A Children's ABC of Latvian SignsLatvju rakstu ābecīte, Edvards Paegle, 1939

Edvards Paegle's Latvju Rakstu Ābecīte, published by the Latvian Children's Friendship Society, makes up in pictures what it lacks in words—starting with the simplest borders which could be molded into clay, like cueniforms, and progressing through ever more complex variations.

Its purpose?

Dear Children.

There's a folk song that goes: "Fathers put down a laipa [plank or similar], the children all tiptoed across. Tiptoe, thus, children, to not make the plank give way."1

This means we must preserve and pass on those wise insights and instructions, those beautiful enduring habits our fathers acquired over the course of their life-long work, which they honored in their joy. One of the most powerful and most beautiful laipas which you, children, have inherited from your ancestors is the raksts, or, in a foreign language, „ornament.” The ornament is as ancient as the Latvian people, as beautiful as our most beloved folk songs. To protect, to preserve, to pass the ornament on ever more refined2 is your duty.

This booklet, dear children, is dedicated to you, to familiarize yourselves in it with our folk ornament fundamental elements, so you can see how out of a dot or droplet emanates a dash, how its horizontal, vertical or oblique orientation creates an ornament's motifs [signs], called suns, stars, swastikas, oaks, roofs, snakes or termites, crossed spikes of wheat, brooms, etc. becoming ever more intricate in structure and color, yield those exquisite embroidered patterned borders we see in colorful shawls and scarfs.

Under your parents' and teachers' guidance, I am confident you will achieve successes and you will have the joy of treading securely upon your fathers' fathers' laipa, with the realization, that every step brings you closer to your goal and deepens your joy in work and in life.

E. P.

[our translation]

About the author

Lielvārde samples. Latvians typically use such short sash sections as bookmarks.
by Baiba Tutāne↗

Paegle was born July 26, 1876 in Rūjiena, son of a tenant farmer. He obtained his teacher's credentials in 1908. In 1909 he founded a school in Rīga offering courses in languages and commerce. By 1913 the school already had 1,200 students, and it operated until 1936. Paegle studied English in London (1910-1911), subsequently authoring German, English, and French language textbooks. He published the arts and crafts monthly Latvijas Saule (Latvian Sun) from 1923 to 1931—this booklet is compiled from its contents. He was a long-time Lielvārde resident↗↗lv—weaving the Lielvārde pattern sash was a specialty. Paegle participated in arts and crafts exhibitions abroad, organized exhibitions at home, and published a text on Latvian folk art (1928, 1935) which was translated into several foreign languages. The Soviets nationalized his arts and crafts museum in 1940. Like many other Latvians escaping the Soviet reinvasion, Paegle fled to the West. After the war he republished Latvju Rakstu Ābecīte in 1948 during the "DP era". Paegle eventually settled in Germany and remained active, publishing brochures to popularize Latvian folk art. He also wrote numerous anti-Communism letters published in the Continental Daily Mail.3

Paegle died in Würzburg, Germany, in 1960.4