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Lithuanian mythological tales

A Child’s Death

Editorial retelling and context

Before dawn, Jurgauskis sees a small child pursued by dogs. News of a neighbour’s child dying changes how the encounter is understood.

A general illustration for the folklore library, not a documentary depiction of this story’s setting or characters.
Original AI-generated collection illustration; not a historical document or an image of this particular story.
Genre
Mythological legend
Source status
folkloric
Motifs
death in a child’s form, dogs, gateway, before dawn

The story

Early one morning, while it was still dark, old Jurgauskis went to check the horses. Passing through the gateway, he noticed the dogs relentlessly chasing something.

Closer up, he saw a small child moving among the dogs and defending itself with its hands. The figure broke free and ran straight towards him.

Jurgauskis struck its back with the halter he was carrying. It ran off towards the village, while he continued to the pasture to see to the horses.

When he returned home, he learned that a neighbour’s little child had died. The tale explains that the figure at the gate had been the child’s death, rather than a living child.

Reading the story

Death here has a small, childlike form and is itself harried by dogs. The text mentions neither a scythe nor the name Giltinė; it also does not say that Jurgauskis’s blow caused the neighbour’s child to die.

Told by Uršulė Levonienė in Žalakiškiai, Šiluva district; recorded by P. Šivickis in 1905. LMD I 144(72).

Source and retelling

Lietuvių tautosaka, IV (1967), Nr. 438, p. 482: „Vaiko mirtis“. An original retelling of the recorded traditional narrative cited here. The sequence of events and ending are retained in modern language.

A Child’s Death sources