Saulė and Freyja: the goddesses of amber

In the north, amber belongs to goddesses. One rides across the sky each day. The other weeps tears of gold.

Saulė, the Baltic sun

In Lithuanian and Latvian tradition, the sun is a goddess named Saulė. She crosses the sky in a chariot and in the evening sails over the sea in a golden boat. It is said that when she weeps, her tears fall into the waves as amber, drops of sunlight left in the sea.

Freyja's tears

In Norse myth, Freyja is the goddess of love and beauty. When her husband Óðr wandered away, she searched the world for him, weeping. On land her tears turned to red gold. Storytellers say that those which fell into the sea became amber.

Why goddesses?

Amber washes up from the sea, glows like the sun and feels warm against the skin. To people long ago, a stone like that could only be a gift from someone divine.

Lithuania has its own sea goddess of amber too. Read the legend of Jūratė and Kastytis, or wear a little sunlight with our amber necklaces.