Folklore of Vilnius residents translated into Lithuanian

Directorate of the Neris Regional Park will soon introduce the collection of local legends of residents living in the triangle of Vilnius-Trakai-Elektrėnų. Stories in the 2002-2006 were written down by the expert in cultural studies Ida Stankevičiūtė.

”Collected material is the result of four years work of our dearly departed worker- expert in cultural studies Ida Stankevičiūtė, who spoke with the oldest residents of our park and gathered local legends. Almost whole material was written down in the original language of local Poles. Our aim was to make the material available for the wider circle of people and thus we translated it into the Lithuanian language as well. The whole work in the digital version will be published in the mid of December before the end of this year on our website” – said the director of the Neris Regional Park, Audronė Žičkutė. As she mentioned, it is planned to publish the part of collected material in the paper version.

The collection of local folk consists of 1500 true stories. It includes topographical names, stories, legends and tales . 842 out of 1408 stories were written down in the original language of local Poles.

Stories of people residing Vilnius regions were stored in the archieves of the Directorate of Neris Regional Park for almost 10 years. In this year initial steps on stories publication have been taken by the management of the Park. In collaboration with Krystyna Rutkowska from the Centre of Polish Studies in Vilnius University all stories were translated into Lithuanian language and rounded up by commentaries. Financial support was provided by the Lithuanian Culture Council and self-territorial administration of Vilnius and Elektrėnų region.

As the director of the Park stated, collected material of local legends is extremely valuable and for many years provides a source of knowledge for academics studying language, folk, ethnology and history of Vilnius regions.

Thematic tours and excursions based on this stories are planned to be carried out on the teritory of the regional park.

It will be possible to become acquainted with the whole collection on the website of the Neries Regional Park http://www.neriesparkas.lt/?id=117&l=1