Archaeologia Baltica

In this article, I present sacred places in northern Finland. The sacred places differ greatly from those in southern Finland. This is due to the different cultural tradition. Sacred sites in the north can broadly be divided into three groups: terrain formation, natural objects and structures. I concentrate on offering places, called sieidi (SaaN), which were used by the ancestors of the modern Sámi. Meat, antlers and metal, and in later times alcohol, were offered in order to gain success at hunting. A prominent feature in sieidi places is their heterogeneity and the long tradition of use attached to them.

In this article, I analyse places with toponyms connected with hiis (meaning ‘holy place’, usually associated with ‘holy grove’ in Estonian) in northern Estonia. Geographically, it is possible to distinguish between three main types of landscape for places of which the names include the word hiis: distinctive hills, plain fields, and isolated, hidden places. Research into holy places tends to focus on naturally prominent or spectacular places, which have shaped the view that holy places are usually situated on hills; but plain fields and other visually less attractive sites have been neglected. Here, I will give examples of different types of Estonian hiis-sites, and discuss the links between these places and other monuments, graves and cemeteries dating from different periods, and settlements and churches. Finally, the article points to the favouring of different landscapes selected for hiis-sites, and argues that the claim that only attractive sites are regarded as ‘holy places’ is not valid.

Lake Sauka is the largest lake in the district of Augšzeme in Latvia. It features very often in tales and legends, which mostly relate the story of its flight and its settling down in its present location. The nearest place from where it might have flown is approximately 30 kilometres away, but the most distant place is about 70 kilometres away. The places of origin, flight routes and conditions of settling down mentioned in numerous tales, when confronted with modern knowledge about the layout of archaeological sites, allow us to see yet unknown connections between the mythical world reflected in tales, and the real world represented by the relief and by archaeological sites.

Stones where mythical creatures carry out work connected with wearing apparel appear in publications on the mythological stones of Lithuania and Belarus. This theme is not so widely considered in Latvian research literature. The aim of this work is to show that in Latvian folklore, by natural (stone, tree, stump, water, cave, etc) and man-made objects of the cultural space (threshing barn, cemetery, hill-fort, etc), mythical creatures tailor, spin, knit and mend for people or for themselves.

This article addresses the current stage of research on Lithuania’s ancient sacred places. Numerous examples and discussions prove that these are cases for cross-disciplinary investigation. Although they are different, all the geographical, archaeological, linguistic and folklore aspects are important, and urgently require careful consideration, both by analysis and synthesis. The article discusses the Lithuanian term senoji šventvietė (‘ancient sacred place’) and difficulties concerning the understanding of it. The division of sacred places into areas is presented from a geographical point of view; historical factors are mentioned, as well. Attention is drawn to the local geographical features of sacred places, such as, for instance, their association with the points of the compass. The amount of archaeological stray finds with respect to sacred places is discussed. Finally, some important details are pointed out, while presenting research into place names and folklore associated with sacred places.

The subject of this article is stones which were venerated in household surroundings. These stones that were kept in granaries were called goddesses (Deyues). Information about stones-goddesses is found in written sources on Baltic religion and mythology, mostly from reports by the Vilnius Jesuit College from the 17th and 18th centuries. The question arises: what deity is incarnate in theses stones, bearing in mind that the functions of the object are defined in relation to well-being in the home, full storage bins, the protection of grain and livestock?

The subject of research is the sacral geography of the Dvina region (in northwest Belarus), the sacred lakes situated in this region, and place-legends about vanished churches relating to these lakes. The author bases his research on the analytical method, and interprets folkloric sources, historical facts and data collected during ethnographic field trips. The main conclusion of the article attests to the fact that place-legends about a vanished church (they relate to the majority of the lakes) indicate the sacrality of these bodies of water. In the past, sacrality might have contained two closely interrelated planes: an archaic one, which originated from pre-Christian times, and that of the Early Middle Ages, related to the baptism of the people of the Duchy of Polotsk.

In order to understand the narrative about Sovijus (1261), the author proposes a comparative analysis with similar myths in other Indo-European cultures: Hindu mythology (Indra), Irish mythology (Finn), and Scandinavian mythology (Sigurd). These myths emphasise the role of a sacred animal (Indra’s tricephalous monster, Finn’s salmon, Sigurd’s dragon, Sovijus’ boar with nine spleens). The animal allows the hero access to secret knowledge (divination in the case of Finn and Sigurd, revelation about cremation for Sovijus). Rituals or narratives of other folklore genres, such as tales, could be additional sources for a comparative analysis.

The myth of the Theft of the Thunder-Instrument (ATU 1148b) is found almost exclusively in the Circum-Baltic area. It is found among both Indo-European and Finno-Ugric cultures. This implies that it was adapted from one into the other, unless both assimilated it from a common cultural stratum. This paper surveys this mythological narrative tradition that is found in Baltic, Finnic, Germanic and Sámic cultures. It proposes that the tradition’s persistence in a Circum-Baltic isogloss is a consequence of historical contact and interaction between these cultures, and that its evolution has been dependent on that history of contact and exchange.