Monthly Archives: July 2015

On Krok the Czech, Libuse and Premysl

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Now that we have taken our time to discuss the Polish Krak and Wanda here and here, we have decided it was time to relay some information about the Czech Krok, his three daughters and his son-in-law – Premysl – the protoplast of the Czech ruling house, the ploughman Premysl (who, seems very similar in his background to Piast whom we briefly introduced here).

crocco

The below are excerpts from Lisa Wolverhampton’s translation of Cosmas’ Chronicle of the Czechs (with some, we think, improvements).  The pictures of the chronicle itself are from the Budisin/Bautzen Codex of Chronica Boemorum.  And so without further ado, we give the voice to Cosmas:

Chronicle of the Czechs

On Krok and His Three Daughters

“One particular man had arisen among them, called Krok, after whom a castle is known to have been named, located in the forest adjacent to Ztibecna and now overrun by trees.  He was a man absolutely perfect in his generations, exceptional for his wealth in secular things, discreet in considering lawsuits.”

krokcompanies

Krok with His Three Daughters

“Like bees to their hive, so everyone, both from his own tribe and from the common folk of the whole province, flocked to him to sort out their lawsuits.  Such a great man lacked a manly offspring.  Nevertheless, he fathered three daughters, to whom nature gave riches of wisdom no fewer than she was accustomed to give men.”

kazi3

Kazi was the emotional one

“The eldest of them was named Kazi who surpassed Medea of Colchis in herbs and song and the Paeonian master in medicinal art, because she often made the Fates themselves cease their unending work and oracles follow the commands of her song.  Hence the inhabitants of this land, when the lose something and despair of its recovery, say the following proverb about her: ‘Even Kazi herself cannot get it back.’ Like the place there the daughter of Ceres was abducted by a tyrant, her burial mount cash still be seen today, heaped up very high by the inhabitants of the land in memory of their mistress, on the bank of the River Mze near the road which leads to the province of Bechne, over the mountain called Osek.”

tetka2

The very Bohemian Tetka with a specimen of local fauna

“Worthy of praise though second by birth, Tetka was a woman of keen discernment lacking a husband.  She built a castle on the River Mze, named Tetin after herself, well fortified by the nature of the placem with rocks reaching steeply to the summit.  She taught the stupid and senseless people to adore and worship Oreads, Dryads, and Hamadryads, and established every superstitious sect and sacrilegious rite.  Like many villagers up until now, just like pagans, this one worships waters of fires, hat one adores groves and trees and stones, another sacrifices to mountains or hills, and still another beseeches and prays to the deaf and dumb idols he has made himself, so that they rule both his home and his one self.”

libuce

Libuse was able to see far

“Younger by birth but older in wisdom, the third was called Libuse.  She built a castle, the most powerful then, next to the forest which reaches to the area of Ztibecna, and called it Libusin after her own name.”

“She was truly a woman among women: cautious in counsel, quick to speak, chaste in body, upright in character, second to no one in resolving lawsuits of the people.  Affable, even lovable, in all things, she adorned and glorified the feminine sea while handling masculine affairs with foresight.  But because no one is altogether blessed, this woman of such quality and of so great praise – alas the terrible human condition! – was a prophetess [phitonissa].  Since she predicted many proven futures for people, that whole people took common counsel and set her up as judge over them after the dearth of her father.”

A Challenge to Libuse

“At that that time not a small litigation arose concerning the boundaries of a contiguous filed between two citizens, both among the more eminent in wealth and birth, men who considered themselves leaders of the people.  They erupted to such a degree into mutual conflict that one flew at the thick beard of the other with his fingernails.  Exposing the sounds of their confrontation and confounding each other disgracefully with a finger under the nose, they entered the court raving.  Not without a great din, they approached the lady and asked humbly that Libuse resolve the undecided case between them by reason of justice.  She, meanwhile – as is the wanton softness of women when they do not have a man whom they fear – reclined very softly deep in a painted coverlet, propped on an elbow, as if she had just given birth to a child.  Walking on the path of justice, not respecting men’s persons, she brought the cause of the whole controversy that had arisen between them to a state of rectitude.”

“Yet he whose cause did not win the palm [of victory] on the judgment, more indignant than was fitting, shook his head three or four times, foolishly hit the ground thrice with his staff, and with a full mouth, saliva sprinkling his beard, cried out: ‘Oh, the injuries hardly to be tolerated by men!  A woman full of cracks treats manly judgments with a deceitful mind.  We know indeed that a woman standing or sitting on a throne knows little; how much less must she know when she is reclining on a coverlet?  Truthfully, this posture is more suitable to the approach of a husband than to prescribing laws to warriors.  They all have long hair, to be sure, but women are short on sense.  A man should rather die than suffer such things.  A disgrace among nations and peoples, nature has forsaken us alone, who lack a ruler and manly severity, and whom feminine laws rule.'”

notsofastlibuse

“Not so fast Libuse – where is your man?”

