Editing World tree (section)

===Circumbaltic mythology===

In [[Baltic mythology|Baltic]], [[Slavic paganism|Slavic]] and [[Finnish mythology|Finnish]] mythology, the world tree is usually an [[oak]].<ref name=Kuperjanov2002/>{{efn|Lithuanian scholar Libertas Klimka ([[:lt:Libertas Klimka|lt]]) indicated that the oak was considered a sacred tree to pre-Christian Baltic religion, including being a tree associated to thunder god Perkunas.<ref>Klimka, Libertas. "[https://www.lituanistika.lt/content/37316 Medžių mitologizavimas tradicinėje lietuvių kultūroje]" [Mythicization of the tree in Lithuanian folk culture]. In: ''Acta humanitarica universitatis Saulensis'' [Acta humanit. univ. Saulensis (Online)]. 2011, t. 13, pp. 22–25. {{ISSN|1822-7309}}.</ref>}} Most of the images of the world tree are preserved on ancient ornaments. Often on the Baltic and Slavic patterns there was an image of an inverted tree, "growing with its roots up, and branches going into the ground".

{{anchor|Aušros medis|Austras koks}}

====Baltic beliefs====
Scholarship recognizes that Baltic beliefs about a World Tree, located at the central part of the Earth, follow a tripartite division of the cosmos (underworld, earth, sky), each part corresponding to a part of the tree (root, trunk, branches).<ref>Čepienė, Irena. "[https://www.lituanistika.lt/content/59891 Kai kurie mitinės pasaulėkūros aspektai lietuvių tradicinėje kultūroje]" [Certain aspects of mythical world building in Lithuanian traditional culture]. In: ''Geografija ir edukacija'' [Geography and education]. 2014, Nr. 2, p. 57. {{ISSN|2351-6453}}.</ref><ref name="Běťáková, Marta Eva 2012. p. 178">Běťáková, Marta Eva; [[Václav Blažek|Blažek, Václav]]. ''Encyklopedie baltské mytologie''. Praha: Libri. 2012. p. 178. {{ISBN|978-80-7277-505-7}}.</ref>

It has been suggested that the word for "tree" in [[Baltic languages]] ([[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]] ''medis''; in [[Latvian language|Latvian]] "tree" is ''koks'', but "forest" is ''mežs''), both derived from [[Proto-Indo-European]] ''*medh-'' 'middle', operated a semantic shift from "middle" possibly due to the belief of the ''Arbor Mundi''.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Kalygin|first1=Victor|title=Some archaic elements of Celtic cosmology|journal=Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie|date=30 January 2003|volume=53|issue=1|doi=10.1515/ZCPH.2003.70|s2cid=162904613}}</ref>

=====Lithuanian culture=====
The world tree ({{langx|lt|Aušros medis}}) is widespread in Lithuanian folk painting, and is frequently found carved into household furniture such as cupboards, towel holders, and laundry beaters.<ref>Straižys and Klimka, chapter 2.</ref><ref>[http://www.lithuanian.net/mitai/cosmos/baltai2.htm Cosmology of the Ancient Balts – 3. The concept of the World-Tree] (from the 'lithuanian.net' website. Accessed 2008-12-26.)</ref><ref>Klimka, Libertas. "[https://www.lituanistika.lt/content/86027 Baltiškasis Pasaulio modelis ir kalendorius]" [Baltic Model of the World and Calendar]. In: ''LIETUVA iki MINDAUGO''. 2003. p. 341. {{ISBN|9986-571-89-8}}.</ref> According to Lithuanian scholars Prane Dunduliene and [[Norbertas Vėlius]], the World Tree is "a powerful tree with widespread branches and strong roots, reaching deep into the earth". The recurrent imagery is also present in Lithuanian myth: on the treetops, the luminaries and eagles, and further down, amidst its roots, the dwelling place of snakes and reptiles.<ref name="Straižys, Vytautas 1997"/> The World Tree of Lithuanian tradition was sometimes identified as an oak or a [[maple tree]].<ref name="Běťáková, Marta Eva 2012. p. 178"/>

