Master chronology¶

The saga’s timeline from the age of legends to 1450: the historical record beside the saga’s hidden history.

Labels. [Historical record] is attested in the sources or standard scholarship; [The saga’s invention] was made for this series.

Columns: Record is what the sources say; Hidden history is the saga’s mythic truth; Book shows where the event is told.

Age of Legends (before 1200): the mythic deep past¶

When	Hidden history	Book
Before memory	Saulė weeps; her tears fall into the sea and harden into amber.	Legend
Before memory	Jūratė’s amber palace is shattered by Perkūnas and Kastytis is slain. Her grief becomes the Amber Queen office (Cosmology §3.4).	Legend
Before memory	Sovijus, after burial in earth and in a tree fail him, is burned by his son and „sleeps sweetly“; fire becomes the road to Dausos (legend recorded in the 1261 Ruthenian Malalas gloss).	Legend; Book VI
c. 1009	Record: „Litua“ first named (Quedlinburg annals: death of the missionary Bruno of Querfurt).	—

Age of Crusade (1200–1316)¶

Date	Record	Hidden history	Book
1202 / 1226–30	Sword Brothers founded in Riga; the Teutonic Order arrives in Prussia	The Iron Saint egregore first gathers	Background
22 Sep 1236	Battle of Saulė: Samogitians destroy the Sword Brothers	The Root-Mother’s first great „harvest“	Legend
1251 / 6 Jul 1253	Mindaugas baptised, then crowned King of Lithuania	The first bought baptism: the White Silence tastes Lithuania	Legend
13 Jul 1260	Battle of Durbe: Order crushed; Prussian and Curonian uprisings	—	Legend
1263	Mindaugas assassinated (Treniota, Daumantas)	The „false convert“ curse: the gods‘ warning about bought crowns	Legend
1283	The Order completes the conquest of Prussia; Romuva falls	The Prussian sacred flames go out; the Krivis moves to Vilnius (Saga)	Book VI
c. 1290s	The Wildnis border belt is depopulated by raiding	It becomes the Dykra, the Root-Mother’s own country	Background

Age of the Gediminids (1316–1377)¶

Date	Record	Hidden history	Book
c. 1316	Gediminas becomes Grand Duke	—	Book VI
1323	Gediminas’s letters to the Hanse and the Pope; Vilnius first named as capital	The Iron Wolf dream on the Šventaragis hunt; the founding of Vilnius (legend)	Book VI; legend
1341	Gediminas dies in 1341 (exact date, place and cause uncertain; the novel’s winter 1341–1342 funeral is reconstructed); his son Jaunutis rules in Vilnius	—	Book VI
1345	Algirdas and Kęstutis depose Jaunutis in winter 1344/45; diarchy (Algirdas in Vilnius in the east, Kęstutis in Trakai in the west)	THE SILENT PACT sworn at Šventaragis in November 1345, months after the coup (fiction; Cosmology §4.1)	Book VI; Book V flashback
2 Feb 1348	Battle of Strėva: Lithuanian defeat	The first Amber Debt payment: a Gediminid prince dies	Book VI
c. 1350	Kęstutis marries Birutė of Palanga (traditional dating); Vytautas born c. 1350	The Amber Queen’s line enters the Gediminids	Book VI; legend
1351	Kęstutis swears a pagan oath to Louis of Hungary (sacrifices an ox), promises baptism, and escapes	Kęstutis’s own „false baptism“ promise, mirrored by Vytautas in 1383	Book VI
21 Mar 1361 / 11 Nov 1361	Kęstutis, over sixty, is captured (Wigand 21 Mar; Wartberge 13 Mar) at his camp by Lake Ublik (Wobel) in Masuria by a small band of knights returning from a raid, and held about half a year at Marienburg; he escapes on 11 Nov with the help of a servant (Alfas, who dug out the wall; Kęstutis dropped into the dry moat and rode out in a knight’s cloak)	The escape Vytautas will repeat. Kęstutis tells him the story at Krėva (ch. 8)	Book VI; Book I ch. 8
16 Apr 1362, Easter Eve	Kaunas castle falls; Easter Day Mass follows. Siege commencement and duration are source-dependent	—	Book VI
1362 or 1363	Battle of Blue Waters: Algirdas defeats the Tatars; Kyiv drawn into the GDL (1362 is the traditional date; many recent historians prefer autumn 1362 or 1363)	The Steppe-Hunger notices Lithuania	Book VI
c. 1362	Jogaila born, son of Algirdas and Uliana of Tver (the saga selects c.1362; his birth year remains disputed, with an older c.1352 reconstruction also in circulation; in this version he is about 15 at his accession in 1377)	—	Book VI (as a child at most); Book I (as a youth)
1368, 1370, 1372	Algirdas’s campaigns against Moscow	—	Book VI
17 Feb 1370	Battle of Rudau: Algirdas and Kęstutis defeated by the Order	—	Book VI
May 1377	Algirdas dies; cremated with horses (traditional)	One oath-taker of the Pact gone	Book VI end

