Jurate and Kastytis
Lithuanian folktale

Jurate was the goddess of the sea (Jura =sea in Lithuanian), who lived
under the waves of the Baltic Sea, in a beautiful castle made of amber. She
was the queen of the sea, and so she ruled over all the maritime creatures
and maintained the peace and balance between them. One day, a talented
young fisherman named Kastytis was fishing near her castle, and he caught
many fish. This made Jurate angry, as she thought he was disturbing the
calmness of the ocean by taking too many animals at a time. She decided to
punish the fisherman in order to restore the peace of her kingdom, but when
she faced Kastytis, they fell hopelessly in love with each other.

They lived happily together in Jurate’s amber castle for some time, but
their happiness was not to last. Perkunas, the god of thunder, the most
powerful and feared of the Baltic gods, was the father of the Sea Goddess,
and he discovered the affair between Jurate and Kastytis. He got furious
with Jurate, not only for daring to love a mere human, which was not
allowed for the superior Gods, but also because she had been promised to
marry the god of water, known as Patrimpas. Out of his rage, Perkunas used
his lightning bolts to kill Kastytis and he struck the undersea amber
palace, reducing it to its ruins. As to Jurate’s destiny, she was tied to
the ruins of the castle to spend her life there to the eternity.

The legend says that even today, Jurate still mourns in her underwater
prison for the loss of Kastytis. It also says that this is why little
pieces of amber keep arriving to the shores and beaches of the Baltic Sea:
they are what remain of Jurate’s undersea palace after the strike from the
God of Thunder. Those with the shape of a small amber tear are said to be
the most precious, as they are the tears of Jurate that arrive from her
imprisonment to the shore during the stormy days that shake the ocean.

-Hariwulfaz