“At this the lady smiled, dissembling the insult made to her and concealing her heart’s pain in feminine modesty.  ‘It is,’ she said, ‘as you say: I am a woman, I live as a woman, and for that reason I seem to you to know too little.  Because I do not judge you with a rod of iron and since you live without fear, you rightly look down on me.  For where fear is, there is honor.  Now, it is very necessary that you have a ruler fiercer than a woman.  Just as the doves once spurned a white bird for a kite whom they had chosen as their king, so you spurn me.  They appointed as their duke a much fiercer hawk, who, inventing crimes, began to kill both the innocent and the wicked.  From then until now, the hawk eats the dove.  Go home now.  I will accept as my husband whomever you should choose tomorrow as your lord.'”

“Meanwhile, she summoned the aforesaid sisters, who stirred up matching rages.  With their magical skill and her own, she made a fool of the people through everything.  Libuse herself was, as we said above, a prophetess like Sibyl of Cumae, the other sister a sorceress of potions like Medea of Colchis, and the third an enchanter like Aeaean Circe.  What kind of counsel those three Eumenides obtained that night and what kind of secret they carried out was then unknown.  Nevertheless it was made manifest – clearer than light – to everyone in the morning, when their sister Libuse revealed both the place where the future duke was hidden and who he was by name.  Who would believe that they would request their first duke from the plow?  And who would know where plows the man who would become ruler of the people?  What does prophetic rage not know?  And what is there that magical skill cannot make happen?  Sibyl was able to predict to the Roman people the course of their destinies almost to the day.  She even – if we can believe it – foretold of Christ.  (A certain teacher inserted verses about the coming of the Lord, composed by Virgil for the persona of Sybil, in the words of his preaching.)”

“Medea was often able to lead Hyperion and Berecynthia back from heaven through her herbs and song; she was able to call forth rainstorms, lightning, and thunder from the clouds; she was able to make the Aegean king a youth from an old man.  By the song of Circe, the friends of Ulysses were transformed into various forms of wild animals, and King Picus into the flying creature which is now called a picos [woodpecker].  What wonder?  How much did magi in Egypt do through their arts, they who performed almost every kind of wonder with their song, as many wonders as Moses, God’s servant, was said to have produced from God’s power?  Enough of that.”

The Lecture of Libuse

“The next day, as was ordered, they convened an assembly without delay and gathered the people; at once everyone came together into one.  Sitting on the highest throne, the woman addressed the boorish men: ‘Oh most pitiable common folk, who do not know that you live free and that no good man gives up [freedom] except with his life.  You flee that freedom not unwillingly and submit your necks voluntarily to unaccustomed servitude.  Alas, later you will regret in vain, as the frogs regretted it when the serpent whom they had made their king, began to kill them.  If you do not know what the rights of a duke might be, I will try to tell you in a few words.”

betternagging

Everyone enjoyed Libuse’s lectures

“First, it is easy to appoint a duke, but difficult to depose one appointed.  For he who is now under your power, whether [it was] you [who] made him a duke or not, when later he is established, you and everything your will be in his power.  In his presence your knees will tremble and your mute tongue stick to the roof of your dry mouth.  Because of great fright you will hardly respond to his voice, ‘yes, lord, yes, lord,’ when by his command alone and without your fore judgment he will damn this one and slaughter that one, order these sent to prison and those hanged from the gallows.”

“He will make you yourselves and from your midst, as he pleases, some slaves, some peasants, some taxpayers, some tax collectors, some executioners, some heralds, some cooks or bakers or millers.  He will establish for himself tribunes, centurions, bailiffs, cultivators of vineyards and fields, reapers of grain, makers of arms, sewers of various hides and skins.  He will force your sons and daughters into obedience to hi,m.  From even your oxen and horses and mares and cattle he will take, at his pleasure, whichever are best.  Everything yours, what is better in villages and in plains, in fields and meadows and vineyards, he will take away and reduce to his own use.  Why do I delay with these words?  Toward what end do I speak as if to frighten you?  If you persist in what you have begin and do not swear your oath falsely, I will now announce to you both the duke’s name and the place where he is.”

Libuse’s Quest

“At this, the base commoners jumped up with a disordered shout; with one voice everyone demanded a duke be given to them.  Libuse said to them: ‘Behold! Beyond those mountains’ – and she pointed to the mountains with her finger – ‘is a river not yet large, named Bilina, on whose banks a village is to be found, Stadice by name.”

“In its territory lies one newly cleared field, twelve paces in length and in width, which – wonder of wonders – while positioned in the midst of some many [arable] fields, yet pertains to no field.  There your duke plows with two parti-colored oxen: one ox is girded with white and has a white head, the other is white from forehead to rear and has white rear feet.  Now, if  you please, take my ankle-length robe and mantle, and capes fitting for a duke and go.  Report my and the people’s commands to that man, and bring back your duke and my husband.  The name of the man, who will think up [excogitabit] many laws upon your necks and heads, is Premysl (for this name means in Latin, ‘thinking upon’ [superexcogitans] or ‘thinking beforehand’ [premeditans]).  His subsequent progeny will rule all this land forever and ever.”

questers

Libuse’s most trusted servants were chosen for the mission and equipped with a detailed map

“Meanwhile, messengers were chosen, who would bring the lady’s and the common folk’s orders to the man.  When Libuse saw them delaying, as if they did not know the way, she said: ‘What delays you?  Go confidently: follow my horse.  He will lead you on the right road and bring you back, because that road has been trod by him more than once.’  Empty rumor and false conjecture both fly that , always at night, Libuse, on an imaginary ride, was accustomed to go there in the evening and return before daybreak  (Let Apella the Jew believe it!)  What then? Wise, though uneducated, well aware of their ignorance, the messengers proceeded, following the horse’s footsteps.”

