From Wiedemann's Documentation of Estonian Folk Religion (1876)

Ferdinand Johann Wiedemann (1805–1887) was a Baltic German linguist and ethnographer who spent his career documenting the Estonian language and folk culture. His 1876 work Aus dem inneren und äusseren Leben der Ehsten (From the Inner and Outer Life of the Estonians) is the standard scholarly reference for Estonian pre-Christian folk religion — a comprehensive 530-page encyclopedia of customs, beliefs, magic, calendar practices, and mythology, organized by topic. Wiedemann worked directly from Estonian informants and earlier Baltic German sources, presenting a bilingual structure throughout: Estonian folk phrases and prayers in the original language, with German explanations. Every subsequent researcher of Estonian religion — Paulson, Loorits, the modern Maausk revival — cites Wiedemann as foundational.

This translation covers Sections XIV and XV of the work: Section XIV on significant and sacred places, offering practices, and specific ritual sites; Section XV on superhuman beings — an alphabetical catalogue of the gods, spirits, and uncanny presences of Estonian folk belief. Section XIV shows the living practice: what people actually did at sacred sites as late as the mid-19th century. Section XV shows the mythological landscape: a world crowded with nature spirits, death spirits, weather gods, and beings of the boundary places. Together they give the most complete picture available of Estonian pre-Christian religion in its final living form.

The source text is in German, with extensive Estonian-language quotations throughout. Translation follows the German of Wiedemann's explanatory text; Estonian prayers, incantations, and folk phrases are translated from the Estonian, with the Estonian originals preserved in brackets. No prior English translation of this material is known. First English translation.

XIV. Significant and Sacred Sites. Offerings.

Certain places held particular significance for Estonians: some because a legend from former times or the memory of an event that occurred there clung to them; others because offerings had been brought there in pagan times, and in some cases were still being brought. The first kind, and especially the second, existed in great numbers, and I limit myself to citing only a few examples, to show what manner of places they were. A complete catalogue would not be necessary to characterize the people. The offering-sites are best described together with the offerings themselves.

Near the parishes of Röthel and Berghof in Estland, one can see, pressed into two large stones, the footprints of the devil, who in gigantic form hurled an enormous boulder into the sea when he had wanted to build a causeway between the island of Moon and the mainland. In the parish of Anzen in Livland there is a stone called the jüda jala kiwi — Judas's foot-stone — on which the footprints of the devil are still pointed out; he mounted his horse from that very spot. Two stones at the opposite ends of a lake in the same region arose because two evil spirits (tondid) wanted to build a bridge across the lake, fell to quarreling, and threw great stones at one another. See also below, under Kalewi-poeg and Töll, in Section XV.

In various parts of the land one finds places where larger or smaller heaps have accumulated — stones, sticks, roughly fashioned crosses, and other rihu — thrown there by every passerby. These places are called reu-mägi, reu-nömm, and the like. Attached to them is always the legend of some crime committed there: a murder, a defilement. On Oesel there is such a reu-nömm where in old Catholic times two wedding processions met and fell to fighting, one bridegroom being killed. Whoever passes by, to avoid being pursued by the spirit of the dead man, throws a piece of wood or a branch there — and whoever has begun this must continue it. Shepherd boys occasionally burn down the pile of brushwood that has gathered, which is why there is a fire-pit beneath.

On the north side of Estland near the parish of Kusal there was a similar place, a reu-mägi, on which every passerby threw a stone. Boys were sometimes set there and mocked. Some time ago the site was destroyed.

Here and there the memory of those who died by misfortune is preserved by passersby planting or throwing rough wooden crosses or crosses woven from switches at the place where they perished.

Large piles of stones (wared) at certain sites on Oesel are explained by the local Estonians as arising from weddings in former times, when processions would gather for several weeks and compete with one another in building such wared.

At the village of Meks, about three versts from the castle of Neuhausen, there stands a pine tree held in high honor and regarded as sacred because lightning had struck into it and hallowed it. Those who pass by bow and cross themselves before it and say: päha pikne! hoia ezi jumala wiha est, wiha est ja witsa öst! hoia köjge kurja est, tö est ja teo est! sür jumal, säda mejd heldnzega edazi! — Holy thunder! guard us yourself from God's wrath, from his wrath and his rod! guard against all evil, from toil and from corvée! great God, send us forward with kindness. Corpses from the surrounding area are also placed beneath this tree for a time before burial.

So long as the Swedes ruled the land, offerings were treated as serious crimes and were relentlessly suppressed. Later, the clergy continued to agitate against them in word and deed, even as the arm of secular power gradually withdrew. The result is that offerings, though not entirely gone even in recent times, have retreated into concealment — only among the Pleskau Estonians are they still performed openly, in plain sight of the clergy themselves. In part, the offerings are now only ceremonies whose meaning the offerer himself can no longer clearly account for, or whose intended recipient is no longer known. In part, however, even now, they have superhuman beings in mind — beings whose favor one wishes to win, or whose anger one wishes to avert, or from whom one expects specific returns: health, the flourishing of cattle and fields. Some offerings are still tied to particular offering-sites, sacred places and objects; a brief listing of these will be given at the end of this section. In antiquity, human sacrifice appears also to have occurred.