Book I era: The Wolf’s Exile (1377–1387)¶

Date	Record	Hidden history	Book I
1377	Jogaila succeeds as Grand Duke; Kęstutis remains co-ruler	—	Backstory
1379	Truce of Trakai between the Order, Kęstutis and Jogaila	—	Backstory
31 May 1380	Treaty of Dovydiškės: Jogaila secretly agrees not to aid Kęstutis against the Order	First crack in the Pact. The Shadow-Seller’s first thread on Jogaila	Ch. 2 (Vytautas’s evidence)
Sep 1380	Jogaila marches to aid Mamai at Kulikovo and arrives too late	—	Optional mention
Aug–Autumn 1381	Warned by Kuno von Liebenstein (komtur of Osterode; Ivinskis via en.wikipedia; Wigand and VLE name no informant; the saga’s Günther von Hohenstein is an invented young brother, not the informant), Kęstutis takes Vilnius without a fight while Jogaila is away against the Polotsk revolt, catches Jogaila on his way back, reads the treaty, and releases him to Krėva and Vitebsk
Spring–Jun 1382	While Kęstutis campaigns against Kaributas (Novhorod-Siverskyi), Jogaila retakes Vilnius, the Riga merchant Hanulas and the townspeople take the castle and hand castle and city to Jogaila on 12 Jun 1382 (he became first elder of Vilnius, 1382–87)	Hanulas is Henė’s first mask	Ch. 5–6 (Henė at Jogaila’s side)
20 Jul 1382	Trakai falls to Jogaila and the Order; Skirgaila is made duke of Trakai (1382–92)	Henė’s first working on Skirgaila	Ch. 1, 28
3 Aug 1382	The armies meet near Trakai; Kęstutis and Vytautas are lured to Jogaila’s camp, under Skirgaila’s safe-conduct, and seized, then sent to Krėva	The safe-conduct is the oath Skirgaila breaks: Perkūnas notes it	Ch. 4–7 (the camp palisade gate is the „Iron Gates“; the Feast of Silence is in a requisitioned Trakai manor)
15 Aug 1382	Kęstutis found dead at Krėva (strangled per most accounts, VLE and lt wiki; Jogaila claimed he hanged himself, which few believed). It is the Feast of the Assumption	Breath of the Void; kin-blood breaks Pact clause 2	Ch. 8–9
Aug 1382	Kęstutis cremated with full pagan rites in Vilnius	Jogaila honours the man he killed, which the gods find worse	Ch. 10
1382 or later	Wigand of Marburg (c. 1394) says Jogaila had Birutė drowned (en.wikipedia: at Brest, likely in answer to Vytautas’s escape; VLE: Kęstutis had sent her to Brest, drowning „more likely“); at Constance (1416) Polish-Lithuanian delegates said she lived long and died naturally; the Palanga burial is first in Stryjkowski (1582). Her death date is unrecorded	The sea refuses her (the ring thrice, ch. 11). She lives, hidden at Palanga	Ch. 11
Autumn 1382	Vytautas escapes Krėva dressed in the clothes of Ona’s maid (unnamed in the annals; the saga names her Elena; she stays and is executed)	Birutė’s fog (real fog, Law of Truth)	Ch. 12–14