“Soon they crossed mountains and eventually approached the village to which they went.  One boy ran to meet them; they said to him, inquiring: ‘Hark, excellent boy! Is not that village named Stadice?  If it is, is a man named Premysl in it it?’  The boy said: ‘It is the village you seek.  And behold, the man Premysl goads his oxen in the field nearby so that he might finish more quickly the work he is doing.'”

The Meeting with Premysl

“Approaching him, the messengers said, ‘Happy man! Duke produced by the Gods for us!’  As is the custom for peasants, it was not sufficient to have said once, so with puffed out cheeks, the predated: ‘Hail, duke! Hail, most worthy of great praise!  Release the oxen, change your clothes, and mount this horse!’  And they showed him the clothes and the nighing horse.  ‘Our lady Libuse and all the common folk demand that you come quickly and take up the realm fated for you and your descendants.  Everything ours and we ourselves are in your hand.  We elect you duke, you judge, you ruler, you protector, you our only lord.'”

premyslpremysl

When they saw Premysl, they knew he was their man

“At this speech the foreseeing man, as if unaware of future things, halted and fixed in the earth the prod he carried in his hand.  Releasing the oxen, he said, ‘Let us go to the place you came from.’  Immediately, quicker than can be said, the oxen vanished from his sight and were never seen again.  The hazel-wood prod which he had fixed in the ground produced three branches and – what is more miraculous – leaves and nuts.  Seeing such things happen thus, the messengers stood astonished.  In turn thinking the visitors, Premysl invited them to a meal, shook moldy bread and part of a cheese out of his cork-wovern bag, put the bag in the ground for a table, and placed other things on the rough cloth.”

“Then while they were eating the meal and drinking water from a jug, two of the branches or two of the bushes) withered and died, but the third grew much higher and wider.  Whence greater astonishment, mingled with fear, grew in the visitors.  Premysl said: ‘What are you astonished at?  You should know that from our progeny many lords will be born, but one will always dominate.  If your lady does not immediately hurry in this matter, but awaits the galloping fates awhile and does not quickly send for me, as many master’s sons as nature produces, your land will have that many lords.'”

“Afterward, dressed in a princely garment and shod with regal shoes, the plowman mounted his spirited horse.  Still, not forgetful of his lot, he took with him his boots, stitched in every part from cork, and ordered them preserved for posterity.  They are indeed preserved now and forever in the duke’s treasury at Vysehrad.”

The Wisdom of Premysl

“It so happened that, while they took a short cut, until now the messengers had not yet dared to speak more familiarly to their new lord.  Just like doves when some falcon approaches them, they first tremble at it but soon become accustomed to its flight, make it their own, and love it.  Thus, while the riders chatted, shortened the trip with conversation, and lightened their labor by joking and with jesting words, one of them, who was more audacious and quicker to speak, said, ‘O Lord, tell us: why did you make us save those woven cork shoes, fit for nothing except to be thrown away?  We cannot wonder at this enough.’  Premysl said to them: ‘I had them saved and will have them preserved forever for this reason: so that our descendants will know whence they sprang, and so that they will always live trembling and distrustful, and will not unjustly, out of arrogance, oppress the men committed to them by God, because we are all made equals by nature.  Now allow me to inquire in turn of you, whether it is more praiseworthy to be raised from poverty to honor or to be reduced from honor into poverty?”

hrrrrr

Premysl’s speech had to be reconstructed as no one in the rapt audience could pull himself away to write it down

“Of course, you will tell me that it is better to be raised to glory than to be reduced to indigence.  Yet some people, born of noble parentage, are later reduced to base indigence and made wretched.  When they proclaim their parents to have been glorious and to have had power over others, they are hardly unaware that they confound and debase themselves more when they lose through their own laziness what their parents had possessed through industry,  Fortune always plays this game of chance with her wheel: now she raises these men to the pinnacle, and now she plunges those into the depths.  Whence it might happen that earthly honor, which brought glory for a time, is lost to disgrace.  Truly, poverty conquered through virtue does not hide itself under a wolf’s pelt but lifts up to the stars as a victor him whom it had once dragged to the depths.”

The Meeting of Libuse and Premysl

“After they had traversed the road and eventually arrived near the burg, the lady rushed to meet them surrounded by her followers.  With their right hands entwined, Libuse and Premysl went indoors with great rejoicing, reclined on couches, refreshed their bodies with Ceres and Bacchus, and gave themselves up to Venus and Hymen for the rest of the night.”

bestactorbridges

Libuse & Premysl together at last

“This man – who is deservedly to be called a man from his might – restrained this savage people with laws, tamed the untamed populace by his command, and subjected them to servitude by which they are now oppressed.  All the laws which this land possesses and by which it is ruled, he alone with only Libuse decreed.”

