An interesting mention of the holy trees of Lithuania by Teodor Narbutt in his Dzieje starożytne narodu litewskiego (“The Ancient Histories of the Lithuanian Nation”) vol 1, Mitologia litewska (“Lithuanian Mythology”) goes as follows:
“Ash, Wousis. This beautiful, branching tree counted also among the sacred trees. Tales of miraculous trees mention the ash. The Suavs dedicated the ash to Jove, who was called Jesse. The Scandinavians adored the ash, which was called by them Ydrazyl, in whose shadow the gods lived.”
Ydrazyl, of course, refers to Yggdrasil which was, indeed, an ash tree.
Elsewhere (Tygodnik Wileński), he also testified to an ancient chronicle (owned by a pastor named Johann Friedrich Ruvijus), which contained an excerpt from the now lost History of Lithuania (Cronica sive historia Lithuaniae) by Augustinus Rotundus – that excerpt, in turn, mentioned a temple of Jove-Perkunas (Jupiter Tonans) that allegedly stood in Vilnius.
Unfortunately, Narbutt was not above making things up so the trustworthiness of this account has in the past been questioned. In addition, Rotundus himself was someone who believed Lithuanians came from ancient Romans. Nevertheless, just because someone, in good faith, makes up fanciful things does not mean that other statements by that person, on matters chronologically closer to them, must necessarily be rejected out of hand. So, for what it’s worth, I am mentioning this.
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