late 1382	Vytautas flees to Masovia (Duke Janusz I, husband of his sister Danutė), then to the Order in Prussia	Through the Dykra: Eglė, the Root-Mother’s price	Ch. 15–17 (add a Masovia stop or mention)
31 Oct 1382	Treaty of Dubysa: Jogaila promises the Order baptism within 4 years and Samogitia to the Dubysa (never ratified)	—	Background
1382–83	Grand Master Konrad Zöllner von Rotenstein (elected after Kniprode’s death, 24 Jun 1382)	—	Ch. 18–19 (replace Kniprode)
Summer 1383	The Order declares war on Jogaila	—	Ch. 20
Autumn 1383	Order and Vytautas campaign	—	Ch. 20–21
21 Oct 1383	Vytautas baptised Catholic at Tapiau (Tepliava) as „Wigand“	A lying baptism: the amber dies (magic §5.4); Perkūnas’s warning	Ch. 19 (re-date)
30 Jan 1384	Treaty of Königsberg: Vytautas cedes Samogitia to the Nevėžis and becomes the Order’s vassal	The Amber Debt comes due	Ch. 19–20
1384	The Order builds Marienwerder (Naujapilis) on the Neman for Vytautas	—	Ch. 22
Jul 1384	Vytautas secretly reconciles with Jogaila, burns Marienwerder and Georgenburg (Jurbarkas), and kills or captures their garrisons	„Išdavikų išdavikas“	Ch. 22–25: recast the fictional 1383 Vilnius siege as these burnings
1384	Vytautas receives Grodno, Brest, Podlasie and (later) Lutsk. Trakai has been Skirgaila’s since 1382; Jogaila promised it to Vytautas in spring 1384, once Skirgaila was settled in Polotsk (taken Apr 1387), and did not deliver	Vytautas’s lasting grievance	Ch. 28
1384	Birutė’s Amber Sacrifice at Palanga, at the full moon after the reconciliation	Surety paid in full; Hidden Groves bought	Ch. 27
16 Oct 1384	Jadwiga crowned King of Poland in Kraków	The White Silence’s future vessel crowned	Mention, ch. 28–29
14 Aug 1385	Union of Krėva, signed at Krėva castle (one day short of three years after Kęstutis’s death)	The White Silence settles over the realm	Add a scene
15 Feb 1386	Jogaila baptised in Kraków (Władysław); 18 Feb marries Jadwiga; 4 Mar crowned King of Poland	—	Ch. 29 (offstage)
1386	Vytautas re-baptised Catholic (Aleksandras) in Kraków	—	Ch. 29
Feb–Mar 1387	Baptism of Lithuania: Jogaila presides in Vilnius; the Šventaragis flame extinguished, the grove felled and the sacred snakes killed (Długosz); Vilnius bishopric founded; Magdeburg rights for Vilnius (22 Mar 1387)	Pact clause 1 broken: the Silent Pact ends. Vytautas lights the secret flame that night (magic §6). The Unbinding begins	Ch. 29
13 Mar 1386	Skirgaila made Jogaila’s governor (regent) of Lithuania (Frost 2015; VLE gives 1387–92); Apr 1387 he takes Polotsk	Henė goes to Skirgaila (ch. 30)	Ch. 30

