The Last Flame promise¶
Terms¶
[The saga’s invention]: Vytautas’s half of the Sutartis in Book I ch. 3, “Kol aš gyvas, paskutinė ugnis neužges” (“while I live, the last fire will not go out”). After Jogaila puts out the Šventaragis flame in 1387, Vytautas secretly keeps one sacred flame burning: lit in Kęstutis’s old lodge beyond the Neris (Book I ch. 29, lit), carried to the half-flooded foundations of the Trakai island castle (Book II ch. 2), and from 1392 in the island castle’s deepest vault.
The Last Flame promise
The Last Flame promise · pact¶
Type |
pact |
Years |
1382–1430 |
Note |
‘Kol aš gyvas, paskutinė ugnis neužges’: Vytautas’s secret vow to guard the flame. |
Parties & witnesses¶
Binds: Vytautas, who made the promise in return for Birutė’s surety. Witness: the flame itself, and a keeper: the Karaim guard Elijah, who “guarded nothing” for eleven months (Book III ch. 28), and later the Flame-Keeper Žiežirba, who carries the vault ash (Book IV ch. 3). The flame is also Gabija’s (Gabija).
Breaches¶
If the flame goes out while he lives, the Pact’s penalties fall (madness, then death). The Book IV temptation: Henė offers him the crown in exchange for letting it die; at Lutsk the offer comes with a pledge, his word not yet spoken (Book IV ch. 21–22). He refuses, and the crown, which “never existed as gold”, turns to leaves (Lutsk; the crown).
Consequences¶
Vytautas dies uncrowned on 27 October 1430. At that instant the flame “went quiet, as a pot taken from the stove goes quiet”, after forty-three years (Book IV ch. 29, his death). Book V ch. 1 replays the night from the vault, and a cold fills Trakai (Book V ch. 4). The Iron Wolves can make no new wolves, so the brotherhood dies out; the pebble cracks; the gods become folklore.
Relations
Binds: Vytautas
Caused by: Birutė binds Vytautas (Sutartis, surety, flame promise)
Ended by: Vytautas dies at Trakai; the Last Flame goes out
Kept by: Elijas, son of Mošė (Karaim guard captain) (1398–1411) — Karaim captain at the vault door. · Žiežirba (the Flame-Keeper, Book V POV) (1410–1430) — Keeper and witness of the flame’s going out.
- School
- Pact · Vytautas's half of the Sutartis. The saga's invention
- Tier
- Bound tier 2 · Vytautas. Keepers: Kalvis, Spyglys, the Flame-Keeper Žiežirba; Elijas guards the vault door
- Casting
- Spoken in Book I ch. 3 (1382); kept from 1387 by tending a secret flame
- Components
- A sacred flame: lit in Kęstutis's old lodge beyond the Neris, moved to the Trakai island foundations, and from 1392 in the vault. Live ash fed in pinches
- Cost
- Every pinch of ash taken is a risk to Vytautas. Fire workings at the flame cost double in damp or flood
- Duration
- 1387 until 27 October 1430: forty-three years
- Limits
- One man cannot re-swear a Pact. The flame goes out only when he dies or lets it
- Counters
- Henė's offer: the crown for the flame (Book IV ch. 21-22)
Keeps an anchor alive. While it burns, the Pact's remnant and the vilkatai's oath have a living anchor. New wolves can be made only at a living flame.
Live ash. The only ward that holds the unburned dead and calms the Quenched.
The crown refused. At Lutsk the offer comes with a pledge, his word not yet spoken. He refuses, and the crown, which never existed as gold, turns to leaves. He dies uncrowned.
If it goes out while he lives. The Pact's penalties fall: madness, then death.
His death. It goes out at the moment he dies, 27 Oct 1430, as a pot taken from the stove goes quiet (Book IV ch. 29). The brotherhood can make no more wolves, and the pebble cracks.
Connections¶
graph LR
elijas["Elijas, son of Mošė (Karaim guard captain)"]
ev_sutartis["Birutė binds Vytautas (Sutartis, surety, flame promise)"]
ev_vytautas_dies["Vytautas dies at Trakai; the Last Flame goes out"]
flame_keeper["Žiežirba (the Flame-Keeper, Book V POV)"]
flame_promise["The Last Flame promise"]
vytautas["Vytautas"]
flame_promise -->|Binds| vytautas
ev_sutartis -->|Causes| flame_promise
ev_vytautas_dies -->|Ends| flame_promise
elijas -->|Keeps| flame_promise
flame_keeper -->|Keeps| flame_promise
style flame_promise stroke-width:3px