Gediminas dream

The Grand Duke Gediminas of Lithuania, who had ridden on horseback all the way from Trakai, was hunting in the valley of Šventaragis. He hunted a bull in the holy forest and decided to spend a night at in the hunting grounds. It was that night when the duke had a dream of a majestic iron wolf howling at the very top of a hill. Its howl echoed far like the cry of a hundred wolves. When morning came, the duke recounted his dream to Lizdeika – the most senior pagan prophet. Lizdeika interpreted the dream thus: ‘The iron wolf symbolises an unassailable castle and a city that the duke must found. And the howling of the wolf means that the fame of the new city will spread far across the wide world.’ Soon afterwards, the mound was piled up and the castle was built on the land where two rivers meet in the valley of Šventaragis.