=====Latvian culture=====
In [[Latvian mythology]] the world tree ({{langx|lv|Austras koks}}) was one of the most important beliefs, also associated with the birth of the world. Sometimes it was identified as an oak or a [[birch]], or even replaced by a wooden pole.<ref name="Běťáková, Marta Eva 2012. p. 178"/> According to Ludvigs Adamovičs's book on Latvian folk belief, ancient Latvian mythology attested the existence of a Sun Tree as an expression of the World Tree, often described as "a birch tree with three leaves or forked branches where the Sun, the  Moon, God, Laima, Auseklis (the morning star), or the daughter of the Sun rest[ed]".<ref name=Kencis2011>{{cite journal|last1=Ķencis|first1=Toms|title=The Latvian Mythological Space in Scholarly Time|journal=Archaeologia Baltica|date=20 September 2011|volume=15|pages=144–157|doi=10.15181/ab.v15i1.28}}</ref>

====Slavic beliefs====

[[File:Dolmatov World tree.png|thumb|Old Russian ornament of the world tree]]

According to Slavic folklore, as reconstructed by [[Radoslav Katičić]], the draconic or serpentine character furrows near a body of water, and the bird that lives on the treetop could be an eagle, a falcon or a nightingale.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Šmitek|first1=Zmago|title=The Image of the Real World and the World Beyond in the Slovene Folk TraditionPodoba sveta in onstranstva v slovenskem ljudskem izročilu|journal=Studia mythologica Slavica|date=5 May 2015|volume=2|pages=161|doi=10.3986/sms.v2i0.1848|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Scholars Ivanov and Toporov offered a reconstructed Slavic variant of the Indo-European myth about a [[Proto-Indo-European mythology#Serpent-slaying myth|battle between a Thunder God and a snake-like adversary]]. In their proposed reconstruction, the Snake lives under the World Tree, sleeping on black wool. They surmise this snake on black wool is a reference to a cattle god, known in [[Slavic mythology]] as [[Veles (god)|Veles]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Eckert|first1=Rainer|title=On the Cult of the Snake in Ancient Baltic and Slavic Tradition (based on language material from the Latvian folksongs)|journal=Zeitschrift für Slawistik|date=January 1998|volume=43|issue=1|doi=10.1524/slaw.1998.43.1.94|s2cid=171032008}}</ref>

Further studies show that the usual tree that appears in Slavic folklore is an oak: for instance, in [[Czech language|Czech]], it is known as ''Veledub'' ('The Great Oak').<ref>Hudec, Ivan. ''Mýty a báje starých Slovanů''. [s.l.]: Slovart, 2004. S. 1994. {{ISBN|80-7145-111-8}}. (in Czech)</ref>

In addition, the world tree appears in the Island of [[Buyan]], on top of a stone. Another description shows that legendary birds [[Sirin]] and [[Alkonost]] make their nests on separate sides of the tree.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gerasimenko|first1=I. A.|last2=Dmutrieva|first2=J. L.|title=The Image of the World Tree in the Aspect of Russian Linguistic Culture|journal=Russian Language Studies|date=15 December 2015|issue=4|pages=16–22|url=https://journals.rudn.ru/russian-language-studies/article/view/13509}}</ref>

Ukrainian scholarship points to the existence of the motif in "archaic wintertime songs and carols": their texts attest a tree at the center of the world and two or three falcons or pigeons sat on its top, ready to dive in and fetch mud to create land (the ''[[Earth diver]]'' cosmogonic motif).<ref>{{cite journal|last=Goshchytska|first=Tеtyana|title=The tree symbol in world mythologies and the mythology of the world tree (іllustrated by the example of the ukrainian Carpathians traditional culture)|journal=The Ethnology Notebooks|date=21 June 2019|volume=147|issue=3|pages=622–640|doi=10.15407/nz2019.03.622|s2cid=197854947}}</ref><ref>Szyjewski, Andrzej (2003). ''Religia Słowian''. Krakow: Wydawnictwo WAM. pp. 36-37. {{ISBN|83-7318-205-5}}. (in Polish)</ref>

The imagery of the world tree also appears in folk medicine of the [[Don Cossacks]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Karpun|first1=Mariia|title=Representations of the World Tree in traditional culture of Don Cossacks|journal=Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski|date=30 November 2018|volume=9|issue=2|pages=115–122|doi=10.31648/pw.3088|s2cid=216841139|doi-access=free}}</ref>

====Finnic mythology====

According to scholar [[Aado Lintrop]], [[Estonian mythology]] records two types of world tree in Estonian runic songs, with similar characteristics of being an oak and having a bird at the top, a snake at the roots and the stars amongst its branches.<ref name=Kuperjanov2002/>