The sakmė about fate tells of a rich man’s son who was born with a cursed fate foretold by three voices. One voice proclaimed that the child would grow up to be wealthy, while another warned that he would die young. The third voice predicted that Perkūnas, the thunder god, would kill him on a specific day.

As the foretold year approached, the father, trying to protect his child, constructed a thick stone wall to hide the child on that fateful day. However, when the day came, the child, instead of hiding in the wall, ran to the fields and hid under a cabbage leaf. As a thunderstorm approached, Perkūnas struck the stone wall, destroying it. Yet, the child survived, having been outside the wall and under the cabbage leaf.

This story highlights the power of fate and the inability of humans to control or escape their destined end, despite their best efforts. It also suggests that sometimes fate works in mysterious ways that cannot be easily prevented, as even the father’s elaborate precautions could not stop the inevitable. The tale is drawn from How the Earth Came to Be: Lithuanian Etiological Legends (Kaip atsirado žemė: lietuvių etiologinės sakmės), compiled and edited by Norbertas Vėlius.

‍