Estonian Mythology in Old Chronicles
A traveler called Wulfstan reported to the king Alfred the Great (871-899) about Estonians' burial customs that included keeping the dead unburied in the house of their relatives and friends, who would hold a wake of drinking until the day of the cremation.
According to the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia in 1222 the Estonians even disinterred the enemy's dead and burned them. It is thought that cremation was believed to speed up the dead person's journey to the afterlife and by cremation the dead would not become earthbound spirits which were thought to be dangerous to the living.
Henry of Livonia also describes in his chronicle an Estonian legend originating from Virumaa in North Estonia - about a mountain and a forest where a god named Tharapita, worshipped by Oeselians, had been born.
The solstice festival of Midsummer (Estonian: Jaanipäev) celebrating the sun through solar symbols of bonfires, the tradition alive until the present day and numerous Estonian nature spirits: the sacred oak and linden have been described by Balthasar Russow in 1578.
Read more about this topic: Estonian Mythology
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“This is the frost coming out of the ground; this is Spring. It precedes the green and flowery spring, as mythology precedes regular poetry. I know of nothing more purgative of winter fumes and indigestions. It convinces me that Earth is still in her swaddling-clothes, and stretches forth baby fingers on every side.”
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