Information about the pre-Christian and medieval Estonian mythology is scattered in historical chronicles, travellers' accounts and in ecclesiastical registers.
Henry of Livonia also describes in his chronicle an Estonian legend originating in Virumaa in northern Estonia – about a mountain and a forest where a god named Tharapita, worshipped by Oeselians, had been born.
Changes occurred in proto-Estonian mythology as a result of the contacts with Baltic and Germanic tribes, as well as the transition from hunting and gathering to farming.
Personifications of celestial bodies, sky and weather deities and fertility gods gained importance in the world of the farmers.
Proto Estonian pre-Christian deities also may have included a sky-god by name Jumal, known also by other Finnic peoples as Jumala in Finnish and Jumo in Mari.
Other mythical motifs from Estonian runic songs: It has been suggested by ethnologist and former president Lennart Meri (among others), that a Kaali meteorite which passed dramatically over populated regions and landed on the island of Saaremaa around 3,000–4,000 years ago was a cataclysmic event that may have influenced the mythology of Estonia and neighboring countries, especially those from whose vantage point a "sun" seemed to set in the east.
[4] In the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, cantos 47, 48 and 49 can be interpreted as descriptions of the impact, the resulting tsunami and devastating forest fires.
During the era of Estonian national awakening the elements in the literary mythology were quickly and readily incorporated into contemporary popular culture through media and school textbooks.