The Establishment of Prague

“One day, at the beginning of the new reign of laws, the aforesaid Libuse, excited by prophesy, with her husband Premysl present and other elders of the people standing nearby, foretold thus: ‘ I see a burg, whose fame touches the stars, situated in a forest, thirty stades distant from the village where the Vltava ends in streams.  From the North the stream Brusnice in a deep valley strongly fortifies the burg; from the south a broad, very rocky mountain, called Petrin from rocks [petrae], dominates the place.  The mountain in that spot is curved like a dolphin, a sea pig, stretching to the aforesaid stream.”

“When you come to that place, you will find a man putting up the doorway of a house in the middle of the forest.  From that event – and since even a great lord must duck under a humble threshold – the burg you all build, you will call Prague [Praha, from pray, threshold].  In this burg, one day in the future, two golden olive trees will grow up; they will reach the seventh heaven with their tops and glitter throughout the whole world with signs and miracles.  All the tribes of the land of Bohemia, and other nations too, will worship and adore them, against their enemies and with gifts.  One of these will be called ‘Greater Glory,’ the other, ‘Consolation of the Army.'”

[these are references to Saint Vaclav and Saint Vojtech/Adalbert]

prague

Once the architects were done with their designs, Prague was built at an incredible pace

“More was to be said, if the pestilential and prophetic spirit had not fled from the image of God.  Immedaitely passing into the primeval forest and having found the given sign, in the aforesaid place they built the burg of Prague, mistress of all Bohemia.”

Meanwhile Somewhere Else But Close By

“At that time the maidens of that land, growing up without a yoke, pursuing military arms like Amazons and making leaders for themselves, fought together like young soldiers and trod manfully through the forests on hunts.  Men did not take them, but they took men for themselves, whichever ones they wanted and whenever they wanted.  Just like the Scythian people, the Plauci or the Pechenegs, man and woman also had no distinction in their dress.  Whence their feminine audacity grew so great that on a  certain cliff not far from the aforementioned [Prague], they built themselves a fortress fortified by the nature of its location.  It was given the name Devin, from a maidenly word [i.e., deva, a girl] .  Seeing this, young men, many of them coming together at once, angry with the women and very jealous, built a burg among the bushes on another cliff, no farther than a trumpet call [from Devin].  Present-day men call it Vysehrad, but at that time it took the name Chrasten from the business [chrasti].”

amazons

Unfortunately, as soon as Prague was built it was threatened by vicious Amazons

“Because the maidens were often more clever at duping the young men, and because the young men were often stronger than the maidens, there was sometimes war between them and sometimes peace.  At a time when they possesses peace between them, it pleased both parties to come together with food and drink as a token [of that peace].  For three days they engaged in festive sport – without arms – in an agreed upon place.  What more?  In no other way could  the young men have fun with the girls.  And so, like rapacious wolves seeking food, they entered the sheepfold.  They spent the first day merry, with sumptuous food and too much drink.  While they wanted to quench their thirst, another thirst sprang up, and the young men could hardly defer their happiness to the hour of the night.  It was night and the moon was shining in a cloudless sky.  Then blowing a horn , one of the men gave the signal to the others ,saying: ‘You have played enough, you have eaten and drunk enough.  Arise!  Golden Venus calls you with the hoarse rattle.’  Immediately, each of the men carried off a girl.”  Come morning and having entered into agreement of peace, supported by Ceres and Bacchus, the girls yielded the empty walls of their fortress to Vulcan of Lemnos.  Since that time, after the death of Prince Libuse, the women of our people are under the power of men.”

“But since all men have a journey to make, where Numa and Ancus have gone before, so Premysl, now full of days, who was worshipped like a god while living, was carried off to the son-in-law of Ceres after he established the rule of laws.  Nezamysl succeeded him in rule.”

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July 4, 2015

On the Sorbs – Albis Germaniae Suevos a Cerveciis dividiit

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We believe the Sorb people deserve more attention than they have thus far received here – and deserve their own tab apart from the other major Polabian Slavs (Obotrites and Veleti).

Admittedly, the Sorbs (and Serbs) are a bit of mystery within the Slavic family.  They are most often accused of having Eastern, “Sarmatian” or “Iranian” roots (the Croats, or at least some of them, get dragged into this as well).  But as we have shown, Sarmatian peoples (in the shape of the Iazyges) were not only no strangers to Europe but, in fact, their most notable “friends” on our continent were the Suevi.  Were there other Sarmatians?

sorbenlittlepeople

The Sorbs are Little People – and They Need YOUR Help!

