From Holy Hiis to Sacred Stone: Diverse and Dynamic Meanings of Estonian Holy Sites

Abstract

Throughout the history of religion in Estonia various holy places with different meanings and purposes have been used. In some cases the importance of a particular site has been preserved in distinct prehistoric and historic religions. As holy places generally lack archaeological artifacts and other features, oral tradition has been used as the main source. But since folklore is difficult to date it has left the impression that holy places belong to a timeless past, forming a certain kind of amorphic entity. The current study is based on holy sites known from oral tradition which have been in use in the framework of different religious systems in the past. By using these I will try to show the date range of these holy sites and stress their dynamic aspect. Adopting these case studies as analogies it also becomes possible to speculate about former holy sites which have lost their meaning in recent folk religion and oral tradition but are recognizable within the landscape. As a result we are able to see holy landscapes of the past in a more diverse way and understand past religions better in their initial context.