HOW DIFFERENT WE ARE - Kompalita

I Lithuania Legend of Vilnius: Gediminas‘ dream
and the irony wolf
Once Gediminas with his warriors and dukes went to
hunt. All day they were hunting, echoes of horns sounded far away. In
the evening tired, hungry and exhausted men gathered together on a
high hill, where the river Vilnele falls into the river Neris. They brought
all hunted animals – mooses with long horns, wolves, bears. That day
Gediminas hunted the biggest bison. All were astonished because they
had never seen such a big bison.
The night was calm and warm, so Gediminas decided to sleep on
that high hill. He liked that place – it was grown by old oaks and white
birches.
In the morning the duke Gediminas told everybody seen an amazing
dream: on a big hill there was standing a big irony wolf, it was yowling
so louldly as it would be hundreds of wolves. Nuobody could explain
Gediminas, what could such dream have meant. Only the priest Kriviu
Krivaitis told the duke: „The irony wolf is the town, which you have to
build on this hill, and the town will be strong as an iron. There will be
lots of enemies who want to destroy it, but they won‘t manage to do this.
And the loud yowling of the wolf means that powerful and rich town will
be known in all the world.“
Gediminas built the town on that hill and named it Vilnius. Later he
moved out to live there.
During many years the priest‘s words about Vilnius‘ power came true.
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