- Genre
- Mythological legend
- Source status
- folkloric
- Motifs
- loom, Krauzelė, secret name, overheard song
The story
A woman was weaving linen. When she stepped outside, a laumė sat down in her place and began to work.
The woman returned and asked for her weaving back. The visitor set a condition: first she must guess the laumė’s name. Realising who had taken her place, the weaver went outside again, but stayed close enough to listen.
Inside, the laumė sang as she wove. She urged herself on by the name Krauzelė and sang that the linen would be hers.
The woman came back and thanked her, addressing her by the name she had overheard. The laumė grew angry and admitted that the woman’s good fortune meant her own defeat.
Reading the story
The name fulfils the laumė’s condition. The weaver does not guess by chance: she listens while the visitor, believing herself alone, reveals her own secret.
Told by Liudovika Mickienė in Karklėnaliai, Gardiškė area; recorded by N. Vėlius in 1962. LTR 3577(130).
Source and retelling
Lietuvių tautosaka, IV (1967), Nr. 544, p. 548–549: „Laumė audėja“. An original retelling of the recorded traditional narrative cited here. The sequence of events and ending are retained in modern language.