The
legend
says
that there was a beautiful maiden in Turaida castle named Maija
who loved the Gardener from not-too-distant Sigulda castle. Every
eligible bachelor, including a Wicked Foreign Soldier, sought for
Maija's hand--but she loved only the Gardener from Sigulda.
One
night, in
order to trick her, the Wicked Foreign Soldier forged a note from the
Gardener asking Maija to come to Gutmana cave (a rendezvous point
between the two castles). There he planned to rape her and force her
to marry him. She arrived expecting a loving embrace and kiss from her
beloved Gardener but instead found a deceitful ambush and a trap. The
Wicked Foreign Soldier brought a companion and together trapped Maija
helplessly in the cave. When she saw that there was no way out and
that the men intended to take from her the only thing she had to give
her truelove--her purity--she made a clever, yet costly deal with the
foreigners.
From
her pocket,
Maija removed a delicate silk handkerchief saying: "This
handkerchief is magical. If your sword can swiftly pass through its
silken threads without stopping, you may have me forever." With
that statement she sealed her fate and wrapped the handkerchief around
her neck. The naive Soldier, thinking he had easily won, withdrew his
sword and with a swift stroke passed the blade through the
handkerchief--and Maija's neck--thus killing her. The Soldier's moment
of triumph turned to instant defeat.
Maija's
devotion
to her truelove is remembered in Latvian legend and folk songs.
Centuries
later
civil documents were discovered in Sigulda's archives which proved the
historicity of this tragic event. According to these documents, the
Soldier was eventually caught, tried and hanged for his crime.
Yet this could
never bring back Maija...
The Rose of Turaida.
