Votian and ingrian folk songs

The singer was at the feast of gods and was offered beer. An oak tree grew from spilled beer froth. Only the singer’s brother is strong enough to cut down the gigantic tree. Many necessary items are carved from the oak.

Cutting down a huge tree, a world tree, is as widely known as the legend of “The Creation Song”. The legend has been rendered in different ways. Some have associated the great oak with the Milky Way. A tree which has hidden the sky and the need to cut it down have been associated with the winter equinox, when the sky, indeed, is covered for the Nordic peoples. At the former sacred sites of the Baltic and Baltic-Finnic peoples, oak used to be the most important tree.

In Baltic-Finnic songs, the great oak may be born in various miraculous ways. In the Ingrian song, the oak grows from the froth of beer, an important ritual beverage, spilled at the feast of gods. The world tree is born in the same way in Mordvinian songs. The fact that the person who cuts down the mythical tree and performs other miraculous deeds is the singer’s brother is characteristic of the southern runo song tradition, where epic songs were often sung by women.