Kalvis

Czech theologian Jerome of Prague 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 eventually used the large hammer and freed the Sun from a tower and returned it to humans. In a similar legend mentioned by {{ill|Marija Andziulytė-Ruginienė|lt}}, 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.{{sfn|Dundulienė|1990|p=43}} Marija Gimbutas mentions that the deity is similar to Hephaestus, Volundr, and Ilmarinen.{{Cite book|last1=Frog|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4UZPDwAAQBAJ&q=Kalvelis+deity&pg=PA190|title=Mythic Discourses: Studies in Uralic Traditions|last2=Siikala|first2=Anna-Leena|last3=Stepanova|first3=Eila|date=2018-03-05|publisher=BoD - Books on Demand|isbn=978-952-222-376-0|pages=190|language=en}} The relation between Teliavelis and Perkūnas (the god of thunder) can be compared with the relation between Ancient Greek Hephaestus and Zeus.{{cite journal |last1=Laurinkienė |first1=Nijolė |title=Baltų mitinis kalvis ir jo atitikmenys kitų tautų mitologinėse tradicijose |journal=Tautosakos darbai |date=2002 |volume=XVII |pages=87-101}}

The deity was named in the Hypatian Codex and John Malalas's chronicle of 1261 as Telvelik.{{cite web |title=Wayland Revisited: A Pan-European God? |url=https://atlanticreligion.com/tag/teliavelis/ |website=atlanticreligion.com |access-date=31 October 2024}}{{sfn|Dundulienė|1990|p=42}} In Lithuanian mythology, the devils (velniai) first discovered the craft of smithing, which was later taken over by humans. Velnias elementally represented chthonic forces and the dead, and can be interpreted as a terrestrial Wayland the Smith who creates by the method of forging. Algirdas Julien Greimas 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.{{cite web |title=Teliavelis |url=https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/teliavelis/ |website=vle.lt |access-date=31 October 2024}} According to Aleksander Brückner, the name Teliavelis means "god of the road". However, Norbertas Vėlius claimed that instead it meant "god of the Earth". Balticist Vladimir Toporov suggested that the name is borrowed from Scandinavian mythology.

The god also goes by Kalvaitis, Kalvelis, or Kalējs. In modern Lithuanian, kalvis means blacksmith, with the word being a derivative of the word "kalti", meaning "to hammer".{{Cite journal|last=Senn|first=Alfred|date=1945|title=Lithuanian Surnames|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2491865|journal=American Slavic and East European Review|volume=4|issue=1/2|pages=127–137|doi=10.2307/2491865|jstor=2491865|issn=1049-7544|url-access=subscription}}{{Cite journal|last=Klimas|first=Antanas|date=1965|title=Review of The Green Linden: Selected Lithuanian Folksongs|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/305263|journal=The Slavic and East European Journal|volume=9|issue=3|pages=335–337|doi=10.2307/305263|jstor=305263|issn=0037-6752|url-access=subscription}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Dundulienė |first=Pranė |language=lt |title=Senovės lietuvių mitologija ir religija |location=Vilnius |publisher=Mokslas |date=1990 |isbn=5-420-00511-5 |ref={{sfnref|Dundulienė|1990}} }}

Category:Lithuanian gods

Category:Baltic gods

Category:Smithing gods

{{Europe-myth-stub}}

{{Lithuania-stub}}