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Eglė the Queen of Serpents

mythological serpent from Lithuanian folklore

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 7, 2026
Entity authorityQ1298196 ↗
Source-derived summary

Eglė the Queen of Serpents, alternatively Eglė the Queen of Grass Snakes (Lithuanian: Eglė žalčių karalienė), is a Lithuanian folk tale, first published was a translation by M. Jasevičius in 1837.

Eglė the Queen of Serpents is one of the best-known Lithuanian folk tales, with many references to Baltic mythology. Over a hundred slightly diverging versions of the plot have been collected. Its mythological background has been an interest of Lithuanian and foreign researchers of Indo-European mythology; Gintaras Beresnevičius considered it being a Lithuanian theogonic myth. The tale features not only human–reptile shapeshifting, but irreversible human–tree shapeshifting as well. Numerology is also evident in the tale, such as twelve sons, three daughters, three days, three tricks, three weeks of feast, nine years under the oath of marriage, three tasks given to Eglė by her husband to fulfill and nine days of visits.

Published sources

The tale first appeared in print in 1837, when a translation by M. Jasevičius from Lithuanian into Polish was published in the literary collection Biruta in Vilnius. The tale was also collected by Polish writer Józef Ignacy Kraszewski and published in his historical work Litwa.

Etymology

Eglė is a popular female name in Lithuania. It is also a noun meaning tree species spruce (Latin: Picea) and fir, with cognates in other Baltic languages: Latvian egle 'spruce, fir', and Old Prussian addle 'spruce, fir'.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Eglė the Queen of Serpents” as mythological serpent from Lithuanian folklore. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1837—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Eglė, Queen and Serpents can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as mythological serpent from Lithuanian folklore. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1298196. VIAF identifies the subject as 217152742927227731881. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1837.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Eglė the Queen of Serpents” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.