In his "Prussian Chronicle", Grunau thought that the name of the sacred grove of Romuva derives from the word "Rome". Although he was wrong in the strict sense, the word "Romuva" stems from the Baltic root "ruomot", meaning "growing". The "growing" refers to the nourishment,...

...the feeding of the baby by mother's milk and also the nourishment of the fetus via the placenta. "Roma" comes from "ruma" which in Etruscan means "breast".

So, the most sacred of all the groves in the Baltic has a name related to "nourishment". Why? First because it is...

...a part of Nature left free from man's exploitation, allowing Nature to blossom and, in turn, nourish man with her treasures. Secondly, because it's a place for rituals of rebirth, where the initiate reincarnates their ancestors, himself given to himself.

The very word...

... for "grove" ("alsos" in Greek, "alkas" in Baltic, "alhs" in Gothic) comes from a PIE root that means "to set aside", denoting a protected space, but also "to nourish" (cf. Latin "alumnus").

I hope that this sheds some light on how our Forebears perceived their sacred groves