Favorite fairytale of childhood

Did you like fairytales when you were a child?

I know I did.

Especially the ones „from the head“ not from the book.

We used to ask our grandmother to tell us a bedtime story because her‘s were the best stories of all — a little scary, but very interesting.

Of course, later lying in the bed in the darkness I used to imagine all the scary creatures from her stories lurking in the dark corners of the room and only felt safer when I pulled the blanket over my head.

One of my favorite stories was a legend.

A legend about the great castle of Vilnius.

I used to ask for it very often, although I didn‘t fully understand it at the time.

But I felt that there is a meaning behind that story that is very important.

Nobody tried to explain that meaning to me, and were a little reluctant to tell that story many times, but that might have been the result of the soviet times.

So the story goes something like this (I‘ll try to remember as best I can):

When the grand duke Gediminas decided to build a castle that will stand forever in the newly founded capital, he asked the head priest what should he do to achieve that.

The grand priest burned the sacred fire and talked to the gods for three days without sleep or food.

An on the third day he said, that the ultimate sacrifice has to be made for the castle to stand here forever, that no foe could ever destroy it.

Many people gathered around the large pit where the cornerstone of the castle should fall.

The grand duke then asked if there was a volunteer to sacrifice himself for the gods and the future of the capital.

No one said a word for a while, then an elderly woman came forward and said:

- You can have my youngest son, lord, he will be your ultimate sacrifice. — The grand duke Gediminas bowed to the woman and her young boy, no more than sixteen, was lowered to the pit.

- My lord, — said the boy, — before you kill me, could your priest answer my three questions? — The duke agreed.

- What is the lightest, what is the sweetest and what is the hardest thing in the world? — the grand priest thought for a while, then answered:

- The lightest must be the feather, the sweetest is surely honey and the hardest is of course the sword of our lord.

- No, you‘re wrong, — smiled the boy. Everybody gasped at his boldness.

- The lightest is a baby on mother‘s arms, the sweetest is the kiss of two beloved and the hardest is the heart of my mother who condemned me here to dye.

The grand duke Gediminas was fascinated by the wisdom of this young boy and told his soldiers to take him out of the pit, for he will be far more useful for his kingdom alive than dead.

But the ultimate sacrifice still had to be made, the priest insisted.

So after a while, a young girl with a bouquet of wildflowers in her hand jumped into the pit laughing.

She stood there beautiful and smiling, waiting for the enormous cornerstone to fall. A lot of people started to cry seeing her there.

Ten men had to push the stone to the pit.

When it fell and the cloud of dust finally settled, the grand duke first came to the ridge and looked down.

He gasped in surprise, then the priest came and saw the girl standing untouched with closed eyes.

Just her bouquet of wildflowers was torn from her hands and lay under the stone.

The grand priest then bowed his head before this miracle.

- This is the ultimate sacrifice, — said he, — the flowers are enough for the gods, there is no need to spare a life.

So the great castle of Vilnius had been built on the wildflowers bouquet.

It withstood many wars.

When the castle was finally destroyed, the corner tower with the sacrifice for the gods still stands to this day.