History FairyTale / EgleTheQueenOfSerpents

* ImpossibleTask: In some variants, Egle's husband tries to delay his wife's return to land by setting three hard tasks for her: to wear out a pair of iron shoes, to spin a neverending tuft of silk, and to bake a pie without utensilts. With the help of a myserious sorceress, Egle accomplishes her husband's tasks and is allowed to visit her family.

* {{Animorphism}}: In other versions of the story, the story still ends with the death of the snake husband, and the heroine turns herself intoa cuckoo.

* Animorphism: In other versions of the story, the story still ends with the death of the snake husband, and the heroine turns herself intoa cuckoo.

** Depending on the variant, the grass snake may be called 'Žaltys', which means 'grass snake' in Lithuanian and also refers to a household spirit in [[Main/{{BalticMythology}} Lithuanian mythology]].

* MeaningfulName: Egle's name is the Lithuanian language word for 'fir' or 'spruce'.

Egle decides to return to her husband's underwater palace and goes to the seashore to summon him. She chants the spell her husband taught her, but he does not appear at first. She chants it again, and bloody foam pool at the surface of the water. Realizing her husband's tragic fate, she asks her children who told her brothers the secret spell, and the girl answers it was her. In her grief, she curses her sons and her daughter to become trees, and herself to become a spruce.

Egle decides to return to her husband's underwater palace and goes to the seashore to summon him. She chants the spell her husband taught her, but he does not appear at first. She chants it again, and bloody foam pool at the surface of the water. Realizing her husband's tragic fate, she asks her children who told her brothers the secret spell, and her girl answers it war her. In her grief, she curses her sons and her daughter to become trees, and herself to become a spruce.

It can be read [[https://web.archive.org/web/19991008040518/http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/3503/egle.html here]].

'''Egle, The Queen of Serpents''' (Lithuanian: ''Eglė žalčių karalienė'') is a very popular [[UsefulNotes/{{Lithuania}} Lithuanian]] [[Main/{{FairyTale}} Fairy Tale]], with variants recorded in Lithuania, Latvia and adjacent Baltic countries.

* Main/{{Transflormation}}: At the end of the tale, Egle curses her sons, her daughter and lastly herself to become trees.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Egle's youngest child, her daughter, eventually reveals the secret

Egle takes her children to visit her family, but her 12 brothers conspire to learn of their mythical brother-in-law: they force their nephews and niece to reveal the secret command, and the girl blabs about it. Armed with this knowledge, Egle's brothers go to the seashore and summon the grass snake from his underwater palace. After he appears, the man kill him.

Now living under the sea, Egle gives birth to four children (three boys and a girl), and lives with the grass snake in his palace. Until one day, she begins to be homesick and wishes to visit her mother back on land. The grass snake husband agrees to let her go, and teaches her a secret command to summons her husband when she wants to return, but he warns her not to tell anyone.

Egle decides to return to her husband's underwater palace and goes to the seashore to summon him. She chants the spell her husband taught her, but he does not appear at first. She chants it again, and bloody foam pool at the surface of the water. Realizing her husband's tragic fate, she asks her children who told her brothers the secret spell, and her girl answers it war her. In her grief, she curses her sons and her daughter to become trees, and herself becomes a spruce.

* DownerEnding: Egle's grass snake husband is dead, and, in her mourning, curses her children to become tree species and herself into a spruce.
* MeaningfulName: Egle's name is the Lithuanian word for 'fir' or 'spruce'.

* Transflormation: At the end of the tale, Egle curses her sons, her daughter and lastly herself to become trees.

'''Egle, The Queen of Serpents''' (Lithuanian: ''Eglė žalčių karalienė'') is a very popular [[UsefulNotes/{{Lithuania}} Lithuanian]] [[Fairy Tale]], with variants recorded in Lithuania, Latvia and adjacent Baltic countries.