Polabian Gods Part Va – Saxo Grammaticus on the Temple at Arkona

There are four surviving fragments of Gesta Danorum (i.e., that’s it as regards manuscripts – that we know of).  One of them is the Plesner fragment which covers a few pages out of Book 14 of the chronicle.  Although this fragment contains no mention of Slavic Gods it does discuss Slavs themselves.

We include it here along with the corresponding pages from the 1839 edition of the work (for easier reading).  Other than that, since the Latin version can easily be obtained here, we present the text in the English language.

Introduction

The events described here are occurring in 1168, after the conversion of Pomerania, after the so-called Wendish Crusade and after the fall of the Obotrite Duke Niklot.  Pressed on all sides, Arkona stood alone.  Almost exactly 100 years earlier (1067), Rethra was destroyed.  A hundred or so years later it was going to be the turn of the Baltic Prussians.

Specifically, Saxo’s Book 14, discusses in detail the Danes’ various murderous expeditions led by King Valdemar or by Bishop Absalon against Ruegen (as well as against the Norwegians and Pomeranians) finally coming to coup de grace at Arkona where the Ranii (also pressed by the German Saxons from the South) simply ran out of people to defend their town against the Danes (and, in this case, too the recently Christian (see story of Bishop Otto which is to come) Slavic Pomeranians who, after their conversion, were required to accompany the Danes (and apparently did a splendid job).  We do not delve into the expeditions themselves in detail – instead we focus on the religious aspects of the text and events at and immediately after the siege of Arkona.

Because of the length of Saxo’s description, we break it up into several chapters (of our own making).  Here is Chapter 1, let’s call it “The Temple at Arkona “.

The Temple at Arkona

“The King [Valdemar I the Great of Denmark] now attacked Ruegen in different places and won booty everywhere but did not find an occasion to fight and desiring the enemy’s blood he began to besiege Arkona.”

“This town lies on top of a tall cliff and is well fortified from the East, South and North, not by men but by nature, for the steep sides of the cliff rise, as if walls, so high that no arrow could reach the top.  From these three sides it is also protected by the sea, but from the Western side it is surrounded by a wall that is fifty elbows tall, of which the lower part is made out of earth but the top part was of wooden construction reinforced/filled in with [torfus].  On the North side there is a stream, which the locals would reach by means of a reinforced path, which Erik [II] Emune in his time blocked, so that he defeated them during the siege not just by a force of arms but also by denying them water.”

“In the middle of the town there was an open space, on which there stood a wooden temple built in an unusually intricate manner, which temple was greatly venerated, not only on account of its grandeur but also by reason of the fact that it contained a statue of a God.  From the outside the temple drew one’s gaze due to a variety of well-sculpted [pictures/effigies/statues?] which, however, were primitively and carelessly painted over.  There was only one entrance but the temple itself was divided into two separate parts, of which the external one run along the walls and had a red ceiling, whereas the internal one was supported by four pillars and in lieu of walls it had curtains and was not touching/did not have common parts with the external part save the ceiling itself and certain logs.”

“In the temple there stood the aforementioned statue of superhuman proportions.  It had four heads and that many necks, of which two were turned towards the front and two towards the back.  And likewise of the two heads turned front and also the two heads looking back, one looked left and the other right. [The statue’s] face was clean-shaven as regards the beard and its hair was cut indicating that the artist who sculpted the statue had in mind the custom [of shaving/hair styling] common among the Rugii.”

“In its right hand the statue held a horn crafted of different metals, which horn was filled once a year by the priest and from the behavior of the drink he foretold the quality of the next year’s harvest.  The left arm of the statue was bent and pressed against the side.  The tunic reached its legs which were made of different types of wood and so intricately/discretely attached to the knees that only a careful inspection revealed the connections.  The feet were standing entirely on the floor but that on which it [the state] stood was hidden in the ground.  Nearby one could see a bridle and a saddle as well as other insignia, of which especially astounding was an unusual huge sword, whose scabbard and hilt were made out of silver and splendidly ornamented by wonderful craftsmanship.”

“The worship of the God took place in the following manner: once a year, when the harvest was coming to an end, the entire people of the island assembled in front of the temple, offerings were made of cattle and a solemn meal was eaten to honor the Gods.  The priest, who, not following the usual custom of most people of this country, had a long hair and a beard and, usually on the day before the holiday went to the temple, whose doorstep only he had the right to cross, to clean and carefully prepare everything, whereby he had to hold his breath, so that every time he needed to draw air he had to rush to the door, so that the God would not be contaminated by some man breathing in his presence/near him.”