Some lakes and rivers take their own offering annually: a drowned person must not be pulled out before the third day, for otherwise the accidents would multiply.

When fishermen from Dago make their way to the Pernau shore in spring, they pour the first vessel of beer they have brought into the boat and say: sah, anname pojzile esmalt — there, let us give the boy the first. Though by "the boy" they may now mean only the boat, the libation was surely originally meant for a deity who would grant them favorable crossing and good catch. See below the offering on the pank cliff of Oesel, and wana-poiä = devil.

Whoever drinks at a graveyard must pour something on the ground for the dead.

To protect the house, offerings of eggs and money were laid in the ash before the mouth of the stove; when the ash-hole was cleared out, the ash was carried out onto the meadow in a heap.

At slaughtering time, especially on Olaus Day, the householder pours some blood in the yard; likewise at cooking and brewing, something is poured into the fire or in another place.

On Michaelmas, a cockerel was sacrificed on an altar beneath a linden tree. The householder slaughtered the bird; the feathers, feet, and entrails were burned; then the cockerel was cooked. Until the meat was done, no one was permitted to touch the food. Then, with bare knees, a portion of the cooked cockerel was brought to the altar; the rest the householder ate alone.

On the evening before Midsummer (Johannis), Estonians would sit on a rise and hold a meal in the shade of old trees, having first buried offerings of butter, milk, bread, and other foodstuffs in the earth so that the cows might give abundant milk.

In the Pernau district, offerings are made to the kiwi-saksad — the stone-lords, Lares comparable to the Latvians' mahjas kungi — at St. George's Day and Michaelmas.

Of every first-fruit one used to bring an offering into the forest, onto rubble stones, onto a hill, or onto the root of a tree. When a child was born, the mother brought some of her own milk; the same was done for newborn animals — for if one first let the young suckle from its mother, one could expect it to die soon.

When someone undertook a long journey, he would first burn offerings and then cover the spot with stones.

The töüdi-wakk or tondi-kogu — the bundle or collection of the tont (see Section XV) — was a basket made from bark, kept hidden in the forest or in seldom-visited parts of buildings. Into it were laid all manner of things worthless in themselves as offerings: rags, scraps of shoes, very small silver coins. Compare the similar tönni-wakk in Section XV.

Concerning the offering made to the mä-alused (see Section XV), mention has already been made under remedies. One prays: mä-izandakezed, mä-emandakzed! andke minu terwis kätte, minä annan teile höbe-walgust — Little lords, little ladies of the earth! give me my health back; I will give you silver-brightness. Then one takes a piece of silver — a coin, a brooch, or the like — traces three circles around the head with it, presses it three times on the sick spot, then scrapes from it a little onto every surface with a knife — into the corners, onto the road — presses again three times; the sick person spits on it three times and says: kust te' olete tulnud, senna niinge, ja mina sägu oma terwis kätte — whence you came, thither go, and may I regain my health.

As for the sacred sites where offerings were made, they were in general trees, stones, and springs. Into the last, money is particularly thrown. Sacred trees existed and still exist in many places. Already in the Liber census Daniae (1231–1254) a lucus sanctus — sacred grove — is mentioned near the village of Wärkäla (now Werkia) of the estate of Paddas in Estland; the chroniclers likewise speak of them. Olearius, on his journey through Estland, saw at various places — particularly on hills — trees carved up to the crown and wound with red ribbons, beneath which the people held prayers and offered sacrifice. On Dago, until half a century ago, there were hie-metsad — sacred groves — from which no one dared take so much as a twig, for this would have brought misfortune to people and livestock; despite the prevailing shortage of wood there, fallen brushwood was left to rot in dense layers. Under such trees, on St. George's Day, one offered an egg, a coin, and a bundle of horsehair wound with a red thread, which was buried in the earth to win protection and prosperity for the horses. Also on Dago there was a great hollow pine into which, on Thursdays by old light in the twilight of evening, so that no one saw, one placed money and rags. The money was carefully hidden and covered so no one would find it; of the rags it was believed that if anyone took them away, the sickness, harm, or misfortune one had would pass over to that person. When someone suffered an accident, he would vow to offer gifts to this tree if the evil departed from him — and when it did, he conscientiously kept his word.

At the festive gatherings for the purpose of offerings, a fire burned, into which offerings were also thrown. Even a hundred years ago, Estonians would gladly, if it could be done in secret, bury their dead at the sacred sites.

Sacrifice-stones (opfersteine) are still known to the living generation in various places. Hupel describes one from his parish near the estate of Kawershof in his Topographische Nachrichten. It is roughly hewn from granite, nearly two ells high and long, one ell wide; the base begins to taper inward three fingers' breadth from the upper surface and narrows toward the bottom. This altar stands beneath a tree, in whose hollow one still finds small offering-gifts from time to time. The kitse-kiwi — goat stone — in the territory of the estate of Bahnhof in southern Livland is said to have received its name because goats were formerly slaughtered there and their blood burned as an offering. One poured out freshly prepared food, beer, or the blood of slaughtered animals — an act called walgust wlma, to bring brightness — and made vows of offerings in special cases, which were conscientiously kept, for otherwise one would have had to die. On the pank — the high cliff coast of Oesel — is a site where beer and brandy are offered to the sea-deity.

