The Nine-Antlered Deer Comes Running lyrics and meaning

Atbėga elnis devyniaragis,
Oi kalėda, devyniaragis.
Vai ir atbėgo, vandenin žiūri.
Oi kalėda, vandenin žiūri.
Vandenin žiūri, ragelius skaito,
Oi kalėda, ragelius skaito.
-Ant mano galvelės devyni rageliai,
Oi kalėda, devyni rageliai.
Devyni rageliai, dešimta šakelė,
Oi kalėda, dešimta šakelė.
Ant tos šakelės kalveliai kala,
Oi kalėda, kalveliai kala.
Kalveliai kala, sliesorėliai lieja,
Oi kalėda, sliesorėliai lieja
-Oi jūs kalveliai, mano broleliai,
Oi kalėda, mano broleliai.
Nuliekit man aukselio taurę,
Oi kalėda, aukselio taurę.
Aš palaistysiu žalią rūtelę,
Oi kalėda, žalią rūtelę.

The Nine-Antlered Deer Comes Running: song interpretation

This song can be understood as a mythological Christmas song centered on the nine-antlered deer. The refrain "Oi kaleda" shows that it belongs to the winter holiday, Advent, or Christmas season. The deer comes running, looks into the water, and counts its antlers: nine antlers, and a tenth branch.

On that tenth branch smiths hammer and metal-casters pour. This image can be interpreted cosmically: the deer's antlers become like a world tree, on which acts of making, smithing, and casting take place. The nine antlers may mark fullness or a sacred number, and the whole image belongs to an archaic worldview.

The deer addresses the smiths as brothers, asking them to cast a little golden cup with which it will water the green rue. The golden cup and green rue can join the heavenly, earthly, and maidenly worlds. This is one possible reading, but the mythological and cosmic character of the song is especially strong.

The Nine-Antlered Deer Comes Running: symbols and phrases

Nine-antlered deer
The deer with nine antlers is an archaic mythological image. Its antlers are associated with the world tree and cosmic order.
"Oi kaleda"
A winter-holiday refrain marking the song's Christmas season. It links the song with Advent and Christmas ritual singing.
Smiths and metal-casters
Craftsmen hammering and casting on the deer's antler. They recall mythical makers working at the top of the world tree.
Golden cup and green rue
The golden cup and the rue watered with it join heavenly, earthly, and maidenly worlds. They crown the song's mythological image.

The Nine-Antlered Deer Comes Running: song history

The song of the nine-antlered deer is considered one of the most archaic Lithuanian calendrical mythological songs. Folklorists often interpret the deer with nine or more antlers as a cosmic image: the branching antlers are likened to the world tree, while the smithing and casting of the golden cup upon them are linked with motifs of world creation. Such Christmas songs with the refrain "Oi kaleda" belong to the oldest layer of ritual folklore and were sung during Advent and Christmas.

The exact place and time of this particular version are not given on the page, so it is presented by genre. The text is built as a steadily expanding image - nine antlers, a tenth branch, smiths and casters working upon it - and at the end the deer's request for a golden cup to water the rue joins the cosmic layer with the earthly, maidenly one.

sources

  • Lithuanian Folk Songbook, vols. 1-23, Vilnius 1980-2011 (LLTI)
  • N. Laurinkienė, Reflections of Myth in Lithuanian Calendar Songs, Vilnius 1990
  • Catalogue of Lithuanian Folk Songs, 6 vols., Vilnius 1972-1986

The Nine-Antlered Deer Comes Running: sources