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mud from forest areas, used in balneological treatment) is worth mentioning here (A. Brtckner, 1985a, p. 36; Sławski, 1952-1956, vol. 1, p. 40; Machek, 1968, p. 60-61). The word is not free of some “demonie” flavour, it is contained in the name of a Polish forest demon, Boruta (Gieysztor, 1982, p. 260). There was also a Slavonic prince of that name, who lived in the 8th c. (Bruckner, 1985a, p. 36).

Rugen had its holy grove as well. According to Knytlingasaga (ch. 121), near the present Stralsund, at Strelasund, the strait between Rugen and the mainland, in 1165 king Valdemar found “a holy grove, called Boku, where everything was burnt and destroyed, and many people and spoils were captured...” The sanctuary, described as blotlund (a sacrificial grove), ap-pears imder its Slavonic name in the saga, as Boku should be derived from buk (beech). So, the sanctuary was a beech grove. A document from 1320 refers to this spot as Bukowe (Beech Place) (PUB, vol. 5, part 2, 1905, no. 3424; cf. Wienecke, 1940, p. 35-42). The word blotlund suggests that offerings were madę there, and the mention about buming and destroying some constructions indicates that it was fenced.

Our list should also incorporate the sacred forest around RadogoSć, mentioned by Thietmar (VI, 23). Sacred groves outside Polabia are only generally mentioned (Kosmas, I, 4, III, 1; Primary Russian Chronicie, year 986; cf. Łowmiański, 1979, p. 136, gloss 307), so all the groves described in some detail in written sources were located in Polabia. Surprisingly enough, no researchers have claimed that they occurred exclusively in the area west of the Oder, as it has been imputed in the case of temples. Thus, the hypercritical historians have been able to admit the possibility of existence of sacred groves in all Slavonic territories, while they have doubted the analogical distribution of temples, despite the identical basis of evidence. The common Slavonic name for a sacred grove is gaj. The etymology of this word includes the idea of enclosed space (Linde, 1951, vol. 2, p. 15-16; Sławski, 1952-1956, vol. 1, p. 249; Machek, 1968, p. 155; A. Bruckner, 1985a, p. 132), so a grove acquired religious significance through being separated from the secular space. Gaj was not the only word referring to a holy wood: the Slavonic grove from the region of Leipzig was called Bór (forest), while Primary Russian Chronicie (year 986) uses the word roshehene.

Among the trees worshiped by Indo-European peoples as symbols of sacrum the most common are undoubtedly oaks, Slavonic example of this being the grove of Prove. Moreover, we know an example of a beech grove situated at Stralsund in Rugen. No other tree species, of which the linden would be the most interesting as a symbol of feminine sacred power opposed to the masculine connotations of the oak, known from Baltic sources, are attested in writings. In the previous chapters we have mentioned the trees connected with other types of sanctuaries: the oak and the nut-tree adored in Szczecin, and the tree growing next to the statuę under the open sky in Rugen.

The spring at the foot of the sacred oak in Szczecin was not a random element. For Bulgarians - as A. Gieysztor says (1982, p. 169) - “a sacred place had to contain water and a tree, sometimes supplemented with a stone, which are the three fundamental elements of the sacred microcosm estab-lished in comparative religious studies.” A religious complex consisting of a tree and a spring oceurs several times in the sources conceming the Slavs. In Starigard in Vagria, for instance, the reverend Bruno (who was said to have written sermons in Slavonic), appointed by bishop Gerold, managed to “forbid the Slavs to swear by trees, springs and stones” (Helmold, I, 84). The model microcosm is clearly visible here. Kosmas (III, 1) says that trees were worshiped in Bohemia, listing them along with groves, springs and stones. At the end of the 12thc. Ciril Turovsky (Mansikka, 1922, p. 302-303) rejoiced at the end of the cult of trees and springs in Ruthenia.

There are also some morę concrete accounts. As Constantine Por-pyrogenitus (ch. 9) wrote, in the lOthc. the Ruthenians (by which the Varangians are meant), having crossed the rapids of the Dnieper, “come to an island called after St George and make their sacrifices there; an enormous oak grows in that place. They bring living cocks as offerings and arrange arrows in a circle, others bring pieces of bread, meat and whatever they have, according to their custom. As for the cocks, they decide by lot whether to slaughter and eat them or to set them free...” There was also a large oak devoted to Perun near Khalich, mentioned in a description of the border, as a document issued in 1302 testifies (Gieysztor, 1982, p. 51; Ivakin, 1979, p. 109-111). Ipatevskaya letopis (year 1169) mentiones “Dobryj dub” (a good oak). In 1331 in Friul in Isonzo valley, in a place called Cavoreto, a Fran-dscan monk discovered that “in the mountains veiy numerous Slavs worshiped as a god a certain tree and a spring at its foot” (Wienecke, 1940, p. 33-35). In Poland Księga Henrykowska (I, 2, 33-35) devotes a whole chapter to a story about cutting of a tree ąualified as “famous” or “notori-ous.” The story reads: “in the old days there was a large tree, in Polish called jawor [sycamore], in the village of Januszów. At the foot of the tree a spring gushed; it was called Jaworzyca because of the tree.” The yillage had belonged to a man named Henry, who exchanged it for another estate with Nicholas, one of the most outstanding nobles of Silesia at the time, who ordered to cut the tree. Although the text does not refer to any cult, it was probably a sacrosanct tree, which is suggested by its relation to the spring and the name of the spring derived from the tree, the epithet “famous,” and finally by the very fact of devoting so much space to the cutting of one tree.

Although the mentions quoted above are not very extensive (see also Tyszkiewicz, 1972; SSS, vol. 2, p. 557-558), they allow us to conclude that the idea of the cosmic tree was not alien to the Slavs.

“Water - as M. Eliade wrote (1966, p. 189, 211) - symbolizes the totality of all possibilities, it is fons et origo, the mother of each possible existence.”

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