#tree-worship

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Tree-Worship in Finland

"Near Kuopio, in Finland, there was a famous grove of ancient moss-grown firs, where the people offered sacrifices and practised superstitious customs down to about 1650, when a sturdy veteran of the Thirty Years' War dared to cut it down at the bidding of the pastor. Sacred groves now hardly exist in Finland, but sacred trees to which offerings are brought are still not very uncommon. On some firs the skulls of bears are nailed, apparently that the hunter may have good luck in the chase."

—J.G. Frazer, The Magic Art & the Evolution of Kings, part 2 (The Golden Bough, vol. II, 1911, p. 11)

Fir trees in Finland, c. 1902 from All the Russias, by Henry Norman.

(Source: Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons)

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Tree-Worship among the Old Prussians

"The old Prussians believed that gods inhabited tall trees, such as oaks, from which they gave audible answers to enquirers; hence these trees were not felled, but worshipped as the homes of divinities. Amongst the trees thus venerated by them was the elder-tree."

—J. G. Frazer, The Magic Art & the Evolution of Kings, part 2 (The Golden Bough, vol. II, 1911, p. 43)

A 1584 woodcut of the Prussian (Baltic) Gods, by Caspar Hennenberger (after Simon Grunau). L-R: Peckols, Perkunas, Potrimpo.

(Source: Caspar Hennenberger, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)