And what better way to begin their story – though, we think, mid-stream – than with that 4th or 5th century writer, Vibius Sequester.  Mind you, he was a 4th (i.e., 300s) or 5th (i.e., 400s) century A.D. persona.  And while Slavologists (or whatever) talk freely about Jordanes and Procopius (even if only to lambast the former), they are somehow silent about Vibius – why?

vibiis

Vibius, you see, wrote a little pamphlet of lists called De fluminibus, fontibus, lacubus, nemoribus, gentibus, quorum apud poëtas mention.  It contains lists of various things but, currently, what’s of interest to us, is the list of Flumina, i.e., rivers/waterways.  There, on his list we have the following sentence:

Albis Germaniae Suevos a Cerveciis dividiit: mergitur in Oceanum

or, “Elbe of Germany divides the Suevi from the Cervecii and empties into the Ocean”

[as to the Ocean, actually the reference is to the North Sea but ok; some manuscripts do not contain this reference]

In two manuscripts the name is shown as Corvitiis and Servitiis (!)

All the manuscripts feature the above forms.  However, the printed editions vary.  Originally, they all followed the above formulations.  But in the Jeremias Jacob Oberlin (1735-1806) edition of Vibius, published in 1778, a switch was made to Cherusci.  Why?  Oberlin, confessed that this was based on a conjecture of (apparently, though this itself is not clear, of a 16th century Swiss theologian, Josias Simmler).  From that edition onwards the name Cherusci began to appear in the Vibius editions.  For no apparent reason. Other than… Well, it can’t be Serbs, right?

So who were the Cervecii?  

The natural thought would be that these were Servii or Serbii or, using today’s nomenclature, just Sorbs.  The Sorbs appear in the Story of Samo so we know that they were on the Elbe in the early to mid 7th century.  (Some recent dendrochronological measurements put Slavic settlement on the Elbe in the 8th century – go figure – apparently, if there is no sufficiently aged wood, there are no Slavs – a new requirement).

Ok, early 7th century.  But 4th or 5th century?  That can’t be right.  After all there were no Slavs in Europe at the time, right?

And there is something else.

On the Serbs and Suevi

The Bavarian Geographer’s list traces the Slavs – or at least the Eastern ones (there are at least two separate lists within that list) – to a people called Zeriuani – no one really knows who these were – were they Zerivani?  Zervingi? Tervingi?  Do they (any of them) have something to do with the Черве́нські городи́/ Rotburgenland or Tscherwener Burgenland/Grady tscherwenske/Grody Czerwieńskie?  These are located partly in Poland and partly in Ukraine (here is a Polish map):

cervenske

But some have suggested a Serb or Sorb connection.  The same Slavic tribe list also contains the mysterious line about the Suevi being “sown” not “born” (and also about the Boii being from the River Boia), i.e., “Suevi non sunt nati sed seminati.”

Further, we may ask, putting aside the Cervecii, what’s going on with the Suevi here?  Were they not to be found in the Swabia of today already?  Is this proof of the Suevi being on the Elbe in the 4th or 5th century?  Is that the same population as the population of the North Suavi, i.e., Nordschwaben that we discussed as being suspiciously close to Slavs here?

Cervetiis (Vaticanus Latin 4929)

In any event, if these are Serbs/Sorbs, it is interesting then to see here them so close to the Suevi – another population with “source” potential for the Slavic question.

suevoz

Suedos? Servetiis? (Parisian Codex Latin 8413)

Does this mean that between the Suevi, the Serbs and the Veneti, we probably have our Slavs covered (somewhere in there, wherever that may be)?

And what if the Cherusci?  Well, they last appear in Tacitus about 98 A.D. and make it into Ptolemy’s Geography – meaning their last mention is in the 2nd century.   So could these have been Cherusci?

Sure, anything is, of course, “possible”.  What will people think of next?  Perhaps that Cherusci were Serbs!?

cherusci

The Latin “forte” means “possibly” – but why?

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July 2, 2015

Politicizing Roots

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Every once in a while we come across information that sheds some light on a particularly convoluted topic (which usually is a good opportunity to do some ranting – for those who do not care for rants, see you next time).

Sometimes, such information radically changes our previously held views, at other times it adds needed confirmation to what has long been suspected.  A fascinating example of the latter has come to our attention, courtesy of the University of Warsaw and the Polish Education Ministry.  But first for some brief background.

19th Century – First Half of the 20th Century

In this period, the discussion about Germans and Slavs on the territory of present Poland (specifically, in the Oder and Vistula area was a shouting match between the hyper nationalists of the German school who, in order to justify continued territorial claims in the East, concocted  theories that denied any room for the existence of Slavs in the same area (or indeed in Central Europe) before the 5th and maybe even 6th centuries.  There were many proponents of this view from:

  • the seemingly dim Johann Kaspar Zeuss, best remembered in the words of a poem:

Was man nicht deutsch erklären kann,

Das sieht man gleich als keltisch an

(What can’t possibly be explained as Germanic, that is immediately seen as Celtic)

  • the proto-Nazi Gustaf Kossina (member of the “Nordic Ring” society, loving teacher of such luminaries as SS-Obersturmbannführer Hans Schleiff), to
  • the Noble prize winning Theodor Mommsen – in eigenen Worten:

 “the Czech skull is impervious to reason, but it is susceptible to blows

and once more:

In any event, much more will fall away from the German Nation than the children of Israel, when its current form is corrected [durchkorrigiert] to fit with Tacitus’ Germania.  Mr. Quatrefages had shown many years ago that only the central states [of Germany] are truly German and that the Prussian race is a mass of peoples made up of reprobate Slavs and all kinds of other waste of humanity.

