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Sky observation and mythology: Moon in Baltic-Slavic-Skandinavian tradition Mare Kõiva, leading research fellow, Department of Folkloristics, Based, first and foremost, on written texts about religion and myth, researchers have reconstructed a three-level model of the world that is accompanied by the three-seven-nine-twelve part heaven with its inhabitants and constellations. The underworld and its structure have been reconstructed in the same manner. The living and communication quarters of the supernatural inhabitants of the middle world, as well as the overall topology of the worlds, is organised by means of complicated and partly polar relationships (see also Lefebvre 1991). In the reconstructions of the view of the world the methods of comparative mythology and archaeomythology have been productive, but the data and methods of phraseology and folklore have been used to a lesser extent. The present study examines the data about the concepts of the heavenly world - the moon and heaven - in the corpora of linguistics, folklore and mythology. The study is limited to the habitat of the Baltic-Finnic peoples around the Baltic Sea and the relevant data about the Slavic, Baltic and Scandinavic contact area. The paper presents results about the Moon’s spots, Moon as living creature, and Moon as living place. For most of traditions under discussion Moon is a living creature, God or old Man. Other layers are connected with the life cycle and fate of the Moon. In Estonian and BalticFinnic tradition the most popular legend about the Moon spots is connected with the legend orphan on the Moon. In Slavic tradition the most popular plot is a killing or fratricide, also BalticFinnic tradition holds that the man was banished to the moon for some crime. Part of legends are connected Biblical characters (Eve, Adam; Cain and Abel; David, Jesus Christ, etc.). The separate group includes motifs of animals living on the Moon. Areal studies of these motifs show a fundamentally new data for analysis of the sky mythology of smaller ethnic groups. Research was supported by the Center of Excellence in Estonain Studies (European Regional Development Fund) and IRG 22-5. References Berezkin, Yurii. The Thematic Classification and Areal Distribution of Folklore-Mythological Methods. The Analytical Catalog. www.ruthenia.ru/folklore/berezkin
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