“The following day, when the people camped out by the temple doors, the priest took the horn from the statue’s hand and carefully examined it to see whether the drink in it was evaporating, which was taken to be a warning that the harvest would be poor the next year, in which case he [the priest] obligated the people to save something of their current harvest for next year.  If the drink did not disappear, that foretold a bountiful year.  Thus, depending on what the horn predicted, he ordered the people either to save their harvests or to use them till they be sated.  Next he poured the wine as an offering at the feet of the statue, filled the horn anew and pretended as if he had drunk to honor him [the God], while at the same time he asked with lofty words for success/good luck for himself and the people of the country, for riches and for victory, and after that he brought the horn to his lips and drank all of it in one gulp, and thereafter he filled the horn again and placed it in the statue’s right hand.”

“There was also there as an offering an oval-shaped honey cake which stood almost as tall as a man.  The priest would place it between himself and the people and asked thereafter whether they could see him [from behind the cake].  When they answered him, he then wished them that next year they should not see him, whereby the meaning of this was such that he did not mean death to himself or the people but rather that the next year should be bountiful [i.e., and the cake bigger].”

“Next he blessed his people in the name of their God, told them that they should honor Him with frequent offerings, which he expected as a the right payment for [their] victories on the land and sea.  And when this was done, they spent the rest of the day on a great feast, where they ate the offerings [for the God], so that that which was consecrated for the God they themselves ate.  At this feast, it was believed pleasing to the God to get drunk and as a sin to remain sober.”

“To support the religion’s needs every man and woman had to pay annually one coin, and God also received one third of the booty that they plundered for they believed that they should thank Him for His help.  He was also given three hundred horses and that many warriors who fought for Him and who had to give to the priest all of their booty whether it was captured  with weapons or stolen; for this money that came there for that reason, he commanded the making of all kinds of precious ornaments and adornments for the temple, which he kept in locked chests, in which in addition to lots of money there were kept too rich clothes, which were entirely destroyed by passage of time, as also the many offerings, some from the people and some from individual persons, which were given to them/to the temple to obtain happiness and success.”

All of the Slavic lands venerated this God by paying [tribute to Him], and even the neighboring kings gave offerings to Him, not paying attention to the committed sacrilege [of so doing].  Among others, the King of Denmark Svend Grathe [Sweyn III – killed by Valdemar after Sweyn attempted to kill Valdemar and others] donated a wonderfully crafted cup so as to gain the favor of the God, for which sacrilege he then paid by his unlucky demise.  This God had too other temples in the different places, but none was so venerated as the one at Arkona.”

“He also had his own holy white horse and it was seen as sacrilege to rip a hair from his mane or tail, and no one other than the priest was permitted to feed him or ride him, so that this divine animal should not lose its dignified appearance, by reason of it being frequently used.  The Rugii believed that on this horse, Svantovit – that is the how they named the God – would ride when he fought against the enemies of his Holiness, and they saw special proof of this in that, in spite of the fact that during the night he remained in the stables, in the morning he was often wet and sweaty, as if he had come straight from battle and rode a long way [back].”

“They also read warnings from the horse’s behaviour in the following way: when war was intended with one country or another, it was the custom of the temple attendants to stick six spears into the ground in pairs of two where the shafts of each such pair would cross and where the spear pairs would be equidistant.  When the troop was to march out, the priest gave a solemn prayer and thereafter he led the horse in a harness from the [temple] foyer and led so that he had to jump in front of [or through] the spears.  Should the horse lift the right leg ahead of the left, they took that to mean that the war will be successful.  But should he have raised only one time [i.e., once out of the three] the left leg as the first, they gave up on their expedition and would not even raise anchors until such time that they saw him [the horse] jumping three times through the spears in such a manner that they took to be a good omen [i.e., right leg ahead of the left].”

“Also when they were to set out in other matters, they took the augury from the first encountered animal.  If the augury was favorable, they rode further happy, if it were not they then quickly went back home.  It was also not unknown to them to throw lots, they threw, namely, on their lap three pieces of wood as lots, they were white on one side and black on the other and white meant luck and black meant misfortune.  Even the women did not avoid such practices.  When they sat at a fire sometimes they drew random lines in the ash and counted them together.  If the number was even they believed that that portended good fortune, when it was odd, though, they took that as a bad sign.”

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