(to be clear, this was written by Mommsen to defend (!) Jews against Treitschke  In other words, Mommsen’s view was, “yes, Jews are, of course, not Germans but, come on, look at all the other crap that we have living here in Germany”)

And many, many others who sacrificed scientific objectivity for their exploration of inner demons, pursuit of careers and raw politics.

durchkorrigierung1

Mommsen’s “Durchkorrigierung” Begins

The fact that Mommsen was Danish and Kossina Polish should provide some exculpation for the Germans as well as a window into the twisted souls of some of these creatures (of course, if one were to go through Germany with a magnifying glass and see who actually has Scandinavian ancestors, many, many more Kossinas would first be found – many with names you would never have guessed were not Nordic).

14th December 1945: Huddling in blankets the only survivors of an original 150 Polish people who walked from Lodz in Poland to Berlin hoping to find food and shelter. They are waiting by a railway track hoping to be picked up by a British army train and given help. (Photo by Fred Ramage/Keystone/Getty Images)

Side Effects of Mommsen’s “Durchkorrigierung”

Since, with the exception of tiny Serbia, there were no independent (not counting the Romanov Empire’s prison of nations) Slavic nation-states throughout most of the 19th century (people should remember that when bemoaning the effects of World War I), any response to this kind of “science” had to be a private one.  And, indeed, many Czechs, Poles and others undertook to tackle this kind of behaviour financing their activities and publications often out of their own private funds given official indifference or even hostility.  It was an uphill battle for it was fought against the machinery of the state but, in the end, it was victorious.

Even if for only a little while.

21st Century 

Compared to the many works produced by scholars roughly through the mid-20th century, what strikes one today is the paucity of decent (forget good, how about merely decent!) scholarship regarding Slavs.  There literally has not been a single respectable book published in English-speaking academia in over 50 years.  The situation in the local Slavic publishing world is not much better.  What gives?  People too busy with their every day lives to write or read about this stuff?  Maybe.  But is that it?

The response to the question of the autochtonous nature of the Slavs in Central Europe once again seems to shed some light on what may be going on.

If in the 19th century German historiography had a political goal of incorporating Slavs into the German nation – as Germans; if during the (late) Nazi time, the goal became separation and subjugation of those who would not hop on board; nowadays, a new goal is on the horizon.

Puzzle Palace

Whereas before Slavic autochtonism was a stumbling block on the road to consolidation of the lands of the overstretched reformed Germany Empire, now Slavic authochtonism is a major problem for the plans laid out for Europe in general.  Since, as we see recently, the party line is that anyone can come to Europe and anyone can be a European, the idea of a “native” or indigenous population is not too popular an idea.

After all, if there are “natives” then, one might ask, whether it is the natives that have a right to their lands – a right, tentatively speaking, greater than anybody else.  Greater than others from within Europe and certainly greater than others from outside.

But in the age of globalization this presents a problem.  The economics and demographics of Europe in relation to the economics and demographics of nearly everywhere else other than Asia are such that a migration stream is all but inevitable as people are swept up by dreams of a better life somewhere else.

The elites have no mechanisms for dealing with the underlying structural problems in the origin countries except foreign aid…  [Now, if you thought that the various foreign aid programs have an uncanny resemblance to the kind of “stipends” that the Byzantines and Romans paid to their barbarians, you would not be the only one thinking that (you’ve got to wonder how much of what got paid to Gothic kunungs and Avar khagans ended up back in Constantinople’s bank vaults).]

All the Western elites can really try to do is to try to influence (one way or another) the future host populations.

And whereas no one cares about migrations to third world countries because whatever strife or misery such a migration may cause, the global impact of such upheavals is unlikely to create anything other than misery and violence in the given locality, e.g., the UAE or South Africa – Europe (and America, Japan) is different.

If the Europeans were to try to object to all of this, things could get proverbially ugly.  Europe has, ahem, a history.  And Europe has the technological capabilities to create a rather nasty “reactionary” regime.  In this respect, realistically, a regime that could halt or reverse some of these global trends would not be a democratic regime and such a regime could, for example, seek nuclear weapons, etc, etc, etc.

This is a problem (though, again, not just for Europe) because while the rich and powerful of this world do not determine the world’s course and had not planned any of this, neither do they want to be swept along with all of its currents – if they were there just for the ride, they would not be rich and powerful for long.  And, once someone has power, then, of course, that someone is unlikely to willingly want to surrender it.  So managing inevitable change (or at least inevitable to those that believe that the cure would be worse than the disease) becomes extremely relevant.