Book II era: The Golden Shadow (1387–1399)¶

Date	Record	Hidden history	Book II
1 Jul 1388 / 1389	Vytautas grants privileges to the Jews of Brest (1 Jul 1388; possibly a Trakai grant of 24 Jun 1388) and Grodno (1389); the „double compensation like a nobleman“ clause is a 16th-century addition	—	Minor
1389	Vytautas’s plot to seize Vilnius fails; he flees to the Order again	Second defection. Perkūnas’s claim tightens	Part 1 (missing from the current outline)
19 Jan 1390	Treaty of Lyck (Ełk), signed by Marquard von Salzbach: Vytautas allied with the Order; hostages demanded: his brother Žygimantas, wife Ona, daughter Sofija, sister Rymgailė, Ivan Olshanski and other nobles. Sofija leaves in autumn 1390 via Danzig and Pskov and marries Vasily I of Moscow on 9 Jan 1391	Ona and the children held as surety again; Žygimantas is an Order hostage 1390–98 (binding decision; VLE says 1389–98; freed after Salynas)	Part 1
11 Sep – 7 Oct 1390	Siege of Vilnius: the Order and Vytautas take and burn the Crooked Castle (fell 16 Sep; the Lower and Upper Castles held); Henry Bolingbroke (future Henry IV of England) takes part; Skirgaila defends. Tautvilas, on the Order’s side, is killed by a crossbow bolt; Karigaila, Jogaila’s brother, dies in the fall	The bombards and siege the current Book I wrongly uses	Part 1 set piece
Summer 1392 (July)	The break: at festivities at Ritterswerder the Order’s most prominent guests are seized; Ritterswerder, Metenburg and Neugarten are destroyed (no source gives the day; the Rasos night is the saga’s). In May the Order had released Ona to travel to Lithuania. Afterwards, in the Order’s revenge, his two sons, hostages of the Order, are said to be poisoned	The worst price. Ona’s grief; the Iron Saint’s revenge	Part 1 climax
4–5 Aug 1392	Agreement of Ostrów: Vytautas becomes Grand Duke (as Jogaila’s lieutenant)	Henė changes masters to Vytautas	Part 1 end
1393–95	Vytautas subdues Kaributas, Švitrigaila and Vladimir; takes Kyiv and Podolia; Smolensk (1395)	The Steppe-Hunger whispers of an empire	Part 2
1395–97	Tokhtamysh, overthrown by Timur’s campaigns, seeks refuge with Vytautas	—	Part 2
Jan 1397	Skirgaila dies in Kyiv (poison rumoured)	Henė’s discarded tool; the bargain collected	Part 2 (the current outline misplaces it in 1399–1401)
1397–98	Campaigns to the Black Sea; Tatars and Karaims settled at Trakai	—	Part 2
12 Oct 1398	Treaty of Salynas, on an islet of the Nemunas (probably between Kulautuva and the mouth of the Nevėžis): Samogitia up to the Nevėžis and part of Sudovia ceded to the Order; Žygimantas and the other hostages freed; Marquard helped negotiate; the „king“ acclamation rests on Posilge alone	The Hidden Groves of Samogitia now lie under the Order’s flag	Part 2
12 Aug 1399	Battle of the Vorskla: defeat by Edigu and Temur Qutlugh; perhaps 20 princes die. Marquard von Salzbach (komtur of Ragnit) fought with an Order contingent (Posilge: nine of the Order dead; Marquard among the rescued; en.wikipedia’s 1,600 horse is unconfirmed)	The Steppe-Hunger feeds; Velnias’s vision collected	Part 3 climax
17 Jul 1399	Jadwiga dies (with her newborn)	Her body becomes the White Silence’s anchor	Part 3

Book III era: The Green Wood (1399–1411)¶

Date	Record	Hidden history	Book III
18 Jan / 11 Mar 1401	Union of Vilnius and Radom (Vilnius act 18 Jan, Radom 11 Mar): Vytautas recognised as Grand Duke for life	—	Part 1
13 Mar 1401	First Samogitian uprising: two newly built Order castles (Dubysa, Nevėžis) burned; Vytautas keeps his distance at first	Galminas; the Hidden Groves fight	Part 1
Jan – Jul 1402	Švitrigaila flees to the Order (Jan, disguised as a merchant), treaty at Marienburg 2 Mar 1402; raid and Medininkai in Jul 1402	—	Part 1
22–23 May 1404	Peace of Raciąż (en.wikipedia 22 May, VLE 23 May): the Order regains Samogitia and part of Sudovia, ends support for Švitrigaila. Marquard von Salzbach insults Birutė after the peace (the insult belongs here, not to 1390). Smolensk retaken Jul 1404	Vytautas: „Aš tai prisiminsiu“ (second time)	Part 1 (ch. 6)
26 Jun 1407	Ulrich von Jungingen (b. 1360; komtur of Balga 1396–1404, marshal 1404) elected Grand Master	—	—
Jun 1408	Švitrigaila goes to Moscow (archival date; en.wikipedia says 1409)	—	Part 2
26 May 1409	Second Samogitian uprising; Vytautas first backs it secretly, openly from summer	The Hidden Groves fight	Part 2
6 Aug 1409 (delivered 14 Aug)	The Order’s declaration of war; truce 8 Oct 1409 to 24 Jun 1410	—	Part 2
early Dec 1409	Council at Brest (place disputed: Brest-Litovsk or Brześć Kujawski)	—	Part 2
30 Jun – 2/3 Jul 1410	The Vistula bridge, built upstream near Kozienice, assembled above Czerwińsk on 30 Jun; the king crosses that day	—	Part 3
15 Jul 1410	Battle of Grunwald / Žalgiris: Jungingen killed; Vytautas’s feigned (or real) retreat (both views exist)	The Root-Mother’s harvest; Galminas transforms; the Iron Saint screams	Climax
17 Jul 1410 / 19 Jul 1410	Plauen at Marienburg (17 Jul); Ulrich’s body at Marienburg (19 Jul)	—	Part 3
1 Feb 1411	First Peace of Thorn: borders back to 1409 except Samogitia (to Jogaila and Vytautas for life), Dobrzyń to Poland, ~14,000 captives for 100,000 kopas in four instalments, and a clause that Jogaila and Vytautas will convert the remaining pagans; whether either ruler was present is unrecorded	—	End

