The analysis of the pre-Christian Baltic culture, in the centre of which there is a pagan religious logic, reveals the issue of credibility of its records. Therefore, the article attempts to review and to verify mythical material directly related to fir tree and pear tree, described by Matthaeus Praetorius (Matthäus Prätorius) in his manuscript “Deliciae Prussicae or Prussian Theater” (Deliciae Prussicae, oder Preussische Schaubühne, the end of the17th century). In parallel with this, the article discusses interpretations by more significant researchers of the 19th–21st centuries who were concerned with Praetorius’s mythical material on fir tree and pear tree. The context of the researches of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries has shown that the researchers of earlier periods did not consider the question of reliability of Matthaeus Praetorius’s mythical material. The present research also allowed to trace the varying tendency of reliability of Praetorius’s described mythical data directly related to fir tree and pear tree.
In the context of XVI–XVII centuries written sources, this article provides an overview and evaluation of authenticity of to the Balts pantheon and the water sphere attributable deities Perdoytus, Wejopattis, Gardouten, Bangpjtjs, Luobgelda (partly Bardoayts) that were described in Matas Pretorijus (Matthäus Prätorius) work “Sights of Prussia, Or Prussia’s Observation Place” (Deliciae Prussicae, oder Preussische Schaubϋhne) (the end of the 17th century). The focus of this article is on the analysis of authenticity Perdoytus (Gardouten ↔ Bardoayts) and opposition between Wejopattis ↔ Bangpjtjs mythologemes. In order to assess the validity of data the author uses in-depth comparative research whose core is in the comparison of the original and secondary material, allowing to determine who, when and what kind of mythical material changes were made. The study revealed that the mythical information provided by M. Pretorijus and other ancient written sources from XVI–XVII centuries are overshadowed by redundant and unauthentic information or interpretations of chroniclers. The author attempts to define this multi-level mental and physical phenomena by introducing a new term information noise in the verification process of ancient written sources.