into a tree as well.
Thank you for your videos!
I like that version better
that's the version i grew up with
Why didn't they just go back home?
@@ZaxorVonSkyler just a guess: whatever magic Eglé learned that let her transform them, wasn't enough to get them through the waters and back home.
Otherwise she wouldn't have needed her husband to come pick up her and the kids.
@@MorgenPeschke no I meant why didn't she just go back to living with her parents?
The goose when he sees the thousand snakes:
Peace is an option! Peace is an option! Please don't eat me!
NEVER!!!
Titangamer 68 I imagine it sounding like Iago
Someone call child protective services and a sorcerer/sorceress or even a court appointed wizard. Cursing a minor is an extremely serious offense.
Then you have to go around to all your neighbors and let them know you're a registered hex offender
@@warbacca1017 Lol good one. XD
I’ll get tree to h to oversee the trial
that was what happened in beauty and the beast the enchantress cursed the beast when he was a kid.
The version I read had some differences. The family tried 3 times to deceive the snakes with different animals. Eglė also completed her tasks with the help of a sorceress. There were 3 sons, oak, ash, birch and Aspen the daughter. The song as written was:
"Žilvinas, dear Žilvinėlis,
If (you're) alive - may the sea foam milk
If (you're) dead - may the sea foam blood…"
Also they got the living piss beaten out of them before Aspen talked. Oh and the mother transformed herself into a Spruce tree at the end.
Everything in Myths comes in 3's.
Wow they really beat up their sister's kids because they liked them so much
@@elliemorrow5306 I suspect the brothers beat their sister's kids out of jealousy. Their sister was the queen of snakes, had power and riches while they were still peasants.
"And you, you'll be great trees !"
"... Thanks, I guess ?"
"Wait, what did *we* do?"
In the older non-sanitized versions of the tale, Egle's brothers severely beat up the children, even the daughter. Egle had no way to return to the undersea palace, nor did she want to return to the homestead where her brothers lived -- not after what they had done. And so they all turned into trees. Which is one of the moral lessons of the story: by taking extreme measures to try to stop her from leaving, they caused her to leave permanently.
@@Heliophanus Ok. That makes more sense. Another think that could make sense but is not as nice as the version you said, would be if the blood of the snake king cursed the wife and children because she was not supposed to teach them the song. But that would kind of sound like the Grimm brothers
Ah yes, curse a small child for being fearful and not the angry brothers who ACTUALLY murdered your husband.
Also The husband coerced her into marriage against her will. I don't care how hot he is that's not ok. This whole story is messed up.
There is few versions of this tale. In one she curses her children because she doesn't have a place to go anymore as she can't go back without her husbands help and her family are child abusing husband killing monsters. She doesn't blame her kids in this version too.
Perhaps she couldn’t because the brothers could/had the right mindset to negate it? She herself probably had to have learned how to do that from her parents, with said brothers alongside, so she’d know that she’d be fighting a losing battle.
@@bensoncheung2801every body sleeps an burns.
@@longhairdontcare122 ¿
So some of my reading suggests the reason this "Girl marries horrible thing, only it turns out she's soon into it," archetype is so enduring across cultures is to help girls with the whole arranged marriage business. In times when you weren't often marrying for love, but because your parents found a good match, you might have a mythology where the ugly snake or weird beast or ugly dwarf or whatever turns out to be a prince or lord or awesome badass. It also would be self-serving for the men in such matches. If you happen to be the groom with a bride-to-be that doesn't know you and may not really want the marriage, a myth where the weird older creature turns out to be exactly what she wants affirms you.
Obviously, when speaking so generally and cross-culturally, specific examples will contradict the larger narrative.
A lot of myth types are cross cultural.
I wonder what other archetypes are like this?
Sometimes, but sometimes also, a little grass snake is just a little grass snake. So said Freud in an extended phallic metaphor.
I recently took a class on folklore in college and we learned about a kind of cool resource. A while back, a couple of folklorists created something called the Stith-Thompson motif index, which categorizes all of the common threads between stories. For example, D100-D199 are all the different varients of "person marries animal, animal becomes human" found across the world. It's a quite expansive index, but it draws cross cultural connections between societies that never could have interacted. I'd encourage you to check it out. Just look up "folklore motif index" and you should be able to find it.
Except this being a Lithuanian tale, snakes weren't considered horrible. Grass snakes were kept as common household pets... until the crusades.
