Vytautas’s sons Jurgis and Ivanas (hostages; contested)¶

Summary¶

Vytautas’s two hostage sons, Jurgis and Ivanas, are a contested tradition: the saga adopts it, but they are not in the record.

Vytautas’s sons Jurgis and Ivanas (hostages; contested)


Type	character
Years	c. 1375–1392
Status	The saga’s invention
Note	Only a late tradition (Simon Grunau, 16th c.): “Iwan and Georg” poisoned by a knight to avenge the betrayal. No reliable source knows the incident; Sofija is the only child in the record. The saga adopts the tradition (Book II ch. 6-10).

Appearance & tells¶

Two boys at the Grodno court in 1388-89, brought home from Marienburg half a year earlier: Jurgis, eleven, serious and upright, eats as the Order’s brothers taught and makes the sign of the cross from left to right as in Marienburg; Ivanas, nine, who sits on one of his own boots humming a wordless German song (Book II ch. 4). Their mother tells them in the evenings about their grandmother, “not a witch, but a woman who could talk to water”; Ivanas asks whether the water answered, Jurgis says nothing and looks at the window (ch. 6). They are not on the Order’s written hostage list (“the household’s escort, nobody writes those down”).

Want · Need · Lie · Truth¶


Want (external)	Two children’s wishes: to be at home, to be at their parents’ table, and not to be watched by the Order’s brother Dietrich.
Need (internal)	To be known as something other than a pledge.
Lie they believe	Vytautas will come for them in time; he always does.
Truth they learn (or refuse)	He does not come in time: the poison reaches them first, and Eglė reads it off the Neman foam (‘milk foam if alive, blood foam if dead’).

Arc by book¶

Book II ch. 4 (1388-89). At the Grodno court; Vytautas has brought them from Marienburg half a year earlier, as promised. Their names are the tradition’s (Grunau’s “Iwan and Georg”).
ch. 5-6 (1389-90). Hostages again with Ona; Brother Dietrich eavesdrops on their evening stories.
ch. 9-10 (1392). After Vytautas’s break with the Order the cook vanishes and the boys sicken at Balga; the wolf-father Šešiapirštis goes into Prussia, takes their hair to a coastal ragana who offers a price (the child of the Order, “blood for poison”), and Vytautas will not pay it. Eglė reads the boys’ deaths in the foam of the Neman. Ona looks at her husband “as if she were seeing him for the first time” and then looks away, the first time she does.
Afterwards. Vytautas remembers them at Grunwald, “not on guard, not lying with fever, but children one evening by Trakai Lake” (Book III ch. 20), and Ona mourns them to the end (Book IV ch. 9).

Power & magic¶

Tier 0. Their deaths are herb-lore (poison), not sorcery, as the saga insists: “men need no magic for the worst things” (Power systems §2.4). The poison in the saga is drignė, kietis and German sugar, slow, stolen from the Balga kitchen. The offered cure is the one forbidden way of the water-craft: someone has to take the poison into themselves, and the ragana’s own old body cannot carry two children’s worth; the other price, a child of the Order, Vytautas refuses. Their deaths end his Form 4 (the Traitor of Traitors) and cost him Ona’s regard.

Record vs saga¶

[Historical record]: Simon Grunau (16th c.) alone: “Iwan and Georg” poisoned by a knight to avenge the betrayal. En.wikipedia (Ostrów Agreement, after Jonynas 1984): a false rumour, no reliable source. Sofija is the only child in the record; Vytautas’s letters never accuse the Order. A “Jurgis and Jonas” on the 1390-92 hostage list were kinsmen who came back alive.
[The saga’s invention]: The boys’ temperaments, Šešiapirštis’s errand, the ragana’s offer (Book II ch. 6-10). They are not on the Order’s written hostage list in the book (“the household’s escort”).

Pronunciation¶

JUR-gis and i-VA-nas · IPA /ˈjʊrɡʲɪs/ and /ɪˈvɐnɐs/ · English sound-alikes “YUR-gis” and “ih-VAH-nahs”. The tradition’s forms are Jurgis (Georg) and Ivanas (Iwan).

Appearances¶

Book II: ch. 4 (Jurgis eleven, Ivanas nine), 5, 6, 9 (the poisoning and the foam), 10 and the afterword (“Vytauto sūnūs”).
Book III: ch. 20 (Vytautas’s memory at Grunwald).
Book IV: ch. 9 (Ona’s death).

Not on the Order’s hostage list in the book; Sofija is the only child in the record; “Jurgis and Jonas” on the real 1390-92 hostage list were Alšėniškis and Narimantaitis kinsmen who came home alive.

Relations

Child of: Vytautas

Hostage of: Teutonic Order (1389–1392)

Took part in: Vytautas’s hostage sons poisoned (Grunau tradition, contested)

Timeline¶

Year	Event	Book
1392-07	Vytautas’s hostage sons poisoned (Grunau tradition, contested)	II · The Golden Shadow

Connections¶

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  teutonic_order["Teutonic Order"]
  vytautas["Vytautas"]
  vytautas_sons["Vytautas's sons Jurgis and Ivanas (hostages; contested)"]
  vytautas_sons -->|Hostage of| teutonic_order
  vytautas_sons -->|Took part in| ev_sons_poisoned
  vytautas -->|Parent of| vytautas_sons
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