Four versts from the castle of Neuhausen near the village of Hiniala stands the päiwä-pöramize-mägi — the Hill of the Solstice — on which offerings were formerly made and prayers directed to the sun, whose formulas are still preserved in tradition, for example: päiwäkene, päkäkene, tule wälja! ma otsi sino oraga, kae sino kaija-witsaga — little Sun, little Thumb, come forth! I seek you with the awl, I watch for you with the shepherd's switch. Legend tells that the Mother of God climbed the hill with a sieve on her head and a bucket of water in her hand; the villagers, however, drove her away, and she went to the Russian town of Petschur, where she built a church: pühä Märja kirk — the church of holy Mary.

Remarkably, sites of Christian worship were also used as offering-places, where, it seems, heathen customs mingled with memories from the Catholic era. Olearius found near Kunda, on the north coast of Estland, a ruined chapel to which the people frequently made pilgrimage on the 28th of March. One might perhaps see in this only a residue of Catholic practice that had persisted in what was already a Lutheran land; but it was otherwise with the Kreuzkirche, a chapel belonging to the parish of Gross-Johannis in the Fellin district, two versts from the estate of Wastemois near the village of Wanamois belonging to the castle of Fellin. A protocol of 1713 explicitly mentions offerings brought there nine days before St. George's Day; as a result, the chapel, which was already in ruins at the time, was finally demolished entirely. The celebration had much in common with the following account from the Pleskau Estonians. In the night, over a thousand people of both sexes, young and old, would gather and light a great fire within the four-fathom-long and three-fathom-wide walls. Into this fire offerings were thrown, and the beggars sitting around it who tended it also received their share. Other offerings in the form of small wax figures were placed in the windows; and barren women danced naked around the ruin in order to become fertile.

The Feast of St. John is celebrated with great solemnity by the Pleskau Estonians at the pühä Jani kiwi — the stone of holy John — near the village of Meks by Neuhausen. The stone lies on the Livland side about twenty paces from the border stream (Jäma-jögi or Meksi-oja), and a quarter-verst to the south of it is a forest called Jöda-kond — the Devil's District. Already at midnight, a gathering of beggars assembles, sitting with uncovered heads around the stone and whispering among themselves. Toward sunrise, people stream in from Meks and from farther away — from the Pleskau and Ostrov regions. From the village prayer-house, wax candles are brought, lit, and set on the stone. The beggars then sing in chorus, and the faithful pile their offerings on the stone in great heaps: butter, cheese, buttermilk, whey, pieces of cloth and fabric, stockings, ribbons, and more. Crossing themselves, the people kneel around the stone and whisper prayers. When the candles have burned out, each person takes his offerings, steps bowing three times around the stone, and distributes his offering-gifts to the beggars — from the food, however, only three spoonfuls. Afterward many bathe in the stream — men, women, and children — and take some of its water away with them for its supposed healing powers: pühä läte wezio — the water of the holy spring. As they step out they are blessed by the beggars, to whom they give their old shirts. Some individuals take one of the stones lying about and carry it three times around the main stone on a diseased part of the body, then lay it back in its place. The main stone is about three feet long, two feet wide, and one foot high. At noon, everyone moves to the inn about a quarter-verst from the stone, where there is dancing, singing, and rejoicing.

The milk used in making the butter and the whey must be milked on four Thursdays while kneeling, with the following prayer spoken: puhas pühä Jänikene! hoia mino karja töbrast kodu tullen, kodu tullen karja minnen! öpeta sa puhma taaden karja baljast baina sömä, hoia mötsan kahju est, mötsan kurja eläjä öst! puhas, pühä Jänikene, luba lehmile pima — pure, holy John! guard my herd through the bog coming home, coming home and going to pasture! teach the herd to eat the green grass behind the thickets, guard it in the forest from harm, in the forest from the wicked beast! pure, holy John, promise the cows milk.

The inhabitants of the villages of Wäk-sär and Surbi go on July 24th to the nearby Anne-mägi — Anna's Hill — three versts east of the estate of Meks, with offerings of smoked and cooked sheep's heads and feet and wool. In the prayer-house of the village of Surbi a priest sprinkles these offerings with holy water, keeps a portion for himself, and distributes the rest to beggars — first the whole and half heads, then the feet, finally the wool. At the slaughter of the animals set aside for this purpose, the following prayer is spoken: puhas, pühä Ann! hoia ja warja, siita ja soeta, nöruta nörekezi, wäeta wanakezi! hoia ezi po-tagast ja puhma-tagast, kiwi-tagast ja kannu-tagast! ole ezi lamba-karjuzes, uma' karjaze' ommawa' ullid! ole ezi, puhas Anne, karjuze üle-kaeja, hoia ezi üle suwe kari mötsan kurja est, warja kari wiha öst, kodun kari kahju est — pure, holy Anna! guard and protect, make fruitful and multiply, make the young grow young again, strengthen the old! guard what is behind the tree and behind the thicket, behind the stone and behind the stump! be yourself the shepherdess of the sheep — the shepherds themselves are fools! be yourself, pure Anna, the overseer of the shepherd; guard through the summer the herd in the forest from the evil, protect the herd from harm, the herd at home from damage.