@@Heliophanus how interesting
Eglė, the queen of the serpents.
Eglė, žalčių karalienė. Žaltys - is a type of non-venomous snake residing in Lithuania and probably around the general area. It's a python-esque snake, that strangles its prey. And also, its a big part of lithuanian folklore and myths. Possibly not just lithuanian, but i am not certain on that.
Aye. It's a viper. 'Vipera berus
' for those wanting to look it up on wikipedia. Shows where they reside as well.
also brings good luck if i remember correctly
None of the children were green.
*Suspicion 100*
Yay! I'm from Lithuania and so happy this tragic tale has reached you guys! :33
Dog Master im a lithuanian sooooo labas
Ir aš!!!
aš ir xd
Same! And blessed with the queens name 🌲
Neblogai nemažai čia lietuviu
Well, imagine that snake you promised to marry turns out to be a handsome hunk...
Florian
He kept her waiting, huh?
As if he wasn't already.
I also find it ironic that the quaking aspen is actually the toughest of the three trees. Unlike most trees it doesn't spread many children, instead growing new trees from the same root system. You can cut down a quaking aspen a hundred times and it'll grow a hundred new stalks to undo your work.
You know *Pando?*
So... it's basically the cockroach of trees
What I hate about some of these myths is that the true culprits go unpunished. The brothers weren't punished but a child that was threatened was.
The brothers didn't go unpunished they were turned into Mosquitoes
When I saw the thumbnail: “Yay, another Extra Mythology video!”
After seeing the video: “Hey, guys, I’m back from therapy...”
Seriously, that some Madoka level of cuteness and creepiness mashed togheter...
Why does everyone think these tales are so dark its kinda normal to us
Gytis Bačanskis
Because what’s the point of caring about characters in a story if no one is ever able to be happy?
TLDR: why should I care about the story if caring will only hurt me?
*mythology
@@spindash64 what? can you get your point through more clearly
Gytis Bačanskis
Because constantly sad stories are fucking dumb. If I wanted to see someone have their life ruined for no fault of their own, I’d open the window
The ending of this story is depressing thought
it's eastern European what else did you expect
@@alldamnnamesaretaken If anything is a rather happy ending for a eastern European myth. Only one death! :o
Try some of the Celtic myths. Cuchulain could not catch a break.
Man this is still pretty nice, for Slavic myth. On when we were like 11 or 12 years old (Czech Republic) we have to read a classic book od poems of poems based on from Karel Jaromír Erben. And it was much more brutal then this. Just to name a few: The first (Kytice it is also a name of this book) is about small children that are crying at the grave on their Mother. Another story is about the Virgin who is kidnapped by vodník (water spirit) and have a baby with her. After some time the girl convince her husband to visit her mother. When she wants to return from her mother to her husband as a good wife should do, her Mother in order to protect her again "the creature" lock her inside the house. Vodník demants his wife back or otherwise he would kill their child but the mother is furious and doesn't let her daughter to go. One of the final lines of the poems describes childrens rolling head without the body. And that just one of many. In other story a girl is waiting for her loved to return from the wars. He does return and fly with her to cemetery to his so they can be together. Luckily she escapes from her zombie boyfriend to the church and spend rest of her life as a foreign in another country. Ther is even a Christmas special where two girls look to the lake to see their furture. One saw herself wed other her death . Their were many more stories like this in that book and a lot of death babies. There is only one story with a happy ending but even in it. The heroine is firstly murdered by her stepsister and stepmother before being selled by body part to magical old man that make her back together.
Ed Crichton no-one beats the Irish for stories that end with “and they all died horribly, except for the ones who lived long enough to kill themselves.”
1:48 - Lord of the Rings; Sssserpent edition
The child who spoke gets turned into a tree.
Me: Ok, its a curse I get it
Other 2 children that kept their mouths shut get turned into trees as well.
Me: Wait what?.
I heard that legend in polish tv series "Crown of the kings", when a lithuanian witch named Egle told it to queen Aldona (who also came from lithuania to mary prince Casimir).
It is a bitter, but good legend.
I don't think it was Little Aspen's fault. She was just intimidated by her wicked uncles!
I hope this eastern european myths series never ends. Still hoping you cover the namesakes of the Triglavian ships in EVE. :D
Wow a lithuanian myth for once :)
This is the most famous one of all in Lithuania, all lithuanians know this one.
