Hiidtamme (Hiidtamm)

Giant oak. The hiid > hiie (see next entry), hiidtamm > hiietamm relation is interesting. It is quite likely that simply becoming large, over human generations, gives it ‘sacred’ qualities too. See Tamme. The oldest known oak in Estonia is the Tamme-Lauri oak, in Võrumaa. Almost 700 years old, with a height of 17 m and a chest-height circumference of 8.25 m, it decorated the back of the 10-krooni banknote (for information on Estonian currency, see Krooni).