Twelve versts from Petschur near the Peipus there is a church called the Rödine or Satserina church. Here too, three days before Jacobi, offering-gifts of whey and butter are brought. The milk for these is milked in the same manner as for the Midsummer celebration, but with the following prayer: oh pühä' pözlikeze', oh hellä' englikezeM oh hidake ja birmutage puhma-tagast ja pü-tagast, pü ja puhma warju-tagast! hoitke ja warjake, hellä' englikeze'! löge ja lunastage pühä Rödi, Satserina pühä Rödikene! hoitke ja warjake pühä Redi halwast sönast, hast silmast ja kurjast mottest — oh holy little images, oh tender little angels! oh frighten and drive away what lurks behind the shrub and the tree, behind the shadow of tree and shrub! guard and protect, tender little angels! do harm to and redeem the holy Rödi, the holy Rödi of Satserina! guard and protect the holy Rödi from bad speech, the evil eye, and evil thought.

The three offering celebrations of the Pleskau Estonians just described have, to be sure, a fairly Christian appearance — the clergy not only do not forbid or hinder them but even participate in them — and the prayers are addressed to saints of their Christian church. Yet they are not without elements of superstition, even of memories from paganism, most notably the veneration of the sacrifice-stone.

XV. Superhuman Beings

Among these we count, partly through the still-continuing influence of Catholicism, the saints and the Virgin Mary — the last especially invoked as protector of pregnant women and those in labor; the saints, though no longer venerated in the ecclesiastical sense, still widely appealed to and called upon as helpers on various occasions, such as Nicholas as protector of oxen at castration. There are also various mischievous and helpful elemental spirits, personifications of natural forces and diseases; and finally, deities and heroes of the old paganism, of whom memories still survive, particularly in the folk songs — though not enough to reconstruct a complete mythology of that era. We concern ourselves here only with the latter two categories of supernatural beings, as the truly folk-characteristic material on this subject.

They have power to help and harm people, and one therefore seeks partly to win their goodwill, partly to protect oneself against them and keep them away. However, they are placed far below the God and Devil of Christian faith. The thunder-god, for instance, has his thunder-instrument stolen while he sleeps and can only recover it with a sorcerer's help; the devil of folk belief is not only beaten by mortals in trials of strength but appears in legends and tales very often as the stupid devil, tricked and made a fool of by ordinary people; some ghostly beings are eaten by wolves or struck down by silver bullets, or kept away by keeping a black cat or black cock among the livestock, or by having painted crosses and pentagrams on the doors. The individual beings of which I have received knowledge are listed below in alphabetical order. Many beings called by different names are probably identical, or have over time become confused with one another, with attributes of one assigned to another. I list them as they were described to me, without attempting my own classification.

Ahti is said in folk legend to have been a water-deity, from whom the Ahti-järw lake at the foot of Mana-hill takes its name.

Harr (the Grey One) is fever; it rides on a grey horse when it comes, hence the name. There are several, some male (wörgutajad), some female (walged wörgutajad), brothers and sisters under a single fiem (chief). They wander in all manner of forms, including human form, and seek by various tricks to enter into people. Against fever-attacks one can protect oneself by going alone into a room or bathhouse, closing the door, and stuffing all openings with rowan or juniper twigs; or one runs away so fast that fever cannot catch one; or one hides in a lonely spot, or creeps into a chest and closes the lid, or into a pigsty or warm oven, where fever does not dare follow. To see the Harr, bore a hole in the floor of one's bed; when fever begins to shake one while lying in it, drive a plug of rowan-wood quickly into the hole, and the Harr becomes visible. When eating sour porridge, one must first skim off the skin that has formed, otherwise one is seized by the Harr who makes its home beneath it; the skimmed skin must quickly be put in a little bag, hung in the smoke from the ceiling, and discarded after a year and a day.

Harr mos (the grey man) is a good spirit (jumala-waim) who warns in dreams. He once showed a lost boy the right path. He has no feet.

Harrijad, haldjad, halgjad are spirits dwelling in waters (wee-h., harrika-alused, jöe-alused, jöe-kullid), in the forest (mets-h.), in the house (maja-h.), or in the yard (öue-h.). They also do good, particularly the last two; more often, however, they are mischievous or frightening. The water spirits gnaw the mill-wheels; to keep them from luring children into the water, one placed at the bank of stream or lake a foot-long wooden doll resembling a human figure (bamja-kuju or h.-nukk). The forest spirit, also called köwer-silm (Squint-eye), sometimes appears as a frightening apparition, mostly as a calling voice (the echo), which seeks to lead the wanderer astray; to guard against its deception, one must whistle a merry song. When one calls in the forest, it calls back, until it meets the person as a strong man with a long beard. It at once proposes a trial of strength; if one accepts, it is smooth as an eel and always on top, and if it grips one, all the bones crack and blue bruises remain. If there is moonlight, the winner is always whoever stands in the other's shadow. At the naming of God's name, it vanishes.