Book IV era: The Invisible Crown (1411–1430)¶

Date	Record	Hidden history	Book IV
2 Oct 1413	Union of Horodło (on the Bug; 47 Lithuanian nobles adopted by Polish families); Samogitian baptism begins (Nov 1413, near the Dubysa)	The Hidden Groves fall	Part 1
1414–18	Council of Constance: the Samogitian delegation arrives 28 Nov 1415, is received 13 Dec 1415; the Proposicio Samaytarum is read in Feb 1416; the Samogitian diocese (seat Medininkai) is founded 24 Oct 1417	—	Part 1
31 Jul 1418	Ona dies at Trakai (buried in Vilnius cathedral)	The last person who knew him before Krėva	Part 1
13 Nov 1418	Vytautas marries Julijona of Alšėnai at Grodno (a widow, Ona’s niece; the Bishop of Włocławek officiates). The date is en.wikipedia’s; VLE says only „before Christmas 1418“ and names Grodno	—	Part 1
27 Sep 1422	Treaty of Melno: a border that will last until 1918	—	Part 2
1429	Congress of Lutsk: Sigismund offers Vytautas a crown	Henė’s final bargain: the crown for the flame	Part 2
Aug 1430	The crown embassy is blocked by Polish border guards: Sigismund’s couriers are robbed by Jan Czarnkowski’s men on the Neumark / Greater Poland border and the embassy stalls at Frankfurt (Oder) (the crown itself was never seized; that is a later legend)	Henė turns the crown to leaves	Part 3
27 Oct 1430	Vytautas dies at Trakai	The last flame goes out	End

Book V era: The Wolf’s Legacy (1430–1450)¶

Date	Record	Hidden history	Book V
Oct–Nov 1430	Švitrigaila Grand Duke, elected by the Lithuanian lords after Vytautas’s death; Jogaila approves on 7 Nov 1430, then withdraws under Polish pressure	—	Part 1
Nov 1430	Polish lords seize Podolia (Kamianets refuses to surrender)	—	Part 1
19 Jun 1431	Treaty of Christmemel: Švitrigaila and the Teutonic and Livonian Orders (mutual aid, war only by joint consent)	—	Part 1
1 Sep 1431	Truce of Czartorysk after the Polish invasion of Volhynia	—	Part 1
31 Aug 1432	Žygimantas Kęstutaitis’s coup at Ašmena (night of 31 Aug into 1 Sep); Švitrigaila flees to Polotsk	Henė whispers	Part 1
15 Oct 1432	Grodno: Oleśnicki receives Žygimantas’s oath for the king and proclaims him Grand Duke for life (Jogaila is absent; his own act is issued at Lwów on 30 Oct 1432)	—	Part 1
8 Dec 1432	Battle of Ašmena: Žygimantas defeats Švitrigaila (one battle only)	—	Part 1
1 Jun 1434	Jogaila dies	—	Part 2
1 Sep 1435	Battle of Pabaiskas (Wiłkomierz)	The Unbinding at its height; the battlefield’s unburned dead	Part 2 climax
31 Dec 1435	Peace of Brest (Brześć Kujawski): the Order stops backing Švitrigaila	—	Part 2
20 Mar 1440	Žygimantas assassinated at Trakai	—	Part 3
May 1440	Casimir Jagiellon arrives in Vilnius as his brother’s viceroy	—	Part 3
29 Jun 1440	Casimir proclaimed Grand Duke (aged 12) by the Lithuanian lords, against Polish wishes	—	Part 3
2 May 1447	Casimir’s privilege for Lithuania issued in Vilnius (VLE: 5 May)	—	Part 3
25 Jun 1447	Casimir crowned King of Poland too, at Wawel	The old world becomes „folklore“	Epilogue