Palanga amber-priestess line (Gintaro vaidilutės)¶

House card¶


Seat	Birutės kalnas (Birutė Hill) at Palanga, its shore flame and the sea-stone. [The saga’s invention]
Arms / sigil	A drop of amber with a flame inside. [The saga’s invention]
Words	Jūra atsimena. „The sea remembers.“ [The saga’s invention]
Patron / burden	The Amber Queen: the line supplies her vessels.

Palanga amber-priestess line (Gintaro vaidilutės)


Tipas	giminė
Status	Sagos išmonė
Pastaba	The saga’s invention: the maternal line of Birutė, vessels of the Amber Queen, keepers of the shore flame at Palanga.

Lineage¶

Basis [Historical record]: Birutė’s Palanga origin is a strong Lithuanian tradition (Birutė Hill, her role as a vaidilutė guarding a sacred fire). Długosz has her drowned in 1382; Lithuanian tradition has her living to c. 1416. Everything else is invention. The gift runs through the mothers, and each generation gives one daughter to the shore flame. Birutė is the last vessel. Her maternal kin stay unnamed and few; a grandmother who was a vessel before her is the cleanest invention. The tradition that Birutė’s relatives were killed in 1382 can mean that Jogaila’s men tried to end the line.

Feuds & alliances¶

Allied to the Kęstutaičiai by Birutė’s marriage; patron of Kęstutaičiai through the Amber Queen. Opposed in the saga by the Polish clergy who come to break the statue in 1417–18.

Fate across the books¶

VI: Birutė is chosen; the „abduction“ (Būk paimta) places the Amber Queen’s vessel in the Gediminid bed; Vytautas is born under the three spinners.
I: Birutė becomes the Queen (1384); the kneeling amber statue stands at Palanga (the pebble; the statue).
IV: the clergy try to break the idol; their boat goes down.
V: a remnant of women keeps a hidden fire without a vessel. The statue no longer glows in 1445 (ch. 25) and the sea takes it in 1450 (ch. 29).

Ryšiai

Members: Birutė

Patrons: Gintaro Karalienė (Amber Queen)

Sąsajos¶

graph LR
  amber_queen["Gintaro Karalienė (Amber Queen)"]
  birute["Birutė"]
  palanga_vaidilutes["Palanga amber-priestess line (Gintaro vaidilutės)"]
  birute -->|Member of| palanga_vaidilutes
  amber_queen -->|Patron of| palanga_vaidilutes
  style palanga_vaidilutes stroke-width:3px