The Beggar turns Kęstutis’s coin to stone

What the chronicles say [Historical record]

Nothing in the record. On 3 August 1382 Kęstutis and Vytautas rode to the talks at Jogaila’s camp near Trakai; that the old man gave alms to a beggar on the way is a motif of folk tale, not of chronicle.

The Beggar turns Kęstutis’s coin to stone

The Beggar turns Kęstutis's coin to stone

The Beggar turns Kęstutis’s coin to stone · event

Tipas

įvykis

Metai

1382

Status

Sagos išmonė

Knyga

I · Vilko Tremtis

Skyriai

4

Pastaba

The Beggar (Velnias / Henė) turns Kęstutis’s coin to stone on the road to Jogaila’s camp (1382).

Where: Road to Jogaila’s camp (from Kęstutis’s pine hill beyond the Trakai lake) (on the map)

What really happened [The saga’s invention]

The Beggar is Dievas Senelis, walking as a stranger with a staff. He asks Kęstutis for a coin, and the duke gives it. The silver turns to grey stone and the old man vanishes into a grey stone at the road’s edge. Rule of the cosmology (§5): those who give are not saved, they are seen; their road becomes clear to them even if it leads to death. Kęstutis rides on to the camp knowing. The Beggar calls Vytautas „Vyti“, an allowed exception to the intimate-vocative rule. The coin turning to stone says that what is paid for truth is worth nothing as money. (A second beggar turns up in Book V: Goštautas gives a warm coin to a beggar on his threshold.)

Consequences

The beggar’s seeing is the first signal of Kęstutis’s walk into the arrest and death at Krėva; it is also the model for later epiphanies of Dievas in the saga.

Dramatisation

Book I ch. 4 „Kelionė į stovyklą“ (Vytautas; the afternoon of 3 August 1382, on the road to Jogaila’s camp, after the hunting memory at noon).

Ryšiai

Location: Road to Jogaila’s camp (from Kęstutis’s pine hill beyond the Trakai lake) — Roadside in the forest, afternoon of 3 Aug 1382.

Participants: Dievas (Senelis) · Kęstutis · Vytautas

Sąsajos

graph LR
  dievas["Dievas (Senelis)"]
  ev_beggar_coin["The Beggar turns Kęstutis's coin to stone"]
  kestutis["Kęstutis"]
  road_to_jogaila_camp["Road to Jogaila's camp (from Kęstutis's pine hill beyond the Trakai lake)"]
  vytautas["Vytautas"]
  ev_beggar_coin -->|Location| road_to_jogaila_camp
  dievas -->|Took part in| ev_beggar_coin
  kestutis -->|Took part in| ev_beggar_coin
  vytautas -->|Took part in| ev_beggar_coin
  style ev_beggar_coin stroke-width:3px