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Beginning at the age of 40, Grand Duke, or High King, Gediminas was ruler of Lithuania from 1316 to 1341. He became the monarch of the Lithuanians 80 years after the Battle of the Sun.  Gediminas ruled for 25 years and he inherited lands that included what is now Lithuania as well as parts of Belarus. Gediminas was very loyal to his subjects, giving them the freedom to worship the traditional Lithuanian gods, Christianity or Judaism.  He’s the true founder of the modern idea of a Lithuanian nation.

He created a large, powerful Lithuanian army; defended Lithuania with a series of strong forts and built castles in towns including Vilnius.  He originally placed the capital at Trakai, near Vilnius, but later decided on Vilnius itself.

His reputation is that of a man who worshipped the old Lithuanian gods and who resisted every attempt to christianize his country, but the reality is a little different from the legend.

Wanting to create a strong nation and needing help to defend Lithuania from the German Teutonic Knights, Gediminas asked for help from Pope John XXII. He promised to become Christian himself and invited members of different Christian orders to build churches in Lithuania. However, his subjects were uneasy with his plans to convert to the new religion. He eventually reneged on his promise to convert, strengthened his relationship with his people and withdrew from the process of christianization. It’s not clear whether Gediminas actually intended to become Christian.  The conversion was probably just a political move to help fight his Teutonic enemies.

According to historian Stephen Christopher Rowell, in about 1339-40 Gediminas executed two Franciscan friars from Bohemia, Ulrich and Martin, they had gone beyond what Gediminas had allowed and had publicly preached against the Lithuanian religion. Gediminas ordered them to renounce Christianity, and had them killed when they refused.

Gediminas died in 1341 from wounds he received in either a fight or a battle.  His funeral included a traditional Lithuanian cremation, including the human sacrifice of his favorite servant and many German slaves burned in the fire along with his corpse.

Gediminas is a central figure in one of the most popular Lithuanian legends. 

Once upon a time the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Gediminas, was hunting in the holy woods near where Vilnius would later be built. Tired after a successful day’s hunt the Grand Duke settled in for the night. He fell soundly asleep and had a dream. A huge iron wolf was standing on top of a hill and the sound of hundreds of wolves inside the hill filled the surrounding fields and woods. When he woke up, the Duke asked a Lithuanian priest to reveal the secrets of the dream. The priest said, "What is destined for the ruler and the state of Lithuania, is this: the iron wolf represents a castle and a town which will be built by the ruler on this site. The town will be the capital of the Lithuanian lands and the dwelling of rulers and the glory of their deeds shall echo throughout the world."

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Today let’s work a little bit on some unusual Lithuanian words.  Most masculine nouns end in –as, -is, -ys, and –us.  Most feminine nouns end in either –a or –ė.
But first, here are some new words some of which we touched on in earlier episodes, primarily in episode 0018.  We need to go over them since we’ll see them later in this lesson.

vieta                                           a location
vieta                                           the location
spalva                                         the color
spalva                                         a color
šalis                                            the country
šalis                                            a country
kokybė                                        a quality
kokybė                                        the quality
mašina                                         car
mašina                                         auto
butas                                           a flat (as in an apartment)
butas                                           the flat (as in a condo)

Now, let’s go over some words that have non-standard declensions in the genitive or kilmininkas.  First, the masculine nouns in vardininkas…

šuo                                             dog
šuo                                             the dog
šuo                                             a dog
akmuo                                        stone
akmuo                                        a stone
akmuo                                        the stone
asmuo                                        person
asmuo                                        a person
asmuo                                        the person
vanduo                                       water
vanduo                                       water
vanduo                                       water
dėdė  uncle  -  note here that dėdė ends in –ė and so that would normally indicate a female noun, however, dėdė is a masculine noun.
dėdė                                          uncle
Dėdė Džiakas                             Uncle Jack

Now, some unusual feminine nouns in vardininkas…

moteris                                      woman

note that most nouns which end in an “s" are masculine, however, moteris is feminine.

moteris                                      a woman
moteris                                      the woman
stotis                                         station
stotis                                         a station
stotis                                         the station
sesuo                                        sister
sesuo                                        a sister
sesuo                                        the sister
duktė                                        daughter
duktė                                        a daughter
duktė                                        the daughter
marti                                         daughter-in-law
marti                                         daughter-in-law
marti                                         the daughter-in-law

Okay, now let’s “decline" these words in the genitive.  You can see the spellings of these words on the Lithuanian Out Loud blogpage.

dog, or šuo changes to šuns
the dog’s water                            šuns vanduo   - tricky huh?
the dog’s name                            šuns vardas
a dog’s house                              šuns namas

stone, or akmuo changes to akmens

the stone’s color                          akmens spalva
the stone’s quality                        akmens kokybė
the stone’s location                      akmens vieta

person, or asmuo changes to asmens

the person’s name                        asmens vardas
the person’s house                       asmens namas
the person’s location                    asmens vieta

water, or vanduo changes to vandens

the water’s color                         vandens spalva
the water’s quality                       vandens kokybė
the water’s location                     vandens vieta

uncle, or dėdė changes to dėdės

the uncle’s dog                           dėdės šuo
the uncle’s room                         dėdės kambarys
the uncle’s name                         dėdės vardas

woman, or moteris changes to moters

the woman’s house                     moters namas
the woman’s name                     moters vardas
the woman’s dog                        moters šuo

station, or stotis changes to stoties

the station’s toilet                       stoties tualetas
the station’s color                       stoties spalva
the station’s location                   stoties vieta

sister, or sesuo changes to sesers

the sister’s name                         sesers vardas
the sister’s car                             sesers mašina
the sister’s house                         sesers namas

daughter, or duktė changes to dukters

the daughter’s flat                        dukters butas
the daughter’s book                      dukters knyga
the daughter’s room                     dukters kambarys

and finally, the daughter-in-law, or marti changes to marios

the daughter-in-law’s name            marčios vardas
the daughter-in-law’s dog               marčios šuo
the daughter-in-law’s room            marčios kambarys

Okay, good job, I know that that was an awful lot of information
Again, these are some oddball or irregular declensions in kilmininkas.  Most nouns aren’t this difficult.  You’ll just have to commit these to memory.  Again, I’d recommend you follow along on this lesson with the text from the Lithuanian Out Loud blogpage.  Just keep doing it over and over until you get comfortable with it.