Aitvaras

What it is

Aitvaras is a spirit of nature belonging to Lithuanian mythology. In its usual shape it is a cockerel, its plumage either dark or pale, dragging a tail of fire that people liken to a meteor; out of doors, tellings often swap the bird's body for a dragon's. It is not a wanderer. Once one has taken up residence in a house it stays put, and in most accounts it will not be talked into going. From then on the family has a lodger with two faces, since it supplies the home with gold and grain that it has stolen, while also pulling misfortune down on the same roof. The tales even fix its birth and death: it comes from an aged rooster's egg and, dying, turns into a spark.

Where it comes from

The figure belongs to the mythology of Lithuania, where it was recorded under a whole row of local names, Atvaras, Damavykas, Sparyžius among them, every one of them pointing to the same creature. The Latvian tradition next door keeps an identical being, the Pūķis, so the spirit spans both sides of the border. Written study of it runs through the mythologist Algirdas Julius Greimas, who took up Lithuanian mythology in Of Gods and Men, published by Indiana University Press in 1992, a work that treats beings of this kind as part of the country's inherited lore.

How it is done

The stories follow one course. The spirit is said to begin inside an egg laid by a rooster between nine and fifteen years old. Once hatched, it looks for a dwelling: it enters a house, makes itself at home and, in the usual telling, declines every attempt to send it away. Settled indoors, it furnishes the family with gold and grain, all of it taken from other people. The final page is fixed as well, for when an aitvaras dies nothing is left of it except a spark.

What it is for

A family with an aitvaras in the house is thought to grow wealthy without labour, since the creature keeps arriving with gold and grain. The catch is built into the gift: what it carries in belongs to other people, so the plenty rests on theft. Its luck is said to run in both directions too, blessing the household one day and landing it in difficulty the next. In these accounts nobody calls the spirit in; it picks a home by itself, and the people under that roof simply have to live with what follows.

Peoples and places

The spirit is Lithuanian in origin, and within that country alone it answers to a whole set of regional names, which the record gives side by side. Latvia holds the identical being as the Pūķis, so the figure belongs to both neighbouring peoples rather than to one nation. The written account of it comes through Greimas's 1992 study of Lithuanian mythology, and reference entries point readers on to kindred beings such as the Ajatar and the cockatrice.

What people believe

Within the frame of Lithuanian myth, the aitvaras is classed as a spirit of nature, though its ways are those of a house guest. Its body changes with its surroundings: indoors people see a cockerel, while under the open sky it is given a dragon's build. The burning tail, compared with a meteor, is the sign by which it is known. Even its coming and going are out of the ordinary, since it is said to emerge from the egg of an aging rooster and, at death, to dwindle into a spark. The rule that governs it is reciprocity with a sting: it pays for its keep in stolen plenty, and the luck it deals out mixes gain with loss.

Compare and confuse

The closest match is the Latvian Pūķis, which the record names not as a relative but as the very same spirit in another language. Reference entries also send readers to the Ajatar and the cockatrice, both placed alongside it as figures worth setting side by side, without claiming that any of them is identical.

Questions people ask about Aitvaras

Good reading and sources

• Aitvaras on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data