#kastytis

As some of you know, I recently went on vacation to visit my beloved Baltic Sea. While I was there, my friend told me about Jurata, the legendary queen of this exact sea. She comes out of Lithuanian mythology and is also be known as Jurate or Jurasmat. But the knowledge about her is well spread across people who live near Baltic Sea in Poland too! So, this is my attempt to present her legend to you - witches across the globe! Just so you know, there are many versions of this story, so I'm going with the one I've heard first. Also, for my Lithuanian friends - please don't get mad if I get anything wrong. As I said, there's a lot of versions and I don't want to "steal" it from your culture in any way, I just want more people to know the story. Also since we share a lot of culture due to the history of our nations (I'm Polish FYI!), I'm pretty confident with it. Also, I'm using Lithuanian name Perkunas for the God of Thunder, not Perkun as I knew it originally because it's Baltic mythology, not Slavic. Let's get started!

Long, long time ago, at the bottom of Baltic Sea, queen Jurata lived in her beautiful palace made of amber and ruled over the sea and everything that lived in it. She was beautiful, and her spirit was as wild as the waves she ruled. She was accompanied by mermaids and water nymphs, as well as many other sea creatures. One day, a friendly flounder told her about the fisherman who was taking more fish that he could eat and he was selling them to other people. Jurata was very angry and rushed to the seaside to punish the greedy human. But the moment she looked at handsome Kastytis (which was the fisherman's name) she fell in love with him. She forgave him for all the fish he took and understood why he did that. They went back to the Amber Palace and were happy for some time. But then Perkunas, the God of Thunder, found out about their relationship. He was furious that Jurata fell in love with a mortal man and neglected her responsibilities. He caused giant, dangerous storm which killed Kastytis. He then chained Jurata to the bottom of her beloved sea. She was devastated after the death of her loved and she cried amber for years - she still does. That's why we can find them on beaches of Baltic sea.