There is an old Lithuanian story that tells us that amber comes from the sea as a gift from the lovely Amberella, held captive by the Prince of the Seas.
According to this story, Amberella grew up right on the shore of the Baltic Sea alone with her parents, who were fishermen. She learned to swim before she could walk and was never lonely as long as the sound of the sea was nearby – which was always. And they were happy.
In the summer when the sun was daily rising she liked to take a swim in the sea until one day when she was about sixteen she was drawn into a whirlpool that had not been there before. And the whirlpool dragged her in and down so that the last thing she saw and felt was the foaming sea on all sides.
When she awoke she found herself in an elaborate underwater palace made entirely of an unfamiliar but warm, orange-golden material. She was still in a daze, confused, when the Prince of the Seas visited and declared his love for her.
She blinked.
“I love you!” He said.
She blinked again. “What?”
“I brought you down here so that we could be together. Please marry me and say you love me too!”
“But…” Maybe this is a dream? Amberella wondered. Why aren’t I drowning? “But I don’t even know you and you don’t know me so how could I possibly marry you?”
“I do know you, my love. I have been watching you your whole life (you’re so beautiful) and waiting for this moment when I could take you for my princess.” And so saying, he gave her a crown and necklace of the same orange material as the walls were made of.
Numbly, she accepted the gifts and he left, saying he would return later when she was better rested.
When the truth of the matter had sunk in and Amberella realised that she had been spied on, stolen and accepted like a trinket she was very upset. Actually, that’s an understatement – she was distressed, dismayed, disturbed and so shocked that she couldn’t do anything better than cry herself to sleep (the door was locked, of course).
When the Sea-Monarch returned he put the crown on her head and the necklace round her neck and he told her it was time to go and show the people their new queen. But Amberella was still upset and begged him to let her return to her parents.
“Please!” she cried, “Please! I don’t belong here and I can’t live here.”
“Don’t you want to be queen?” He asked her, confused.
“No! I just want to go home. Please let me go home.”
“No!” He said. “I’ve waited all this time – I’ve given you my heart but you want to go back and live in poverty with your parents? How dare you!?” And as his voice rose, so too did the waters and he grabbed her in his arms and mounted a white sea-foam horse that had sprung up. In a panic, she grabbed at everything nearby, taking handfuls of the strange material that the walls were made of but he was too strong for her. There was a fierce storm and the girl trembled in his arms but the Prince was enraged at her disloyalty. He carried her to the surface, where she saw her parents on the shore looking out with worried faces at the stormy ocean.
According to the tale, Amberella’s parents were out looking for their lovely daughter and when they saw the storm whip up in the middle of the ocean they feared that she had been swept out to sea or drowned. So they scanned the horizon and because they were looking so carefully they were able to see their daughter when she arose to the surface with the Prince holding her tightly.
She called out to them – Mama! Papa! – But they couldn’t hear her so she tossed the lumps that she had brought from the palace out to her parents. Later, her parents called these pieces ‘amber’ though it was a poor replacement for their lost daughter.
Amberella was gone from the land forever but she still hates being a prisoner of the sea and sometimes she makes him angry enough that the sea becomes storm and she can throw more pieces of amber out to her parents. It is the only way she can tell them how much she misses them and loves them.
