Eglė leads Vytautas through the Dykra

What the chronicles say [Historical record]

Nothing in the record. After the escape from Krėva in autumn 1382, the sources place Vytautas next at the court of his sister Danutė and her husband Janusz I of Masovia, then with the Teutonic Order. The route between Krėva and Masovia, through the Grodno forests and the Biebrza marshes, passed the empty belt that the Order called the Wildnis. Whether he travelled with a guide is unknown.

Eglė leads Vytautas through the Dykra

Eglė leads Vytautas through the Dykra · event

Type	event
Years	1382
Status	The saga’s invention
Book	I · The Wolf’s Exile
Chapters	15, 16
Note	Eglė guides the hunted Vytautas across the treacherous Dykra wilderness to Mazovia.

Where: Dykra (swamp-forest wilderness) (on the map)

What really happened [The saga’s invention]

The Dykra, the Root-Mother’s own country since 1348, swallows Skirgaila’s trackers. Vytautas’s horse dies; he speaks the Five-Voice for “man” (the cost is shown: his hearing and sight dull); Eglė appears with her žaltys and leads him through. He mistakes her for an amber priestess (“Tu esi Gintaro Šventikė”) and she corrects him: “Ne gintaro. Šaknų.” (not amber, roots). In the swamp the Root-Mother’s price is the offering: he lays a silver buckle and a scrap of silk on the stone. Eglė’s own price, “never sell the forest”, comes due at Salynas in 1398.

Consequences

Caused by the escape from Krėva. It leads to Vytautas’s audience with Zöllner at Marienburg and so to the baptism at Tapiau: the flight ends in the Order’s service. The saga’s route also passes Masovia.

Dramatisation

Book I ch. 15 “Pabėgimas” and ch. 16 “Pelkės Vaikai” (Vytautas; late autumn 1382). Eglė’s earlier life is the prologue (her last night as a mortal vaidilutė).

Relations

Caused by: Vytautas escapes Krėva in the maid’s clothes

Causes: Vytautas before Zöllner at Marienburg

Location: Dykra (swamp-forest wilderness)

Participants: Eglė (vaidilutė → Pelkių Eglė)

Connections

graph LR
  dykra["Dykra (swamp-forest wilderness)"]
  egle["Eglė (vaidilutė → Pelkių Eglė)"]
  ev_dykra_rescue["Eglė leads Vytautas through the Dykra"]
  ev_kreva_escape["Vytautas escapes Krėva in the maid's clothes"]
  ev_marienburg_audience["Vytautas before Zöllner at Marienburg"]
  ev_dykra_rescue -->|Location| dykra
  ev_dykra_rescue -->|Causes| ev_marienburg_audience
  ev_kreva_escape -->|Causes| ev_dykra_rescue
  egle -->|Took part in| ev_dykra_rescue
  style ev_dykra_rescue stroke-width:3px