Case file · Folklore / legend
Łasicki records the gods of Samogitia
In 1582 the Polish humanist Jan Łasicki wrote 'On the Gods of the Samogitians', a list of about 80 Lithuanian deities and spirits still honoured in Samogitia, the last pagan region of Europe.
1582 CE · 55.74, 22.37 · status: account
The account
Samogitia was formally converted only in 1413. Łasicki drew on reports from a local informant, and his list, printed in Basel in 1615, includes gods of fields, bees, houses and the dead. It is one of the key sources for Baltic religion, together with later folklore about spirits such as the laumės.
The sceptical view
Łasicki never visited, and many names are garbled or unexplained, so scholars use the list cautiously.