Aha-jalg is an air-spirit stronger than the tülis-pask, appearing as a whirlwind and tearing objects — bleaching linen, haystacks, and so forth — from the ground and lifting them into the air.

Ilmarine was one of the first creations of the old father Tär. He was greatly skilled, especially in metalwork. While Tär slumbered, he forged the firmament from steel and fixed the stars to it; he made for Jutta a golden veil that brought before her mind everything that had happened in the past.

Imö is named by the poets as a god of love.

Imetaja (the Sucking One) is a spirit that sucks the milk from cows (= pük, see below). Some people can temporarily transform themselves into such a being in order to do harm to their neighbor, just as into a werewolf.

Jutta or Endla-piga (the maiden of Endla) is the daughter of Wanemuine. From Ilmarine she received an artfully made golden veil, which she sometimes lends to people, who through it learn everything that has happened in the past.

Judas is now one of the names of the devil, but was probably originally the name for the leader of the warrior spirits whose battles appear to earthly dwellers as the northern lights.

Kalewi-poeg — the tales and fate of Kalewi-poeg and his companions were published in detail by Dr. Kreutzwald. He was Jesus's godchild and at first good; later he became arrogant. Then Jesus seized him by the privates and hurled him into a swamp; when he immediately came back out, he was banished into a river and transformed into a bear. Finally he was cast into hell, and as he was led there, he still waved a parting greeting. He is said to have ridden on the mountains of Borkhohn, and where his horse stepped, deep tracks remain in the ground that can still be seen today. The möllukud — barren patches of grey clay — arose from plowing with a wooden plow.

Katk (the Plague) had no feet and therefore had to ride or be carried. When his wheel broke before a village, the owner of the nearest farm lent him another, and the village was spared. When he was in a house, no one from another house might go there, lest Katk creep into a pocket or cling somewhere and so carry himself into a still-healthy house. He appeared as a man in a black coat, short breeches, white silk stockings, shoes, a tricorn hat, and a long white staff in his hand, with which he touched those who would die the following day.

Kodu-käijad (homecomers) and külm-kinnad (cold-shoes) or käp-jalad (claw-feet) are spirits of the departed who reappear in visible form in the upper world. If one has committed something grave and must answer before a court, one goes three times to the grave of a kodu-käija, where counsel is given on how to escape judgment. The uninvited spirits, however — particularly the külm-kinnad, who do not return to their houses but only wander about to harm and frighten — one seeks to ward off. Those whose souls have no rest in the grave: some because prayers have not been said for them and the churchyard beggars have not been given gifts; those who took their own lives must wander as long as they would still have lived; some are strict householders who return to punish the farmhands; some are dead spouses who do not want the survivor to remarry. The külm-king is said to have pointed feet, and can only walk in snow wearing snowshoes; sometimes tracks of its passing have been noticed on snow. A silver bullet can strike it down.

Korr, koll is an evil house spirit used as a bogey to frighten and threaten children.

Köu (thunderstorm), also called wana köu, kouu-tät, pilwö-tät, müristaja tat, äike, piker, pikne, is the thunderer or thunder-god, sometimes identified with the old father (wana iza or wana tat), sometimes distinguished from him. He has a blowing instrument whose sound is so mighty that the devil, with whom the thunderer has been in combat since the beginning of the world, is thrown to the ground by it. He also has a bow with which he shoots pikse-nöled — thunder-arrows, lightnings — which sink deep into the earth, from where they are sometimes dug up. A daughter of Köu is ilma-neitsit — the Weather Maiden. At great drought, beer was carried three times around his offering-fire and then poured into the flames, with a plea that the thunder-god might finally send rain. Among the Pleskau Estonians, pikne is still invoked today beneath a sacred pine near the Anne-hill at Meks: püha pikne, hoia ezi jumala wiha öst ja witsa est ja köjge kurja inemize töist ja teast — holy thunder, guard yourself from God's wrath and his rod, and from the deeds and acts of every wicked person.

Kratt (Swedish skratt), also krätt or raha-rett, is a spirit or kobold that avenges its owner against wrongdoers and brings him luck and prosperity by stealing others' goods, sucking the milk from their cows, and spoiling their milk and butter. He is in fact the wandering soul of a human being, three-legged, and appears to people only in a whirlwind, as a mass dark in front and shooting fire behind — hence also called tulik (the Fiery), tule-haga (fire-broom), or tule-händ (fire-tail). Those who possess him keep him, when he is not out on business, as a snake (raha-uss, money-snake) or an insect in a box in cotton-wool.

