Long, long ago,
the Baltic Sea was ruled by Jurata, a beautiful queen. She had long golden hair
and sea green eyes. Her loveliness caused Perkun, the fierce God of thunder and
lightning, to fall in love with her. He would not let his storms disturb the
waters of her kingdom.
Jurata was a
kind queen. She established laws to protect her sea creatures. One law did not
allow anyone to set traps that caught too many fish at one time. Though Jurata
liked to eat flounder and had it served at the palace, she ordered her servants
to keep only half of each fish and to throw the other half back to the sea.
These fish-halves stayed alive because of her magical powers.
On the Baltic
Coast lived a bold, free spirited young fisherman who had very little common
sense. He knew about Queen Jurata's law, but disobeyed it. He set many traps
and caught many, many fish which he sold to people who lived far from the sea.
He spent most of his money on fine clothes.
The Queen found
out about this fisherman and was very angry with him. Her plan was to swim
close to the shore, get the fisherman to go in the water and drown him.
Instead, when she saw him in his beautiful clothes, she fell in love with him
as he did with her. Every night she would swim to
the shore and see her new sweetheart.
Jurata herself
had broken a law. The gods said that magical beings could love only magical
beings. Perkun got very very mad about this. He went into a rage and with
thunderbolts destroyed the amber colored palace while the Queen was inside and
chained the young fisherman to the bottom of the sea. They were never seen
again. The fisherman can sometimes be heard calling for his love. The only
things that remain from Jurata's palace are pieces of amber that sometimes wash
up on the beaches of the Baltic Sea.
Note: Another version of the Queen Jurata – March post
2015.
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