Res Humanitariae

This article analyses how the literary legend “The Queen of the Baltic Sea”, authored by Ludwik Adam Jucevičius, spread in Lithuania and Poland in the 19th and 21st centuries. The literary legend was first published in 1839 in Polish with a Lithuanian text of the sea goddess song. In this article, we focus on the spread of this work in non-academic Polish folklore collections. The research reveals how the text of the legend changed in the collections of legends, tales and fairy tales, how lituanistic details were preserved or lost, and who was referred to as the author of the work. The work shows the significance and problematics of folklore sources and their relationship with children’s literature.