Sprīdītis- A Latvian Story

 

 Latvians are proud of their literature and musical heritage.  So, nearly every kid knows  the stories of  Sprīdītis, a tiny boy (Tom Thumb size),  who had a wicked stepmother and lived near a forest where fantastic adventures happened to him.

 The Tale of Sprīdītis (1903), written by Anna Brigadere, is so famous,  a nature park was made with many of the characters from her books scattered  around the forest.  Anna Brigadere actually lived very close to this forest and probably got her ideas from her walks there.  Through the actions of a tiny peasant boy,  she taught Latvian children important values such as honesty, bravery, love of homeland, and the importance of fighting evil. 

This lovely "hunk" of wood welcomes visitors to the park....

 

 

 

The Tervete Nature Park, which is located near the town of Tervete by the Lithuanian border, is famous for its old and especially tall pine trees.

 

 

 

The trees in this park, were used to make most of the fairy tale sculptures from Anna's books. The characters in the park (King of the Forest, a witch, dwarfs, etc.) are very popular with Latvian youth. 

 

The main park building has a cafe, gift shop, ticket booth and tourist information. Elder & Sister Millet came along for  the ride and we were all clueless of how BIG this place was. 

 

 

We buy our tickets,  get a map, and decide to take the train out to the entrance to Fairy Forest.  The train cost about a dollar to ride.

This is Mother Forests Path.  It was a beautiful fall day and it was lovely to be wandering around a forest for a change instead of being in a busy city.
 

We are entering Fairy Tale Forest....

 

Where we see GIANT mosquitos!  

 

Elder Millet trying to decipher the sign....

there are some really cute mice painted on this sign for those who might be interested (Pam).

 

 

Elder & Sister Millet and Sister Davis with a giant Latvian mushroom. 

Have we told you how much Latvians' LOVE mushrooms?

 

 

You can spend hours in this forest, following paths that could lead you anywhere. 

We know we missed a lot of sites because we just didn't have time to see it all.

See the moss and lichen on the tree trunks?

There were some really interesting trees in this forest.

Aren't these called ...Toad Stools?




Say WHAT?



 

 

Sister Millet has found a very handsome.....hmmm, just WHAT is that?

 

  

Our best guess?    A troll.

 

 

And this looks like....a mole?

 

 

This sign tells what kind of trees (koki) are growing in the forest....

 

 

This is the entrance to the Fairy Forest from the playground area....

The playground is huge and they were in the process of building it even bigger.

This sign below says middle ground....

 

You must be so impressed with Sister Davis's knowledge of Latvian. Don't be; she is using a Latvian/English dictionary and online translation with Bing. When we were at the nature park, none of us had a clue what the signs said. We could easily have gotten lost even with our map.

 

 Hello there!  Who invited you to this party?

 

 

And these two characters?

 

 

 

Does Elder Davis have a clue what that sign says? 

 Probably not, he doesn't look too concerned does he?  

It says Witch  Forest.  Oh, oh....we had better watch out!

 

 

Maybe that is why we keep seeing giant bats hanging around.....

 

 

There is a big ogre in the Tales of Sprīdītis and there was a big wooden ogre in the park...

We must be getting closer to the witch...this is her house and there is a black cat close by.....

Dog or horse?  Take a guess....

 

 

A mythical dog....belongs to the witch. 

 

 

We smelled a fire burning so we were a little concerned about what was up ahead...and then we saw her!  Green hair, red horns coming out of her head.....Yep, it was a witch all right. What should we do? Run!  No, she was smiling. She told us in perfect English that she was a good witch.

 

 

 

She was making some sort of tea in her cauldron....

 

And she offered us something to eat....wasn't that nice? 

She said it was rabbit poo. 

No kidding, she said, "Would you like some of my tasty rabbit poo?
 

Sister Davis looked in her basket and it honestly looked like rabbit droppings.  

 

Sister Millet tried one and said, "It tastes like chocolate."

The witch said, "Of course, I used magic to make it chocolate."

Does that mean it is still rabbit poo and just tastes like chocolate.....
or is it REAL chocolate?
Sister Davis tried one and it tasted like chocolate...
but, then again, she has never tasted rabbit poo before.

 

 

 

Sister Davis was waiting for Elder Davis to show up...he was still taking pictures of other things and had yet to meet the witch....she didn't have long to wait. 

 

The Witch greets Elder Davis and asks him if he would like some rabbit poo.  Elder Davis either didn't hear her...or couldn't understand her but noticed that she was holding out a basket with something in it, so he put his hand in and took a couple. Sister Davis is the one who came up to him and asked him if he knew what the witch had just offered him?  When he found out it was "rabbit poo", he thought that was pretty funny...
and decided to take her picture.  Notice the snakes and spider on her skirt.

Outside the witches forest we found this dude...

This could be the Forest King....or maybe not.




Spriditis, the boy with the shovel, realized that though he had lots of adventures in the forest, in the end, the best place to be was "home".

 

We said "Adieu" to the Fairy Forest and headed to another area of the park.

 

Elder Davis and Millet on their way to the Dwarf Village....

 

 

 

You can't help contemplating about God and His creations while walking through this "old growth" forest.  It was peaceful and divine.

We noticed  little fences like this one below, at Kraukli for youth conference....we didn't realize that they protect  ant hills from people stepping on them.  Ants must be a "protected species" in Latvia.  There is quite a mound in the middle of the fence swarming with black ants.

Elder Millet liked to try out the wooden play equipment along the path.

And this smiling mushroom welcomes you into "The Dwarf Forest"....

 

 

 

Ahhhh,  here is our first DWARF!

 

What kid wouldn't have fun wandering around this?

 

 

 The mushrooms grow big in the Dwarf Village!

 

Latvian's have the most ingenuous fences....

 

 

 

This park was just too big for us to see everything so we all realized it was time to go back to Riga. So we called for the train to come get us....

 

And said goodbye to Sprīdītis and all his "friends".

 

One Latvian writer gives this insight into the story of Sprīdītis 

 

"Everyone of us has been a "Spriditis" at sometime in our lives.
When we are beginning something new,
 When we are looking for new paths of life,
 When we are asking  life's questions:

Who am I?
Where is happiness?

And, where is the best place to be…"

 

If you would like to know the answers to those questions...

contact a Mormon Missionary!