Regarding Norse cosmology, we can draw most material from sources like the Poetic Edda. However, the Baltic nations have no true mythology. In fact, the very first published book in Lithuania was Martynas Mažvydas’ Christian Katekizmas in 1547. Before that, there are no written records of Lithuanian folklore and mythology. Some information can be gleaned from contemporary Christian manuscripts, particularly those from the region of modern-day Germany, but since the Balts were the last pagans in Europe, officially baptized only in 1387, most Christian sources offer only a distorted and biased view. Therefore the only source for Lithuanian cosmology and mythology is in the oral tradition of folk tales, folk songs, folk art and crafts. Some of the oldest songs, war chants, can be traced back to the 13th century, but most of the pagan ritual hymns are even older, having roots in the 8-9th centuries. Most of the songs provided in this paper as examples are 14th century re-interpretations of these oldest songs.

The ancient Baltic faith has now been resurrected in Lithuania, growing particularly strong after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990. This cultural and pagan rebirth is known as Romuva. The name is a tribute to the once great Prussians, who were one of the most important Baltic tribes, but were conquered by the Teutonic Knights in the Middle Ages. Romuva was the name of the most important pagan sanctuary of the Prussians, destroyed by the Teutons in the 13th century.

There are two main symbols of Romuva, and with this we will begin our discussion of the world tree. The most common symbol of Romuva is a grass-snake swastika, known as sukūrėlis, symbolic of the sun and of lightning. However, the symbol that could in a way be called the “official logo” of Romuva is a stylized oak tree with three pairs of branches, topped by a sacred flame. Underneath is the word romove (a form of Romuva, meaning literally the group of people who worship at the ancient Baltic sanctuary Romuva) is written in runic letters.

Even though we can only look at the folkloric evidence of the world tree in Lithuania, information is much easier to find for the Norse world tree, known as Yggdrasil. The generally accepted meaning of the Old Norse name Yggdrasill is “Odin's horse,” drawing from the etymology that -drasill means “horse” and Ygg is one of Odin’s many names.

The clearest description of Yggdrasil can be found in the Grímnismál. In stanza 31, Odin says that the ash tree Yggdrasil has three roots that grow in three directions. Beneath the first root lives Hel, goddess of the Underworld. Under the second root live the frost giants (jötnar), and beneath the third lives mankind. Beneath the root that reaches the frost jötnar is the well Mímisbrunnr, “which has wisdom and intelligence contained in it, and the master of the well is called Mimir.” He also names the many monsters and animals that dwell under, around, and on top of Yggdrasil.However, it is not the externalized description of Yggdrasil that makes it similar to the Baltic image of a world tree. As we know, Yggdrasil is represented as a three-part tree: roots, trunk, top branches, with each zone containing a particular realm, inhabitants, symbolic meaning. The world tree that is widespread in Lithuanian folk art, and which is frequently found carved into household furniture such as cupboards, towel holders, and laundry beaters, is the best example of the Lithuanian idea of the three-part world tree.

Wood engravings of the world tree sometimes contain two symbols of the sun, surrounded by a circle of squares, triangles and diamond shapes. The latter are symbolic imagery of tilled earth and sowed fields. The top sun shines during the day and gives warmth, while the lower one was believed to cross the underworld from the west to the east in a small boat, bringing dew to the grass and crops. This is a more secular view of the world tree, having a symbolic meaning mainly to farmers (which is why it’s a popular household art motif), but it is not the world tree that can be found allegorically represented in the folk songs.

There is a vertical and a horizontal interpretation of the Lithuanian world tree image. The vertical axis is often separated into three distinct parts, symbolizing the universal spheres. Each zone of that tree contains some attributes that symbolize specifically that zone. This vertical separation can be seen most clearly in the most important song of Romuva, the hymn of the cosmological poplar tree, the most direct juxtaposition to the Nordic Yggdrasil:

The ringing of the kankles from under the roots is the image of the world of the old and the dead, it symbolizes the wisdom of the ancestors, and it was also symbolic of spirituality, since kankles, along with drums, were one of the most important ritualistic musical instruments. The busy buzzing bees in the middle symbolize the world of the working people, and it was believed that before reincarnation the souls of the dead lived temporarily as bees, making them sacred creatures. The falcon’s chicks at the top represent the heavens, the world of warriors and heroes, and the realm of the gods.

In Lithuanian folk songs the horizontal separation of the world tree’s zones is expressed in visualizations of a tree comprised of three interconnected trunks, expressed through the word for “waist” (liemuo), therefore trees are “triple waisted.” These types of trees could either be a poplar, or oaks, as in this song:

Trees with three trunks were sacred in the pagan religion, and even after Lithuania’s conversion to Christianity, this tradition lived on, with people believing that if a sacred tripartite tree was chopped down, the family’s children would be born deaf.

In his Prussian Chronicle, S. Grunau writes that the horizontally tripartite world tree was central to ancient Prussian pagan rituals. Grunau describes an evergreen oak tree split into three parts. Each part had a carved niche with a statue of each of the three main gods: Perkūnas, Patrimas, and Patulis. Therefore the three part tree is not only present as a folk song motif, but as a religious altar.

The Baltic world tree is also often associated with the number nine. This again shows a direct relationship to Yggdrasil, since it too housed nine worlds in its roots and branches. The tree with nine branches is widespread in folk songs and examples include: