The oak is very picturesque, with a beautiful branch form, dense leafage and very peculiar overground root “paws”, the circumference of the oak is 7.82 m. A picturesque, very old oak, the age of which can be estimated at about 400 years. An opinion was made that the oak is even older, because in the last decades the increase of its trunk has been very small. It could though point at something else too — the oak has reached its critical age, and its increase diminishes. The worst scenario is supported by the fact that the oak’s crown and the general health condition has declined during the last decades.
Narrative
There is a tale that it is a sacrificial oak. As a “Sacrificial Oak in Lībagi parish by Mundigas village” it was first mentioned in written sources of the old tree list “Trees – Nature Monuments in Latvia” („Koki — dabas pieminekļi Latvijā”) published by the nature researcher Edvards Jansons in 1937. It is known that in his notes the researcher of the Talsi county Tīcs Dzintarkalns in the 20s of the 20th century wrote down news providing evidence that the oak could be also an ancient sacrificial oak, “In former times they used to hang offerings into the branches, but the priest prohibited, put even a guard who stood day and night by it.”
The oak in Latvian mythology symbolizes strength and manhood. For ancestors it used to be a symbol of the mythical world. Its upper part — the top — is the dwelling place of divinity and birds and relates to the heaven. The average part, to which the ground corresponds, is inhabited by people, forest animals and livestock. In the lower part, to which the underground corresponds, reptiles, fish, beetles, mice dwell, and it is associated with the ultramundane. In Latvian mythology, the cosmic tree is most often represented by an oak. The cosmic tree in various nations’ traditions has several types: that of the Sun, Life and Death, that of the Good and the Evil, etc.