Lendawa or lendwa (the Flier, dragon), perhaps only another name for the kratt. He too is a spirit that brings his friends goods and treasures. To hinder his purpose when he flies past, one quickly shows him one's bare backside between the legs and calls out: I show you my town; show me your town. Or one strikes flint and steel three times and says: I show you God's fire; show me your fire. In both cases the house where he enters will burn; to prevent the same happening to one's own house, one who does this must stand outdoors, not under a roof.

Mana = Toni, the death-god, ruler of the realm of the dead, the underworld. Of him personally there is little or no mention; but certainly belonging to him are the mana-tark (sorcerer) and mana-sönad (magic words) occurring in folk poetry.

Manalane — inhabitant of manala, the realm of Mana. An underground being. They are considered good spirits that bring luck, and everyone would gladly see one. People also say of someone truly good and pious: ta on waga kui manalane — he is pious as a Manalane.

Mardus or Margus is a spiritual being of rather uncertain nature. In folk song it is often said to be an ill omen when he makes himself heard. He appeared once as a "second face" to a fisherman and, though called upon, always repeated only the same words — not the Amen of the Lord's Prayer, which the fisherman prayed in his fear. When the fisherman called out "Amen" three times, the spirit vanished, as "something like a haystack slid back along the ground from the lake into the forest."

Mä-alused (the underground ones), also mailazed, euphemistically called ülal-käijad (the above-goers), are mostly dwarf-like spiritual beings beneath the earth's surface; because of their smallness also called härja-pölwelazed — people reaching to the height of an ox's knee. Some are headless; some are smiths who under the supervision of a superior of greater stature — who carries a young fir as his staff, like Rübezahl — must forge gold and silver bars, from which they give people small portions as needed. They once forged a man a scythe that remained sharp until he told his brother where he had gotten it. Sometimes, as on New Year's night, they emerge from their underground dwelling to tease people visibly.

If one sleeps or sits down at a spot where mä-alused dwell without first spitting three times on it, one gets rashes and ringworm from the kuri tül — evil wind — or from their exhalation; others say it is because they prick the sleeping with their little hammers. To be freed from the ill effects when "the evil wind has gone over one," one must do walgustama — make white — that is, scrape a little from a silver coin onto the spot where the mä-alused dwell, or lay the scraping under the threshold.

Mere-waim (sea-spirit) and Mere-ema (sea-mother) are spirits of the sea who sometimes take people as their sacrificial victims, and whom one seeks to appease with voluntary libations of beer and brandy so that those sailing on the sea may be spared accidents, or return home with a rich catch.

Metsik is a forest deity that changes its sex each year (male and female), perhaps the same as metsa-harrias or metsa-tont. See also the custom with the straw figure designated as Metsik at Shrovetide.

Muru-eit (Meadow-mother) is a female deity that protects gardens and yards. In folk poetry, her daughters are also mentioned — beings similar to our elves.

Näkk is a malevolent spirit living in water. In the battle of the Archangel Michael with the dragon (Revelations XII), for forty days devils fell to earth; those that fell into the water became the näkid. One suspects a Näkk especially where the water swirls; bathers who come near are pulled down by it. There are male and female näkid; they appear in human form, naked or clad in a silken cloth, bathing; also as a horse, a cow, and other things, and can transform themselves into lifeless objects such as a curved yoke or a ring. They are eager to catch humans. The Näkk, even when it appears in human form, is recognizable — if one has occasion to look into its mouth — by its fish-teeth. The water-maiden, näki-neitsit or wee-ema tütar (daughter of the water-mother), is less malevolent. She is often seen sitting on a stone combing her yellow hair with a golden comb; when one approaches, she swims away as a swan or sinks into the water. She sometimes carries off young men, though not to harm them but from affection.

Hone hoidjad, maja warjajad, maja holdjad, maja pere-mehed (guardians or lords of the house) are spirits that protect houses and dwellings. To win their favor, one offers them food and drink at celebrations and pours the foam from beer jugs on the ground for them.

Önne-töja (luck-bringer) is a Heckemännchen that brings treasures to its owner. He is made at crossroads on three Thursdays, and to be rid of him one must throw him into a river on Maundy Thursday.

Paenaja (the Pressing One), lü-paenaja, lü-paene (bone-presser), the nightmare, torments people and animals. He has human form but can transform himself into all manner of things, even lifeless objects, to escape detection. He comes in the night to press on people and horses; if one suddenly enters with a light, he flees. If one has first carefully stopped all openings so he cannot get out, he transforms himself into some inconspicuous object. If the tormented person manages to move the big toe of the left foot, the nightmare must release him. If one has stopped all openings and waited, catching the nightmare in its transformed form — say a piece of wood, a needle, or an aspen leaf — and nailing it to the wall, in the morning one finds the culprit in his human shape nailed there by the ear or bent double, begging for release.

Pük (originally toad, tree-louse, hair-worm in water), also imetaja or wana empli, is a spirit that on Midsummer Night sucks milk from cows, while at the same time bringing his owner treasures stolen from the rich, especially estate-owners. To make a pük, one must go to a crossroads on three Thursday evenings at full moon and pray the Lord's Prayer; at the third time the pük comes, and one must give him blood from the left hand, enough to write the petitioner's name. At the creation of the pük one says: sünni, sünni, pügikene, oma iza hinne peale, sünni, sünni, tödukene! — become, become, little Pük, on your father's soul, become, become, little death-one!

