- Genre
- Etiological legend
- Source status
- folkloric
- Motifs
- war of birds and beasts, changing sides, rejection, nocturnal life
The story
Long ago, birds and beasts fought a war beside the Ural mountain. The fighting lasted a long time, with neither army holding the advantage for good.
The bat would not commit to either side. When the birds were winning, it joined them; when the beasts gained the upper hand, it went over to their ranks.
At last the two armies made peace and set off home. The bat tried to join the birds again, but they rejected it for its disloyalty. The beasts refused to take it in as well.
Ever since, the story says, the bat has hidden from both. It flies out to find food only in the evening, after the other animals have gone to rest.
Reading the story
The bat’s nocturnal life is explained through its conduct during the war and both sides’ memory of it. The Ural setting belongs to this recorded version and is retained.
The notes to the 1967 edition cite the earlier source Mūsų tautosaka IX (1935), no. 267.
Source and retelling
Lietuvių tautosaka, IV (1967), Nr. 360, p. 437: „Šikšnosparnis“; PDF p. 436. An original retelling of the recorded traditional narrative cited here. The sequence of events and ending are retained in modern language.