Changing Perceptions of Estonian Sacred Natural Sites

Abstract

This article considers the changes and variation in perceiving sacred natural sites and landscapes in Estonia that have been brought about by the processes of modernization and the shift from a mainly oral vernacular culture to a national culture with a written core. Sacred sites of the vernacular religion as well as narratives and customs associated with them have been documented in collections of folklore and some of the archived folklore texts have been given second lives in print; concurrently, Romantic literary notions about pre-Christian Estonian history and culture have become rooted in the collective cultural memory. The article presents an overview of the diversity of ways of conceptualizing sacred natural sites that are current in Estonian culture and how sacred natural sites are used at different levels of collective memory.