Soend, liba-huüt, ahju-pealne is the werewolf — a person who either can willingly transform himself into a wolf to harm others, or has been transformed by a sorcerer. Dogs do not attack him because he appears to them in his human form; a gun only kills him if he does not see it and if it is loaded with a silver bullet. To transform oneself into a werewolf, one must at three Thursday evenings by old light roll on a flat stone level with the ground and say: nübes näbes nahk peale, kübes köbes körwad pähä, sübes säbes saba taha — skin on, ears on the head, tail behind.

Söko was once a wind-god. When the one winnowing grain in the threshing barn has insufficient wind for it, he whistles and calls: Söko, Söko!

Tär, Tör, wana iza, wana tsi, wana ait (old father, grandfather), taewa tat (father of the sky), the supreme deity in the heathen belief of the old Estonians. Sacred to him was the oak. He first created the singer Wanemuine, the smith and builder Ilmarine, and the ever-joyful Lämmeküne — his "children" and companions — and then the earth, which while he slept exhausted from his labor was finished and perfected by his children. Then he created animals and human beings on the earth. The naturally weak human beings were to generate with his children a race strong enough to overcome evil. The city of Dorpat is called Tara pajk — Thor's place; near Neuhausen is a Tara päd'äistiko mägi — the hill of Thor's pinewood.

The Devil rarely appears in folk legend with the Christian name kurat or sadan; usually he is called Judas, or more often still his name is avoided altogether and a euphemistic phrase used instead: wana körka (old kobold), wana köhn (old evil), wana mast (old black one), wana püjä (old fellow), wana tühi (old emptiness), wana tont (old evil spirit), kuri waim (evil spirit), pergel, pörgel, pörgalane, pörguline (hell-dweller), paha-ret = paha rett (see Kratt), sarwik or wana sarwik (the horned one), and others. His underground dwelling is pörga — hell — furnished with great splendor and riches. His will is evil but his power slight; in folk legend he is often bested by sorcerers, and moreover frequently tricked and outwitted by ordinary people, for as they say: küla-wazika sarnane rumal — stupid as a village-calf. The devil and all his kind fear the wolf and the thunder greatly. When Tär created animals, the devil wanted to try too; he formed from blue clay a dog but could not breathe life into it, so he turned to the deity with a request to animate his creature, and the deity said: hunt, tünze üles, murra kurat ära — wolf, rise up, tear the devil to pieces. The lightning pursues the devil when he leaves his hell, and where lightning strikes, it has tried to hit the devil. In water and deep caves it does not reach him, but thunder always torments and frightens him. He fears the cock's crow; it is dangerous to go out at the start of the night, before the crow. The devil willingly exchanges children while they are still unbaptized; if he has succeeded, one must throw the changeling into the burning oven, whereupon he brings the right child back.

Tont appears to be a general designation for evil spirits rather than a particular personality. The tondid prefer to lurk in all manner of animal shapes — as goats, dogs, cats, and others — in uninhabited buildings, especially threshing barns. If a tont appears to someone, one must show him the bare backside and call through the legs: show your town; I show my town — and women must lift their skirts and show their privates, whereupon he vanishes. The wolf pursues evil spirits; where there are no wolves, there are tondid.

Toni (see Mana): the death-god. From him: tönela, the underworld, the dwelling-place of the dead.

Töll or sür Töll (Great T.) is a mythological folk hero known on the islands, comparable to Kalewi-poeg. He was so strong that he once whirled a wagon with one finger stuck through the shaft-hole. When his head was finally cut off, he hurled the beam-weapon still further at the enemies, then walked on holding his head on the tip of his sword. When, weakened from blood loss, he could no longer hold the sword upright, his head fell; and not far away his body as well, where his grave can still be shown. He promised his countrymen that when they were in need of war, they should only call: Töll, Töll! tüjize üles — Töll, Töll, rise up! When a shepherd boy once did this in mischief, Töll rose halfway from the grave with blood-red hands and asked where the enemy was. Seeing he was only being taunted, he pronounced the curse that deafness, unchastity, and theft should never cease among his people, and swore he would appear again only when the juniper bore leaves instead of needles.

Töne, also Tönis, a deity or spirit at western Estonians, regarded as guardian of the house and household. A figure made of twigs and rags representing him is set up in the house as a Lar, and to him are offered: first-fruits of every harvest, a little beer from the new brewing, blood from slaughtered animals, small copper coins for each newborn animal, some silver money for a newborn child, some milk from a cow after calving, and wool from a sheep newly shorn for the first time. For receiving these, the tönni wakk serves — a basket or bundle that is emptied and cleaned at a fixed time each year, its contents immediately buried to make room for the next year's gifts. This day is a great festival, Tönni püha — Tönn's holy day — on which beer is brewed and animals slaughtered. If someone damages the tönni wakk or takes anything from it, he falls into a grave illness and will not recover until he takes earth from under nine anthills and sweats himself with it in the bathhouse.