In this respect, Germany is the key to Europe and it has recently become clear Germany has been either successfully pacified…

(Proponents of the “pacification view” point to recent events such as the fact that the German football team will no longer be the Nationalmannschaft – just the Mannschaft.  No more national, in other words, in Germany (whether this suggests that some players on the team are, ahem, not German or whether using the word “Mann” is offensive to women folk, are the kinds of political mines that we will let the Germans, or what’s left of them, decide)).

… or at least co-opted to play a policeman role (at least on this matter).

But to be serious, these people are not evil – rather, they have that endearing combination of both being robustly filled with utter certitude as well as being entirely clueless]

And the pacification or co-optation of Germany means that Germany can now be used (or, again, can do so, reassessing its interests, willingly) to pacify or co-opt others.  After all, it is a model democracy and the most inclusive country on the continent (and there is that export-driven economy which is its Achilles heel).  Why not use it as a cudgel to help others fall in line?  All you have to appeal to is German sense of humanity and democracy (for some would be cudgelers) and to German nationalism (for other, unreformed, cudgelers).  After all, in the end, it does not matter why they will do what they will do.

This is why, once again, historical truth regarding Slavs (and others) becomes hostage to the day’s politics – this time on a global stage.

Dispeling and Deconstructing “National Myths”

And so, it is difficult not to notice that, beginning in the 1990s (or late 1980s even) the German juggernaut was being repurposed as a steamroller against the resurgence of ugly Slavic nationalism.  Foundations and institutes were established.  Scientific articles were written.  And donations and subsidies were handed out to understanding individuals and various “independent” organizations all over Central Europe.

Sometimes, the results of such deconstructive scholarship were quite amusing:

  • as when one would be scholar of the topic tried to argue that a migration myth has always been an appealing myth to the Slavic nationalist.

Thereby wonderfully illustrating that all that took place in the ’90s was a dusting off of the various essays earlier written by the same crowd about the Germanen (who, if by this term we mean the Norse, in our view, really did – originally – come out of Scandinavia but did not then walk into empty lands);

To all prospective deconstructors: if you aim to deconstruct our national myths then, at least, have the common courtesy of deconstructing our national “myths” not those of other peoples.

  • or when another thinker constructed a theory of Slavic identity as imposed from above and the Slavic “nation” basically being a collection of pre-existing populations;

Then had to quickly backpedal when he realized that this effectively legitimized the so-called Venetic Theory…

In all of this, history and truth cannot matter.  Europeans are being reeducated and Slavs were just accepted as full-fledged passengers on the Euro-tanic.

But we are being only half-serious when pointing the finger at the “globalists”. Facts are what they are and the globalists do not shape them they only ride with them as best as they can.  Moreover, the Germans, no doubt, think they have a very good reason to reeducate the East independent of any pan-European or globalist designs – the more accepting the Slavs are of “Others”, the fewer “Others” end up in Germany… The fewer riots in Germany, etc. After all, wasn’t Poland the dumping ground of, to quote one illustrious German Noble Prize winner, “all kinds of … waste of humanity“?

And this should help answer the question of why the nature of Slavic scholarship is – recently – of such very, very poor quality.

A Case in Point

Let’s just take a look at one modest example.

This Polish website:  www.mpov.uw.edu.pl is advertised as created by the “National Center for Science” (“national” for how much longer?) which on its page states:

“There is urgent [sic] need for a thorough new study of the cultural, social, ethnic, demographic and environmental transition observed in Central Europe during the Migration Period. A greatly improved recognition of these processes may be gained by taking a diachronic and interdisciplinary approach.  This is precisely the aim of our 5-year Project began in mid-2012 – to investigate in a comprehensive manner processes observed between the late 4th and early 7th century on the Odra and the Vistula. This region could be crucial for tracing the processes sweeping across Europe. From here the Germans – the Goths and the Vandals spilled out and played their part in the fall of the Western Roman Empire, setting up their first states over its ruins.”

One might ask, why is there an “urgent” need to study these processes of “transition” now?  What makes it urgent now?  Is it perhaps the fact that Europe is experiencing an unprecedented migration by non-Europeans – something that was entirely foreseeable for the last 50 years?

The website states its purpose in plain (albeit slightly broken) English:

“Input from our Project is expected to essentially alter views commonly accepted in archaeology, late Antiquity and early medieval history, palaeodemography and palaeobotany, especially, on the causes and course of settlement in Central Europe on the turn of Antiquity and Middle Ages, demographic and ethnic processes, the extent of colonisation, destruction and regeneration of the natural environment. We expect a significant impact on the public in and outside Poland, particularly, their sense of identity which has its roots in the Migration Period, the time of the first medieval states established over the ruins of the Roman Empire and its periphery.  The fictitious “proto-Slav past” of Poland will now be replaced with hard facts.  By broadcasting the research results, both in traditional form (conferences, publications and exhibitions) and especially, in an interactive form (e.g., presentations on the web, including social networking sites, and also, during themed picnics), and through mass media, we expect to promote interest, especially of the younger generation, in past changes in civilisation for a better understanding of the modern age.

