They drive the alien
forces back to the walls of Riga. But victory is short-lived, for the air is heavy with
|The Bear Slayer
In both Latvia and Estonia
the creation of literary epics coincided with the growth of a new national consciousness
in the 19th century. The epics not only reflected these national movements in the two
Baltic nationsthey actually helped spur them on. Latvia's
epic was Lacplesis, set in pagan Latvia of 800 years ago, around the time of the nation's
conquest by German Crusaders. Like Estonia's Kalevipoeg epic, Latvia's epic recounts the
exploits of a giant-sized mannamed Lacplesiswho endeavors to defend his homeland from
assorted invaders. Lacplesis, or the Bear Slayer, is part man, part bearwhich
accounts for his unusually large, fuzzy ears. Otherwise a kindly figure, Lacplesis goes
into action whenever his fellow Latvians are in trouble. His specialty is marauding bears,
which he can slay by ripping their jaws apart with his bare hands.
The epic was written by Andrejs Pumpurs
(1841-1902), who based his story line on existing Latvian folklore. The epic conjures up
images of black magic, and also takes its fair share of shots at Germans. Christianizing
knights from Germany invaded Latvia in the 13th century and, by the 1800s, their
descendants continued to wield enormous power and influence in Latvia. At the time of the
epic's publication, 1888, there was considerable bitterness about the German dominance.
The epic was partly meant to show that the downtrodden Latvians had a history and culture
every bit as grand as their German overlords.
Lacplesis has had a huge impact on Latvia,
influencing generations of writers, artists and politicians. The spectre of the
traitor-figure Kangers is still raised when Latvians speak of Soviet-era turncoats. The
government has revived the pre-war Order of Lacplesis, the nation's highest award for
service to Latvia. Streets are named after Latvia's epic hero, and many shops take their
names from characters in the epic.
The following rendition of the Latvian epic is by Rita
Laima Krievina. It is based on her 1988, English-language translation of the
epic, which, in its original form, is in poetic verse.
In the blue vault of the sky, in the castle of
the God of Thunder, the Baltic gods gather to give audience to the Father of Fate. Here,
in the place where eternal light resides, he tells them the story of Christ. He tells them
that Christ's teachings have been accepted by nations of the world. But, the Father of
Fate explains, people perverted those teachings to their own evil ends. And now these very
people have decreed that the Christian faith will be brought to the lands of the Baltic.
The God of Thunder speaks up, warning that those who
have taken it upon themselves to carry the religion of Christ forth intend to occupy the
Baltic region and make slaves of its people. He vows that he will do what he can to help
the peoples of the Baltic defend themselves against these foreigners and their evil
The gods and goddesses huddle amongst themselves and
discuss how they can give assistance to the Baltic mortals. Staburadze, who lives in a
crystal palace in the depths of the mighty Daugava River, comes forward to tell the other
deities of her encounter with a youth whom she saved from death. She would like to keep
him with her beneath the river lest he return to the surface and turn into stone. The God
of Thunder, however, proclaims that the youth has been blessed and that he is destined for
The Slaying of the Bear
Some time later, the youth leaves the waters beneath the river. The
chieftain Lielvarde adopts the youth as his own son. One day a vicious bear attacks the
chieftain. The youth intervenes and wrestles the bear to the ground. Grabbing the beast by the jaws, he rips the bear apart with
nothing but his hands. The old chieftain is amazed by the boy's strength and courage, and
so he decides to reveal what has been said by the gods about the destiny of the impressive
young man: he is to become a hero of his people. Henceforth, the youth is known as
Lacplesis, the Bear Slayer. The chieftain provides him with a fine horse, a sword, shield,
silver spurs and a marten-fur hat. The Bear Slayer then rides off to gain wisdom in the
ancient Burtnieku school of wisdom.
