Virumaa hiied

• Authors: Kaasik Ahto

Title variants

EN

HIIS SITES IN VIRUMAA

• Languages of publication: ET

Abstracts

EN

Hiis is Estonians’ natural holy place, where, with the help of rituals and sacrifices, people tried to curry favour with their gods. Similar holy places can be found at Estonians’ nearer and more distant kindred peoples. Hiis sites form a separate group among historic natural holy places. As a rule, hiis is a historic holy place of a village or a bigger community. According to folklore materials, each Estonian village used to have its own hiis site. Some of them, however, were used by the whole parish. Historical records testify to the existence of approximately 600 hiis sites in Estonia, and about a fifth of them were in Virumaa. The territory of the hiis site can be from less than a hectare up to a hundred hectares, and different spiritual centres can be encountered on this territory: individual holy boulders, trees, springs, barrows, dancing grounds, etc. A well-kept hiis is a primeval forest, enriching the landscape and providing shelter to many species of the living nature. Hiis sites are ancient nature reserves of our nation, which should be used only to keep historical traditions alive. Unfortunately, these kinds of hiis sites have become rare. In the past decades and centuries, most of the hiis sites were damaged or even destroyed. Even today, economic activity exerts a harmful impact on the majority of hiis sites. The article presents a list of Virumaa hiis sites, with only historical names included, and sites resembling hiis but never called such have been excluded.

Keywords

EN

hiis; natural holy place; Virumaa

• Publisher: Folk Belief and Media Group of the Estonian Literary Museum, Estonian Institute of Folklore, EKM Teaduskirjastus
• Journal: Mäetagused
• Year: 2017
• Volume: 66
• Pages: 99-114

Contributors

author

Kaasik Ahto

• Centre of Sacred Natural Sites, Department of Archaeology, Institute of History and Archaeology, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Tartu, Jakobi 2, 51014 Tartu, ESTONIA