Vėlės (the fed dead)¶

Folk source [Historical record]¶

The souls of the dead. In the autumn season of the dead (Vėlinės; in Samogitia also Ilgės) families set food on the table overnight, left doors ajar and heated the bathhouse (pirtis) for their dead. At Kūčios a place was kept for them, and kisielius (oat jelly) was their food. Souls were imagined as birds, migrating along the Milky Way (the Birds‘ Way); a bird knocking at the window foretold a death.

Vėlės (the fed dead)


Tipas	būtybė
Status	Sagos išmonė
Pastaba	Bestiary §15. Danger I.

In the saga (where the folk are half-wrong)¶

Exactly as the cosmology has it: cremation is the fastest road up the Glass Mountain to Dausos, and slower-climbing dead linger as vėlės who must be fed. Fed vėlės are the land’s memory and first line of defence: they warn their kin, guard the threshold and sometimes fight. A family with well-fed dead has a hidden army of grandparents. A fed vėlė can be asked for help through Vėjopatis; it will ask in return to be remembered by a child who has forgotten it.

Signs & habitat¶

Birds that come too close; a chill at the empty place at table; food that loses its smell overnight.

Before / after the Unbinding¶

Before: honoured, content, protective. After: the Church moves the feast to All Souls and forbids the old offerings, and families that convert in earnest stop feeding them; their dead turn hungry (see Alkanosios vėlės).

Banes, wards, bargains, and their cost¶

Feed them at Vėlinės and Kūčios, heat the pirtis, say their names (a family’s best food, every year).

Danger level¶

I nuisance (protective), before and after.

Story hooks¶

Book I: the cremation question matters precisely because of this entry. Book V: Vėlinės 1435 after Pabaiskas, when the living cannot feed so many.

Ryšiai

Servant of: Vėjopatis — A fed vėlė can be asked for help through Vėjopatis.

Shards: Alkanosios vėlės (the hungry dead) — The same dead, no longer fed.

Vėlės (the fed dead)

The fed dead · Baltic folk belief, saga-true

Origin [Historical record] souls of the dead, fed at Vėlinės and Kūčios, imagined as birds on the Birds' Way · [The saga's invention] cremation climbs; the rest linger

Tier Dvasia · the dead who linger, reached through Vėjopatis

Danger I nuisance (protective), before and after

Habitat The threshold, the empty place at table, the heated pirtis

Wants Food at Vėlinės and Kūčios, their names said, and to be remembered by a child who has forgotten them

Takes A family's best food, every year; a favour in return when they are asked for help

Signs Birds that come too close; a chill at the empty place at table; food that loses its smell overnight

Banes None: they are kin. Stop feeding them and they turn hungry

Traits

Half-wrong truth. Cremation is the fastest road up the Glass Mountain to Dausos. The slower-climbing dead linger as vėlės who must be fed. The folk keep the feast as courtesy; it is in fact their food, and when the Church moves it to All Souls and families that convert stop feeding them, the dead turn hungry.

Actions

Guarding. Warn their kin, guard the threshold, sometimes fight. A family with well-fed dead has a hidden army of grandparents.

Answering. A fed vėlė can be asked for help, through Vėjopatis.

Costs

The feast. A family's best food, given every year.

The favour. It will ask in return: to be remembered by a child who has forgotten it.

Source: Bestiary §15 · Cosmology §1, §3.1 · Legends & songs §4

Sąsajos¶

graph LR
  alkanosios_veles["Alkanosios vėlės (the hungry dead)"]
  vejopatis["Vėjopatis"]
  veles["Vėlės (the fed dead)"]
  veles -->|Servant of| vejopatis
  alkanosios_veles -->|Shard of| veles
  style veles stroke-width:3px