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Lithuanian mythological tales

The Dead Mother and the Orphan

Editorial retelling and context

Children who have lost their mother notice the baby’s cradle rocking by itself when their father goes out. The unseen care continues until the little one grows older.

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Original AI-generated collection illustration; not a historical document or an image of this particular story.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
dead mother, cradle, unseen care, growing child

The story

Several young children were left after their mother died. The youngest was still a baby in a cradle.

Whenever their father went out, the older children saw the cradle move again and again, as if someone were rocking the baby. An unseen presence tended it while the father was away.

The rocking stopped only when the little one had grown older. The tale explains that their dead mother had been rocking the cradle. Once the child was bigger, she stopped visiting, and the cradle no longer moved by itself.

Reading the story

A moving object, rather than a visible apparition, marks the mother’s return. In this brief version she neither threatens nor punishes: her presence means care for the baby, ending as the child grows.

Told by Elzbieta Kozminienė in Salakas, originally from Garniai in Daugailiai parish; recorded by E. Rūkštelytė in 1941. LTR 2430(354).

Source and retelling

Lietuvių tautosaka, IV (1967), Nr. 449, p. 487: „Mirusi motina ir našlaitis“. An original retelling of the recorded traditional narrative cited here. The sequence of events and ending are retained in modern language.

The Dead Mother and the Orphan sources