Other references to the location
In the upper part of the slope of the Užava River's right bank, upwards the Idols' Brook's estuary into the Užava, on the verge of the slope of the brook's left bank, 1.5 km from the Užava village's centre. The indication sign by the Ventspils–Liepāja highway and by the country road not far from the Idols' Linden will help to find the site.
Description
The circumference of the linden in autumn 2011 was 2.96 m. The linden is not a secular tree, it is important only as an ancient site. An archaeological monument under the state protection.
Narrative
According to folkloric evidence, yet at the beginning of the century there were offerings left – coins, corn spikes stuck into the tree hollow. According to tales, if somebody happened to have an abscess or some other illness, the ill spot had to be rubbed with a rag, which then had to be hung into the linden's branches. After the World War II, there were yet colourful rags seen in the tree. According to a belief, people who had broken a linden's branch would die or injure themselves. The brook, on the bank of which the Idols' Linden grows, is called Idols' Brook. Its natural onflow has been preserved only about the last 50 meters, because upwards it has been meliorated just as a common draining–ditch. There is a tale known about the linden and the brook: "Some farm labourer was driving once late in the evening in winter during thaw with a firewood cart. The ditch at the linden had thawed and the driver could not cross it. Then he chopped down three linden's branches and threw them over the ditch, crossing the ditch then. Next morning, when chopping firewood in the forest, he cut off three of his fingers.” (Recorded by Andrejs Ķeizars, 856, 103, 30s of the 20th century)
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