I didn't know it till reading it the other day, my grandma mostly taught me fables with goats and I forgot many of the others.
There are a lot of Lithuanians here aren't there
Yeah
@@Sunflower-wj8qy also yeah
I like their creativity
I don't have creativity
But i wished I had
Fantastic poem.
Look at that you see in the world and make up stories. Big stones, extraordinary landscape or natural wonders and small connections are a good way to start a story.
E.g. Make the night sky a sleeping Shiney dragon which when it wakes up breath fire at the sky in order to warm up the people at earth and keep them alive. The moon is his eye which slowly closes and opens again. Because when he finally found total rest he can't help himself but to glimpse at the earth the next day in order to check if the humans are all right and rest or if there is one tiny human who might be lonely and looks it in the eye. If the latter happens they both keeps each other company until they are able to rest again. But after a every month the dragon becames so lonely that he'll shine down with his fully opened eye as an attempt to make the night to day without having to use his breath which blocks his vison and scare away every creature which abuses the silence and darkness of the night to harm its beloved humans.
@@sovietmarshmallow1283 thank you
Kino Cartoon (picture berd from the channel just doing his animated shaking head up and down really fast) yes,yes good story, very good story
I saw the goose and I knew the end was nigh. (Bc untitled goose game)
"Eglė žalčių karalienė" got some screen time! Nice :>
I want all of these as a book, artwork included.
Read folk tales
Maybe you could suggest it on patreon if that works.
Capital suggestion! Capital!
1:50 No "Snakes on the plain" joke? I am disappointed, indeed.
Sneks on plane!
Feel sorry for Aspen. I mean she was just a little kid :(
The graphics are getting fancier though :)
I think the Extra Myths are starting to become my favourite 'Extra' series! Keep up the great work!
Keep the myths coming! It’s always awesome to learn about the stories from cultures that aren’t as influential on the world stage.
"shapeshifting serpents are always trouble" -Eve
When I was younger, my Lithuanian babysitter told me the story. She even gave me the story book of this folk tale. Hearing the story brings back fond memories of my nanny when I was growing up, Paula❤️❤️
Please never stop making character's expressions like there are in this video. I think this is by far the funniest that they have ever been. Like just look at those faces.
PLEASE do more mythology. It's really cool to see historical events being wrapped in stories of those who did not understand, but felt the need to solve it anyway.
"Be a tree, a fearful and timid little tree"
The Aspen about to become the largest organism in the world:
Observe
*Pando*
a very nice story I had never heard and you guys did it justice with your dramatic flair when it comes to story telling
I remember my grandfather telling me that story when I was a kid! Holy cow I did not expect to hear that story! Thanks so much!
This is one of the more depressing myths covered so far.
Not realy
Yeah there are much more depressing stories if you look into yourself.
_COVERED SO FAR_ reading comprehension fail.
Welcome to Lithuania, my friend! :D Same in both myths and songs:
th-cam.com/video/blTlm4wNRmw/w-d-xo.html (has English subtitles) :D
this is not the full story though, the kids got brutally beaten and all the details were not showed in this video, there's was much more cursing with spells and blood
Nice work! I'm already a mythology-geek, I really love learning new myths and folklore :-D
I've got a suggestion for the next video: You could make a video about the origin of the European, Indian and Iranian Dragon-Myths: The Proto Indo European Dragon-Myth
I love watching these
I'm so happy to see my local pagan stories being portrayed for the larger audience, thank you guys! Ironically enough my sister's name is Eglė,
Yay! More Eastern European myths!
No. You are very wrong. BALTIC and more specifically LITHUANIAN myths. Just letting you know so more people know about my beautiful country.
Welcom to the wheet farm motherf***ers
Poor discrimonate russian in your country
@@guyfrompoland1358 and the liquir store
@@fpsmatushka8762 sorry I only said that because of the title of the video. I don't mean to offend anyone.
2:08 is my new favorite illustration by extra credits.
Yay Lithuania finally got mentioned!
And another Lithuanian
If you guys want to see the castle from the video just go to Lithuania and to a place called Trakai and you should find the castle there.
Been there amazing view 10/10
Loved the art in this episode!
❤️Love this series!!! ❤️ More please. One a day should do. 😁👍
No i take that back. Just 7 per week, would be sufficient.! 🤔👍😁
Great vid. But those tasks Eglė did are pretty important in the story, that a witch of some sort helped her...