Tüle-ema or maru-memm (wind-mother, storm-mother), tüle-jumal (wind-deity), rules over the winds and brings aid to the sick as well. At a strong wind one says: tüle-ema nutab — the wind-mother is weeping. At eleven o'clock she prefers to walk abroad and sometimes spins stalks and light objects in circles (whirlwinds).

Ukko is mentioned, like Turis, only in song fragments. In antiquity the people had great images of him in the forest (pözlik); later people made smaller ones, to better hide them from the priests (pözlikene); those who converted to Christianity renamed these pözlikezed to inglikezed — little angels. In the territory of the estate of Linamägi in southern Livland an Ukko-stone can still be shown.

Wana söke (the old blind one) or wana tike (the old malicious one), also equated with äi, is a malevolent, teasing forest spirit among the southern Estonians who leads those in the forest astray, scatters the berries of berry-pickers, and the like. When the tike approaches, a hare runs before him; the shepherds then hear a call in the forest — äio karile wasta (Äio against the herd) — and their herd grows frightened and scatters.

Wanemuine is the god of song, created by the old father Tär. Legend tells of the effect of his singing as of Orpheus. His daughter is Jutta, also called Endla-piga (the maiden of Endla), because she mourned by the Endla lake for the one she loved.

Wee-ema (the water-mother) receives offerings at weddings; bride and groom throw money into the well for her, which is called kaewu-anne — the well-gift. In ancient heathen times, Ema may have been a goddess of the earth, coordinated to the sky-god Ukko.

Wirus-kundre or w.-kundra, among the southern Estonians a house-spirit or bogey that lives on top of the oven, hence the name. Children are frightened with him; and when a bad tooth falls out, it is thrown onto the oven so that wirus-kundre will give a good one in its place.

Colophon

The source text is Ferdinand Johann Wiedemann, Aus dem inneren und äusseren Leben der Ehsten (From the Inner and Outer Life of the Estonians), St. Petersburg: Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1876. Wiedemann (1805–1887), the pre-eminent 19th-century scholar of the Estonian language, compiled this work over decades of direct fieldwork with Estonian informants and from earlier Baltic German ethnographic sources. Sections XIV (pp. 409–417) and XV (pp. 417–446) are translated here in full. Section XIV covers significant and sacred places, offering practices, and specific ritual sites; Section XV is Wiedemann's alphabetical catalogue of Estonian supernatural beings. The original text is in German with extensive Estonian-language quotations; Estonian prayers and folk phrases are translated from the Estonian, with the Estonian original preserved in parentheses throughout. No prior English translation of this material is known. First English translation.

Good Works Translation — translated from the German and Estonian of Wiedemann 1876 by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text

XIV. Bedeutsame und heilige Stellen. Opfer.

Eine besondere Bedeutung haben für die Ehsten theils solche Stellen, an welche sich irgend eine Sage aus der Vorzeit oder das Andenken an eine dort vorgefallene Begebenheit knüpft, theils solche, an welchen in der heidnischen Zeit Opfer dar gebracht worden sind, resp. auch noch dar gebracht werden. Der ersten, besonders von der zweiten Hälfte, giebt es eine grosse Menge, und ich beschränke mich darauf nur einige an zu führen um zu zeigen, von welcher Art sie sind; eine Vollständigkeit in der Aufzählung derselben wäre für die Charakteristik des Volkes nicht nöthig. Die Opferstellen werden am besten mit den Opfern zusammen erwähnt werden.

(Note: Full German source text of Section XIV runs pp. 409–417 of the original. The OCR text of sections XIV–XV was accessed from the digitized copy at the Internet Archive: archive.org identifier ausdeminnerenun00wiedgoog, djvu.txt.)

XV. Uebermenschliche Wesen.

Dahin gehören theils durch den noch fortdauernden Einfluss des Katholicismus die Heiligen und die Jungfrau Maria, die letzte besonders als Beschützerin der Schwangeren und Gebärenden in Kindesnöthen an gerufen, die ersten, wenn auch nicht mehr verehrt im kirchlichen Sinne, so doch vielfach berücksichtigt und als Helfer an gerufen bei verschiedenen Veranlassungen; theils verschiedene neckische und helfende Elementargeister, Personificirungen von Naturkräften und Krankheiten; theils endlich Gottheiten und Helden des alten Heidenthums, von welchen sich noch Erinnerungen erhalten haben.

(Note: Full German source text of Section XV runs pp. 417–446 of the original. Estonian folk phrases reproduced from the original throughout. Source: as above, Internet Archive identifier ausdeminnerenun00wiedgoog.)

Source Colophon

Ferdinand Johann Wiedemann, Aus dem inneren und äusseren Leben der Ehsten. St. Petersburg: Commissionnäre der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1876. Public domain (1876). Digitized copy: Internet Archive, identifier ausdeminnerenun00wiedgoog. OCR text accessed 2026.

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