The Trees Mourn with the Serpent Queen (2019)

Video animation by Oliver Clifton, X-ray Vision, of  scanned pages of The Trees Mourn with the Serpent Queen

The book is based on the Lithuanian legend of Eglė (Spruce), a young woman who catches the eye and the heart of the Serpent King. She reluctantly agrees to marry him. Her family do not wish her to go and try to fool the serpents by dressing first a goose, then a sheep, then a cow in her wedding dress, but each time a cuckoo alerts the serpents to the deception. The marriage finally takes place and Eglė goes to live with the Serpent King beneath the ocean, discovering that he is, in fact, a handsome youth with a grand palace. When, many years later, she returns to visit her father’s home with her own children, Eglė’s brothers take their scythes and slay the Serpent King and all the snakes. Heartbroken, Eglė transforms herself and her children into trees.

The form of the book is based on vetrungės, decorative weathervanes specific to the coastal regions of Lithuania. Vetrungės featured on traditional sailing boats and served to identify individual owners, often including motifs specific to individual histories.