Kalvis or Teliavelis is a

deity A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...

from the Baltic religion. He is the Lithuanian god of blacksmiths. According to Lithuanian pagan mythology, Kalvis or Teliavelis is a divine blacksmith who creates the Sun every morning and makes rings so the deity

Aušrinė Aušrinė ("dawning", not to be confused with ''Aušra'', "dawn") is a feminine deity of the morning star (Venus) in the Lithuanian mythology. She is the Wiktionary:antipode, antipode to "Vakarinė", the evening star. Her cult possibly stems fr ...

can marry it. An assistant of

Perkūnas Perkūnas (, , Old Prussian: ''Perkūns'', ''Perkunos'', Sudovian language, Yotvingian: ''Parkuns'', Latgalian language, Latgalian: ''Pārkiuņs'') was the common Baltic languages, Baltic List of thunder gods, god of thunder, and the second m ...

, Kalvis also makes a silver belt and golden stirrups for ''Dievo sūneliai'' (). Kalvis was worshipped by the Lithuanians up until the 15th century. The appearance of this deity is historically most likely tied to the appearance of

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

and smithing in Lithuania.

In mythology

Czech theologian

Jerome of Prague Jerome of Prague (; ; 1379 – 30 May 1416) was a Czech scholastic philosopher and theologian. Jerome was one of the chief followers of Jan Hus and was burned for heresy at the Council of Constance. Early life Jerome was born in Prague, Kingdom ...

wrote about a Lithuanian tribe that prayed to the Sun and worshipped a large hammer. Upon enquiring on their traditions, the tribe's seers explained that for many months they had not seen any light from the Sun since a powerful king imprisoned it. The

zodiac signs In Western astrology, astrological signs are the twelve 30-degree sectors that make up Earth's 360-degree orbit around the Sun. The signs enumerate from the first day of spring, known as the First Point of Aries, which is the vernal equinox. T ...

eventually used the large hammer and freed the Sun from a tower and returned it to humans. In a similar legend mentioned by , a young man, while captive by a dragon and put into a dark realm, attempted to save a royal family locked inside a chest. The young man proceeded to take a hammer and strike nine locks in three strikes, thus freeing the family and getting blinded by the light of the Sun coming from the chest.

Marija Gimbutas Marija Gimbutas (, ; January 23, 1921 – February 2, 1994) was a Lithuanian archaeology, archaeologist and anthropologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of "Old European Culture, Old Europe" and for her Kurgan ...

mentions that the deity is similar to

Hephaestus Hephaestus ( , ; wikt:Hephaestus#Alternative forms, eight spellings; ) is the Greek god of artisans, blacksmiths, carpenters, craftsmen, fire, metallurgy, metalworking, sculpture and volcanoes.Walter Burkert, ''Greek Religion'' 1985: III.2. ...

, Volundr, and

Ilmarinen Ilmarinen () is a god and archetypal artificer from Finnish mythology. He is immortal and capable of creating practically anything. In addition, he is described as working the known metals of the time, including brass, copper, iron, gold, and sil ...

. The relation between Teliavelis and Perkūnas (the god of thunder) can be compared with the relation between Ancient Greek

and

Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

Name and etymology

The deity was named in the

Hypatian Codex The ''Hypatian Codex'', also known as Hypatian Letopis or Ipatiev Letopis, is a compendium of three Rus' chronicle, Rus' chronicles: the ''Primary Chronicle'', ''Kievan Chronicle'' and ''Galician-Volhynian Chronicle''. It is the most important sou ...

and

John Malalas John Malalas (; ; – 578) was a Byzantine chronicler from Antioch in Asia Minor. Life Of Syrian descent, Malalas was a native speaker of Syriac who learned how to write in Greek later in his life. The name ''Malalas'' probably derive ...

's chronicle of 1261 as ''Telvelik''. In Lithuanian mythology, the devils (''velniai'') first discovered the craft of smithing, which was later taken over by humans.

Velnias Veles, also known as Volos, is a major god of earth, waters, livestock, and the underworld in Slavic paganism. His mythology and powers are similar, though not identical, to those of (among other deities) Odin, Loki, and Hermes. According t ...

elementally represented

chthonic In Greek mythology, deities referred to as chthonic () or chthonian () were gods or spirits who inhabited the underworld or existed in or under the earth, and were typically associated with death or fertility. The terms "chthonic" and "chthonian" ...

forces and the dead, and can be interpreted as a terrestrial

Wayland the Smith In Germanic mythology, Wayland the Smith (; , ; Old Frisian: Wela(n)du; ; ; (); from ', lit. "crafting one") is a master blacksmith originating in Germanic heroic legend, described by Jessie Weston as "the weird and malicious craftsman, Wey ...

who creates by the method of forging.

Algirdas Julien Greimas Algirdas Julien Greimas (; born ; 9 March 1917 – 27 February 1992) was a Lithuanian literary scientist who wrote most of his body of work in French while living in France. Greimas is known among other things for the Semiotic square, Greimas S ...

believed that Velnias is an archetypal mythological blacksmith, analogous to Teliavelis by its etymology; the prefix ''Telia-'' may be related to ''tellus'', the Latin word for the Earth, and the suffix ''-velis'' appears to relate to the deity Velnias. According to

Aleksander Brückner Aleksander Brückner (; 29 January 1856 – 24 May 1939) was a Polish scholar of Slavic languages and literature (Slavistics), philologist, lexicographer, and historian of literature. He is among the most notable Slavicists of the late 19th ...

, the name Teliavelis means "god of the road". However,

Norbertas Vėlius Norbertas Vėlius (1 January 1938 in Gulbės, near Šilalė – 23 June 1996 in Vilnius, buried in the Antakalnis Cemetery) was a Lithuanian folklorist specializing in Lithuanian mythology Lithuanian mythology () is the mythology of Lithuani ...

claimed that instead it meant "god of the Earth". Balticist

Vladimir Toporov Vladimir Nikolayevich Toporov (; 5 July 1928 in Moscow5 December 2005 in Moscow) was a Russian philologist associated with the Tartu–Moscow Semiotic School. His wife was Tatyana Elizarenkova. He is also recognized as a prominent Balticist. ...

suggested that the name is borrowed from

Scandinavian mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The ...

. The god also goes by Kalvaitis, Kalvelis, or Kalējs. In modern Lithuanian, kalvis means

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

, with the word being a derivative of the word "kalti", meaning "to hammer".

References

Bibliography

* Lithuanian gods Baltic gods Smithing gods {{Lithuania-stub