SOURCES

There are two major groups of sources yielding information about Baltic (and particularly Latvian) religion: historical sources and folkloric sources. The latter consist mostly of folk songs (Latv.

It should be noted that practically all early records of Baltic religions were provided by foreigners, people who came from cultural and religious traditions that differed greatly from those of the Baltic peoples, and who did not speak any of the Baltic languages. Starting with the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, much information about local non-Christian practices was written down by Baltic-German clergymen, who were vehemently opposed to the local traditions. As a result, sources need to be used with great care, and many, if not most, aspects of Baltic pre-Christian religious practices are irrecoverably lost. Latvians themselves entered into this field of research only during the national awakening, from the middle of the nineteenth century, and Lithuanians joined this process even later.