Descent into Hell
On his way to Burtnieku, the Bear Slayer asks for lodgings at the
castle of Aizkraukle, which stands in a desolate spot, far from the shores of the Daugava
River. It is a place of notorious gloom. Here the Bear Slayer encounters Spidala, the
gorgeous but evil daughter of the chieftain of Aizkraukle. The Bear Slayer, in young
manhood, is enraptured by the sultry, dark-eyed Spidala. But to his horror, he discovers
that she has made a pact with the devil.
One night, the Bear Slayer secretly follows Spidala
into the Devil's Pit. He draws close to a large house. Inside, he witnesses evil that is
ghastlier than he can imagine. He sees the decadent Spidala and other young witches
undress and then cavort with wicked demons. They partake in a bloody feast of children's
hands and squirming eels. The feast is then disrupted by the old Devil, Crooked Cap
himself. He explodes into the chamber on a golden carriage that is pulled by a
The demonic bunch then encircle a trembling mortal:
it is Kangars, deemed by his people to be a holy man. But, as the Bear Slayer quickly
discovers, Kangars is the most despicable and lowly of traitors. Kangars is spared from
being chewed up by the Devil's dragon by promising to disavow his god and to betray his
people, condemning them to slavery at the hands of the foreigners now heading across the
The Bear Slayer has had enough of this hideous scene.
He slips out of the house to make his way back to Aizkraukle castle. But an old witch sees
the Bear Slayer and tells Spidala to dispose of him. She pursues him on a river, where the
Bear Slayer's log is sucked down into the whirlpool of Staburagsto what should be a
certain death. But the gods spare him. The Bear Slayer wakes up unscathed in the crystal
chambers of Staburadze, where he encounters the beautiful Laimdota, the daughter of the
wise old chieftain, Burtnieks. She has brains to match her physical charms! It is love at
Eventually, the Bear Slayer must take leave of the
beautiful Laimdota. Back on the river, the Bear Slayer meets Koknesis-another youth of
legendary strengthand they become friends. Together, they journey back to the Aizkraukle
castle, where the evil Spidala is shocked to find that the Bear Slayer is still alive.
After some time, the two friends, the Bear Slayer and
Koknesis, depart for Burtnieku castle to learn the wisdom of the ancients.
The Estonian Giant
Three soul-mates come together: the traitor Kangars, the hell-bent
Spidala and Dietrich, a German priest whose ship is saved on the stormy sea by the Latvian
Livi tribe. Little do the Livi people know, they have actually saved their future
oppressors from death!
Some years pass. The Bear Slayer and his friend
Koknesis continue their studies at Burtnieku castle. They do not know that the traitor
Kangars has given word to the Estonian giant Kalapuisis [called Kalevipoeg in the Estonian
epic/ed.] that this is a good time to pillage and plunder Latvian villages. Kangars and
the evil Spidala are certain that the Bear Slayer will shrink from challenging the
invincible Estonian giant, knowing he would meet his death.
As Kalapuisis goes on a rampage, the old chief of
Burtnieki summons warriors to face the Estonian tyrant. He promises his daughter
Laimdota's hand in marriage to the man who defeats the mighty giant. The Bear Slayer, who
is head over heels in love with Laimdota, leaps at the chance. He goes to face the
Estonian giant and roundly defeats him. Later, the two make peace. Kalapuisis says that
the whole Baltic area is under threat and that they must unite their forces to defend
their lands against the outsiders.
The Bear Slayer's marriage with Laimdota is sealed
when he spends a night in the old Burtnieku castle. At the castle, he defeats yet another
ghoulish monster. An old castle and its storehouses of wisdom subsequently rise to the
surface after laying for centuries under the lake's dusky waters. The young lovers immerse
themselves in the ancient scriptures, which tell the secrets of creation.
Their bliss is cut short when Laimdota and the Bear
Slayer's friend Koknesis are kidnapped and then spirited away on a ship bound for Germany.
The vessel is also carrying the Livi chieftain Kaupa to Germany and then on to Rome, where
he is to learn more about the Christian faith. This is all a devilish scheme of the evil
Spidala and the traitor Kangars, and it nearly crushes the spirit of the Bear Slayer. The
villains lie to the Bear Slayer, telling him that Laimdota and his best friend have been
lovers all along. Shattered, the Bear Slayer returns to his father's home, partly
believing that the story is true. He then resolves to sail north to find the sublime
daughter of Ziemelis. Perhaps this northern beauty will cool his feverish head and help
him forget the sorrow that is raging in his heart.
The Great Deceit
Grand Rome, ancient Rome,
Where the Holy Father lived,
There he ordered the crusades
To conquer the land of St. Mary.
The Holy Father had deemed the Baltic to be St. Mary's land;
The sinning knights' sins were absolved by him.
In Rome, Christian emissaries plot the subjugation of the Baltic
pagans. The Holy Father receives the priest Dietrich and the Livi chieftain Kaupa, who is
enchanted with the riches laid out before him. He is also overwhelmed by doubt about his
own gods. Kaupa promises to return home and to be christened together with his people.
Back in his own country, hundreds of people toil, building the fortress of Riga and its
somber cathedral, from which so much misery spills into the surrounding lands. Priests and
knights spread a wave of terror and oppression across the land.
The lovely Laimdota has been locked up in a cloister
somewhere in Germany. She is rescued from the lusty advances of a German count by the Bear
Slayer's friend, Koknesis. The two make their escape, boarding a ship bound for the north.
Meanwhile, the Bear Slayer has sailed even further
northwards. At the edge of the sky, he encounters the legendary daughter of Ziemelis. Her
eyes are like the color of the sky on a clear day in the north. The astonishing beauty is
surrounded by her weapons of war, but she is kind and offers the Bear Slayer and his
ship's crew a chance to rest. The exhausted wayfarers are led to a fabulous garden where
they rest in the glow of a flame that shines up from the center of the earth. But the Bear
Slayer becomes bored. He announces that it is time to pack up and return from whence they
came. The lovely daughter of Ziemelis warns him: his trip will be full of dangers. He will
have to take special care to avoid the Island of Dog Muzzles, which is full of
But the Bear Slayer and his ship's crew do come
across the Island of Dog Muzzleswhere the hero barely survives an attack by vile beings.
The weary crew finally make it to the edge of the earth. One of the Bear Slayer's last
heroic deeds before his final battle back home is to hack off the heads of three
many-headed demons on the Last Enchanted Island, where he is miraculously reunited with
Laimdota and his friend Koknesis. It is here that he also manages to release a repentant
Spidala from her pact with Satan, whereby she and Koknesis become lovers.
The Bear Slayer's Demise
The Bear Slayer and Laimdota, and Koknesis and Spidala are wed. The
festivities, which take place on Midsummer Day, are
overshadowed by a distant, fateful storm which is brewing misery for the Baltic peoples
that will last for 700 years. One by one, the Livi and other tribes succumb to the German
crusaders. In a last-ditch effort to defend their freedom, the Bear Slayer unites his
people against the alien forces and succeeds in driving them all the way back to the walls
Victory, however, is short-lived, for the air is
heavy with deceit.
A bitter and brooding Kangars, forsaken by his own
kind, is sought out by the German priest Dietrich. The traitor Kangars then beseeches the
Devil to learn the secret of the Bear Slayer's great strength. What is its source? What he
learns is that the strength of the giant, the greatest hero of the land, is in his bearish
Shortly thereafter, a band of roving knights, come to
the Bear Slayer's castle. A mysterious knight dressed in black steps forward and
challenges the Bear Slayer to a fight. The Dark Knight knows about the source of the
hero's strength, and in the course of the ensuing duel, he duly lops off the Bear Slayer's
ears, infuriating the great giant. These forces of good and evil, the Bear Slayer and the
Dark Knight, engage themselves in a pitched battle. Finally, as they swipe at each other
and then wrestle to the ground, they both tumble over a cliff above the mighty Daugava
River, crashing into the waters below, and vanishing underneath the dark waves forever.
Rita Laima Krievina works at the Delegation of the European
Commission in Latvia.