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Estonian mythology is a complex of myths belonging to the Estonian folk heritage and literary mythology. Information about the pre-Christian and medieval Estonian mythology is scattered in historical chronicles, travellers' accounts and in ecclesiastical registers. Systematic recordings of Estonian folklore started in the 19th century. Pre-Christian Estonian deities included a sky-god known as ''Jumal'' or ''Taevataat'' ("Old man of the sky") in Estonian, corresponding to ''Jumala'' in Finnish, and ''Jumo'' in Mari.〔(A History of Pagan Europe, P. 181 ) ISBN 0-415-09136-5〕 ==Estonian mythology in old chronicles== A traveler called Wulfstan reported to the king Alfred the Great (871-899) about Estonians' burial customs that included keeping the dead unburied in the house of their relatives and friends, who would hold a wake of drinking until the day of the cremation.〔 According to the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia in 1222 the Estonians even disinterred the enemy's dead and burned them.〔 It is thought that cremation was believed to speed up the dead person's journey to the afterlife and by cremation the dead would not become earthbound spirits which were thought to be dangerous to the living. Henry of Livonia also describes in his chronicle an Estonian legend originating from Virumaa in North Estonia - about a mountain and a forest where a god named Tharapita, worshipped by Oeselians, had been born.〔(The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, Page 193 ) ISBN 0-231-12889-4〕 The solstice festival of Midsummer ((エストニア語:Jaanipäev)) celebrating the sun through solar symbols of bonfires, the tradition alive until the present day and numerous Estonian nature spirits: the sacred oak and linden have been described by Balthasar Russow in 1578. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Estonian mythology」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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