- Genre
- Mythological sakme
- Source status
- folkloric
- Motifs
- storm, Velnias under the eaves, strike of Perkūnas, pipe, dangerous nearness
The sakme
During a thunderstorm a man was going home and slipped under the eaves. There he found a crouching Velnias hiding from Perkūnas.
The man scolded him: could he not see that Perkūnas was lying in wait to kill him? Velnias answered briefly: he will strike me, but kill you.
The man lit his pipe. Velnias drew so close that he sat on the pipe. When the man took a puff, Perkūnas struck. The man was killed, and Velnias, as people say, escaped.
Interpretation: what does this sakme mean?
This is one of the sternest sakmes about dangerous closeness to Velnias. The man thinks he is watching another being’s trouble, but he becomes the target himself.
The pipe is an intimate everyday object. When Velnias sits on it, the hiding place of evil comes right up to the man’s breath and mouth.
The sakme warns that during a storm one should not seek out places where Velnias may be hiding, and should not assume that a supernatural conflict will leave humans untouched.
The source variant
Lietuvių tautosaka, IV (1967), no. 506, p. 526: „Mane muš, o tave užmuš“. An editorial retelling of the specific cited variant, checked against its complete source narrative. This is not a literal transcript.
Why is the title so strong?
"He will strike me, but kill you" is not only Velnias’ answer. It is the whole moral of the sakme in one sentence.
It shows that danger may shift from the guilty figure to the careless observer. The human who stands too close enters the field of the strike.