I am so happy that you Extra Credits . Animated my native my coantrys mythology folklore story .i am verry superly grateful for this !😁👌🏻👍✨🤘🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹 Thak you so mutch for this animation, again.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Found another Lithuanian
Pls do more! really interesting
We read this at school when I was little and I remember specifically this tale because it left uneasy feeling
12 brothers?? At that point, I think she might've agreed to go rather than trying a different plan just to get out of the house. Can you imagine sharing an outhouse with TWELVE brothers???!
PEACE WAS NEVER AN OPTION
The thumbnail looks like mythological goose game
I remember hearing this story when I was younger, it's cool they made a video about it
What a strange and horrifyingly roundabout way to explain why Aspen trees sway in the wind.
Nice to see something from Lithuanian folklore :). For inspiration You could do "The Twelve Brothers, Twelve Black Ravens". Oh and Eglė was queen of serpents, not snakes
Found another Lithuanian
This is one of my favorites!!!!
I love these stories!
Now that I think about it, this story might be actually trying to show how grief of the parent usually affects their kids
Jordan can draw well. Really freaking good.
Best heckin' episode ever.
Thanks for the video. :-)
New animation style, nice!
Love the new font style
Smh can't believe they still confiscated the goose as POW.
3:35 clever little Extra credits. They used the Trakai Castle (best kept castle in Lithuania) as a model for the amber palace. Also, note how at 0:48 the house has a little crossing on the roof- I think that is not a random EC artistic decision, but a fruit of their research. It's traditional Lithuanian housing detail called "Žirgelis" (trasnslated "a small horse") or "lėkis", which usually is composed of two carved out planks in the shape of a horse crossing each other.
Mother: **curses Aspen to be a tree**
Also mother: what the heck? How about 2 more!
Thanks for including a Lithuanian Myth!
Ah found another Lithuanian
I think the concept of snake's bride is quite popular in slavic mythology, there is similar polish story. Persival(band that mede Witcher soundtrack) even made song about it
Hey! I love your vids... So much knowledge... Well I just watched the Extra credits one (games) cause I want to make a game... You helped me alot... Im actually writing this cause i am downloading all of your extra CREDIT playlist.. even the MMO one cause I'm learning boxing right now (early this year alone)... Im currently 15 so I don't like history.. I haven't watched mythology yet but I'll try watching it. Tq guys!
Edit: wait... I'm watching mythology rn... I just find a video to write this comment. Lol
Lol, a bunch of snakes showing up with a sweet ride for a bride is amazing!
Ah, the best comeback
"BE A TREE!"
Honestly, this is a glorious setup for a mythology driven game to have some serpent or fish boss.
Forshadowing through a throwaway line about "remember the curse" have something that actually tells the story and then a few minutes later run towards the water to summon JORMUNGANDR THE WORLD SERPENT!
I gotta admit, I like the art style. Josh is good
"Hope ya'll are enjoying it!"
The logs he used to make the campfire: ಠ_ಠ
That one was awesome!
Funnily enough the horde of snakes coming up to the house with a wagon reminds me of Studio Ghibli's "The Cat returns".
Who knows, maybe they were inspired, eh?
Awesome and cool!
"And her 12 brothers"
Moral of the story: even with torture, don't give up secret information
This is a nifty one! I tell my nephew (he’s seven or eight now) stories from Greek mythology, and I think he will enjoy this one if I remember to tell him next time I see him. Thank you for the stories! Jesus Christ be with you friends.😊
Thanks Jordan
Extra mythology and the "lies" series are my absolute favorites
WoW, that always got me in these histories when someone try to force you to do something and they think that it is you fault if you not agree.
eastern europe, trees... It must be Lithuania (finally)
love the new artstyle
A nice surprise to see a Lithuanian myth :) thanks EC!
And another Lithuanian
Nice hearing someone talk about a. myth from my country
Im lovin this artstyle
An excellent mythology. This myth reminds me of several others you should do. 1. The Khmer founding myth of Hindu warrior-prince Kaundinya and the Naga snake princess Soma giving rise to the Khmer people. 2. Fuxi and Nüwa the Chinese snake god and goddess who created mankind. 3. The Norse myth of Ask and Embla, the gods creating the first man and woman from the Ash and Elm trees.
Snakes are my favorite reptile so hearing myths about them is great.
Imagine singing your uncles a song, then your mom turns you into a tree
"and then Eglé was a tree"
"and then John was a zombie"
the classics never get old