Encountering Eglė/Spruce in Riga, Latvia – a new project announement

Last midwinter holidays, I talked shortly with an old friend about upcoming travels, including to the Baltic States. I said I would return for work to Estonia and Latvia after a long time. Curiously, I realised I have actually never been to Latvia. I have been to more than 70 countries, and most European countries. I thought Latvia was in the list, until this friend asked me when I was in Latvia. I was traveling back in time, but did not find any trace or memory. It was such a weird feeling of cognitive dissonance, to think you have been somewhere, but you have not, at least not in this life.

Nowadays I can say I have been to Latvia. In May, I was there only for a few days, mostly for work, but I also had some time to explore the capital with its green lungs and participate in a local foodie tour. The river of the capital an example of knitting the city together, and not separating. Next to the river, I found an interesting metal board:

The last sentences were most interesting: ‘According to ancient Latvians, spruce marks a border and a passage. It symbolizes both death and rebirth. Spruce bring awareness of every ending being a new beginning.’ What is more interesting is that when I looked at the original Latvian text, I got reminded that Eglė is a Baltic word for Spruce.

New project: flowing with eglė

Since autumn, other artivists and I are digging into the old Baltic myth of Eglė, the grass snake queen. This myth is about a young woman who marries a snakish underworld/undersea king, but who got betrayed by her own family and loses her husband and her queendom. In the end, she transforms into a spruce. It is not surprisingly that the spruce is symbol for death and rebirth.

The myth has so many layers that we decided to work with the mythology and re-root, rewild and retell it. Perhaps I will integrate it in the last book of my four-volume book series. Perhaps I will write a hydrofeminist retelling about her in a standalone novel. The plan of our little tribe of artivists is to meet in various places along the Baltic Sea, engage with the landscape and (re)imagine if (parts of the) myth has taken place there. We do not know yet what we will harvest. Perhaps we process musings and observations in a blog, make ecofeminist art or even collaborate in writing a book chapter for an academic book about coping with the contaminated Baltic Sea. Expect to read more blogs in the coming year(s) about Eglė and the Baltic (and North) Sea region.

You can read more about the project here: Flowing with Eglė – Project.