City-name legend
city-origin legend and local place legend
wolf, maiden, priestess, city name, Šventoji
Vilkmergė legend, Ukmergė hillfort, wolf maiden
The Legend of Ukmergė Hillfort
Legends connect the name of Ukmergė with Vilkmergė. One version tells of a maiden or priestess who lived near the hillfort and knew how to come to terms with a wolf. People called her the wolf maiden.
In another version, a wolf tore a girl apart, and the place received the name Vilkmergė from that. Elsewhere, the power of the priestess is emphasized: the wolf was her companion, not only a danger.
The hillfort at the confluence of the Šventoji and Ukmergėlė becomes, in the legend, the core of the city's name. The name preserves an ambiguous relationship between human being and wild animal.
Interpretation of the Ukmergė Hillfort Legend
The Vilkmergė legend is based on the explanation of a name. The combination of the words wolf and maiden lets the city have a dramatic, memorable origin story.
In Lithuanian tradition the wolf is a boundary animal: dangerous, but respected. If a young woman can come to terms with it, she becomes a priestess or mediator between the community and wild nature.
The two versions, the wolf maiden and the maiden torn by a wolf, show how the same name can be explained both as power and as disaster.
History of the Ukmergė Hillfort Legend
VLE describes Ukmergė Hillfort as a hillfort with a foot settlement near the confluence of the Ukmergėlė and Šventoji. Local sources connect it with the memory of Vilkmergė Castle and the city's origin.
Local-memory material and the Ukmergė Museum mention legends about the wolf maiden, aukmergė, and the origin of the city name. They show that the place name has long been explained through story.
The Ukmergė legend is therefore primarily a text of city name and identity, not merely a description of a hillfort to visit.
The old city name Vilkmergė is derived from the words vilkas, wolf, and merga, maiden; the place is mentioned in written sources already in the fourteenth century, including Teutonic Order chronicles. In genre terms this is a city-name or toponymic legend; Lithuanian place legends are collected in Žemės atmintis: Lietuvių liaudies padavimai (1999) and classified in Bronislava Kerbelytė's catalogue, vol. 3 (2002).