Tharapita

Tharapita or Taarapita or Taara is a god of war in Estonian mythology.

The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia mentions Tharapita as the superior god of Oeselians (inhabitants of Saaremaa island), also well known to Vironian tribes in northern Estonia. According to the chronicle, when the crusaders invaded Vironia in 1220, there was a beautiful wooded hill in Vironia, where locals believe Oeselian god Tharapita was born and from which he flew to Saaremaa. The hill is believed to be the Ebavere Hill ("Ebavere mägi") in modern Lääne-Viru County.

The name Taarapita has been interpreted as "Thor, help!" ("Taara a(v)ita" in Estonian) and associated with the Scandinavian god Thor. Other interpretations are "Thor the Thunderbolt" ("Taara pikne") or "Thor (is) great" ("Taara (on) vägev"). 19th century creators of Estonian pseudomythology made Taara the supreme god of the Estonian pantheon. However, Taara is rarely mentioned in extant Estonian folklore.

Tharapitha also inspired an Estonian neopagan movement, known as "taaralased" or "taarausulised". In the middle of the 19th century, Taara became popular in the national movement, as an anti-German and anti-Lutheran symbol. From that period, Estonia's second-biggest city Tartu was poetically called "Taaralinn" ("city of Taara").

Taara was known by the Tavastian tribe of Finland. An old cult place now known as Laurin Lähde (Lauri's Fountain) in the county of Janakkala. Tavastians worshipped Taara there as late as the 18th century and the church had to close the place.

Tharapita may have been known among the Slavs of the island of Rügen, where Danish crusaders destroyed a pagan idol named "Turupit" in 1168. The story of Taara's flight from Vironia to Saaremaa has been associated with a major meteor disaster that formed Lake Kaali in Saaremaa. One proponent of theories about the meteor and its consequences was Lennart Meri, the president of Estonia from 1992 to 2001, who wrote several books about the subject. However, studies of the Kaali meteorite site have not confirmed the meteor event was recent enough to be preserved in the folklore.

Variations similar to the name "Thor" are known to many peoples who speak Finno-Ugric languages. The Khants have a god named "Torum", the Samis have "Turms", and the Samoyeds have "Tere". Finnish bishop Mikael Agricola mentions in 1551 a war god called "Turisas", although this is more likely to refer to Thurisas; the Finns had also a god of harvest, luck and success called Tuuri. These deities are associated with the hypothetical proto-Finno-Ugric-language word meaning "high".

Worship of Thor ("Tooru" in Estonian) was common in Western Estonia. According to several medieval chronicles, Estonians did not work on Thursdays (days of Thor) and Thursday nights were called "evenings of "Tooru". Some sources say Estonians used to gather in holy woods ("Hiis") on Thursday evenings, where a bagpipe player sat on a stone and played while people danced and sang until the dawn.

See also

Thor

External links

* [http://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol26/sutrop.pdf Taarapita – the Great God of the Oeselians. Article by Urmas Sutrop]