[note that the underlined language was highlighted by the authors of this quote]

This is not a conspiracy.  It’s a consensus.  It’s as open as possible.  They are basically saying that:

  • ONE: the dispute about the proto-Slavic past is now over and Proto-Slavs re a “fiction”

Notice this itself is a curious claim – have there been new sources of information discovered?  Did someone find Cassiodorus’ Chronicle and we just missed it?;  if the dispute is, in fact, over then why does the Project have to “essentially alter views commonly accepted in archaeology, late Antiquity and early medieval history, palaeodemography and palaeobotany.”  These are not views of the “common people” after all.  (If you have a neighbor that is hard-core into palaeobotany, please let us know, we’ll get him on Oprah).

Why do the views of a scientific community have to be “essentially altered” if this is all so uncontroversial?

  • TWO: the aim of the project is to change the sense of identity of the Poles (though we can only assume that similar projects are underway in other European and Slavic countries) especially young people.

Now, almost all of the team members of this illustrious Project team are Polish.  Although you get some curious cases such as Jan Schuster and others either have German names or some past German connection.  Nonetheless, some of that is to be expected given the geographic closeness of Poland and Germany and, in and of itself, would not raise many eyebrows.

But then we get to the Steering Committee.  After all, you just can’t have a serious vehicle for change if the vehicle is improperly steered.  So who are the political officers of this outfit and where do they hail from?

  • Prof. dr hab. Karl-Ernst Behre
    • Niedersaechsisches Institut fuer historische Kuestenforschung
      Viktoriastrasse 26-28, D-26382 Wilhelmshaven
  • Prof. dr hab. Claus von Carnap-Bornheim
    • Zentrum für Baltische und Skandinavische Archäologie
      Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinnische Landesmuseen
      Schloss Gottorf D-24837 Schleswig but also
      Institut für Vor- und Frühgeschichte
      Christian-Albrecht Universität zu Kiel
      Johanna-Mestorf-Straße 2-6
      D-24098 Kiel
  • Prof. Ulla Lund Hansen
    • Saxo-Instituttet
      København Universitet
      Njalsgade 80
      DK-2300 København

Thankfully, the natives (sorry, not natives, Slavs) are represented as well!

  • Prof. dr hab. Andrzej Kokowski
    • Instytut Areologii
      Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej
      Pl. Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej 4
      PL-20-031 Lublin
  • Prof. dr hab. Piotr Kaczanowski
    • [DECEASED]

Needless to say the Polish Culture Ministry also has no funds to sponsor digs to test the Y-DNA of Roman and pre-Roman age populations on the territory of Poland.

Go figure.

national

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July 1, 2015

Once More on William of Malmesbury

Published Post author

We have discussed William of Malmesbury’s contribution to Slavic mythology here.  So why come back to this text?  Well, the thing is, it’s not entirely clear that this text has anything to do with Slavs…  The text talks about two tribes: Vindelici and Leutici, of whom the Vindelici worship “fortune”.  The  Leutici have been interpreted as the Veleti/Luticians.  But what of the Vindelici?  It is, after all, the Vindelici who worshipped fortune not the Leutici…

malmesbury

The answer given seems to be “some other Polabian” Slavic tribe.  Wends of some other type.  One suggestion was that these were the Rugians, those worshippers of Svantovit of Arkona.  The reference to the horn of plenty in the passage would seem to confirm that (although the cornucopia is hardly a Slavic invention).  On the other hand, there are two issues here:

First, is the name Vindelici – this is a name that our readers should already be familiar with.  We wrote about them here when discussing Strabo and here when discussing certain Slavs.  They were the ones who lived on the River Lech and were attacked by Tiberius.  But, these Vindelici were Celts… or so we are told.  So is William of Malmesbury just confusing some Wendish/Slavic tribe with the Vindelici of old?

Second, there is the reference to the Suevi.  Henry III, we are told by William, “subdued the Vindelici and the Leutici, and the other nations bordering on the Suevi, who alone, even to the present day lust for the pagan superstitions.”  But the Suevi, if by these we mean the Schwaben, were, at the time, nowhere near the Slavs.  On the East they bordered Bavarians, on the North the Franks and Thuringians…  Of course, back in Tiberius’ day, the Vindelici would have lived right next to – what would later become Suebia/Allemania.

So what is the solution to this puzzle?

Were Vindelici still neighbors of the Schwaben in the 11th century – a thousand years after Tiberius allegedly finished them off at Lake Veneticus (i.e., Bodensee)?  Was the name Vindelici transferred to some other tribe?  Did William make a mistake?  Was there another tribe of Vindelici – independently bearing that name?

Or was the relation of the Vindelici and Suevi a little bit more complicated?  Were, perhaps the Vndelici also Suevi or, perhaps at least Suavi?  Did they get up after their rout by Tiberius and heard North?  Nestor does say that the Vlachs persecuted the Slavs and that was when the Slavs headed North… Could that memory have survived 1,000 years somehow despite the fact that the Slavic culture was at the time illiterate?  It seems unlikely.  And yet…

And who are these Suevi?  Could they be the North Suevi that we talked about here?  Or perhaps they are instead Slavs and William just confused the two concepts…

licikaviki

Holy Horse of… Svantovit?

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July 1, 2015