Editing World tree (section)

====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>