Category Archives: Poles

The Discovery of the Vandal Military-Industrial Complex’ Slush Fund Stash

PublishedJuly 8, 2020 Post authortorino

Earlier this year, archeologists announced the discovery (in 2019 near the village of Cichobórz by Lublin) of a treasure containing about 1753 “pieces” (or about 2.2 pounds worth of Roman denarii) from the 1st to 2nd century A.D. The assumption is that this treasure trove was hidden around the end of the 2nd or at the beginning of the 3rd century.

Now, the above is not disputed but then comes the following statement from local archeologist and Gothomaniac Kokowski:

“Shock, incredulity, happiness and elation; but in the back of my head [the word] ‘finally!’ My whole theory about the first battle for Hrubieszów Valley [between Vandals and Goths] has been given another strong argument. The retreating or rather fleeing Vandals were in such dire straits that they were hiding their valuables. Immediately after, there was a battle at Przewodowo; they buried Vandal warriors at Podlodów, Swaryczów and Tuczapy… It appears that its precisely here that the Vandals lost the [material] means for further warfare!”

Of course, no one can blame an archeologist for getting so excited. The find is remarkable and no doubt interesting and important for the history of the region. We cana hope that the local museums can use it to give us all a sharper glimpse of the area in pre-historic times.

But, as they say, “BUT…”.

And the ‘but’ here is rather large. In fact, there are two ‘but’s.

The first objection is that the find consists of less than 2,000 denarii. The pay of a legionary in at the end of the first century reached about 300 denarii annually. It was about 400 at the time of Septimius Severus (whose coins were found at the site and whose reign, therefore, provides a possible earliest dating for the treasure) at the beginning of the 3rd century. And it was 600 denarii at the time of Caracalla who followed Severus. (Of course, because of the debasement of silver coins in the later Roman army the real pay had not improved that much). If these events were happening at the beginning of the 3rd century, even assuming that local warriors’ pay would have been far less than a Roman legionary’s (obviously it also varied among units and based on rank), it is still hard to see how this treasure could have paid for more than a few people at most. No doubt the money was worth a lot to some local tribesman, maybe even a chieftain, but to suggest that anybody’s war machine would have been impacted by the loss of even a few thousand coins is, well, silly.

There is, as readers of this site, well know, a much bigger objection to Kokowski’s characterization. There is namely no reason to believe that there were ever any such tribe as “Vandals” in Poland (with the possible – though not probable – exception of the south western portions of the country). One might even go to say that there is no reason to believe that there was such a thing as Vandals at the beginning of the 3rd century. For either of those reasons, there is, it follows, then also no evidence that Vandals and Goths fought anywhere in the region where these finds were made (and this even assuming there were “Goths in that location – also a quiet unproven hypothesis!).

Of course, Kokowski already went on the record parroting Wolfram’s and other earlier confabulators’ dreams of a “Lugian/Legian” – Vandal connection (in Wandale – Lugiowie – kultura przeworska) so his position is, if anything, consistent. For a discussion of the background of some (and, let’s be honest, possible motivations) of the authorities on which Kokowski principally relied on (for example, Mr. Martin Jahn), see this post. In any event, there is no reason to connect the Przeworsk culture to any hypothetical Vandals.

In other words, this is all made up wishful thinking to prove an existing and highly doubtful pet theory.

(And to be clear, I have no problem with Vandals or, for that matter Goths, in Poland. History is what it is but the burden of proof should be on the person positing such a claim and, so far, the burden has not even begun to be met).

Regarding “Vandals” in Poland see this series:

For a more recent work on the Vandals, you check out Roland Steinachers book of the same name. Incidentally, Steinacher says the following there about the Vandals:

“Altogether, it is difficult to believe that a single people may be responsible for such a widespread and culturally variant archeological culture. A hard to pin down more precisely mixture of proto-Suavic, Germanic-speaking and Celtic peoples may have shared a common material culture… If one could in fact establish a connection between Pliny’s and Tacitus’ Vandili* and the Przeworsk culture, if these people could be connected to those which a few centuries later appeared on the Danube and the Rhein and finally conquered Carthage, then the Vandals would have a long pre-history. Such connections, however, cannot be established.”

* As mentioned already here, Tacitus does not mention the Vandals as a tribe still in existence in his time (about 98 A.D.) and Pliny’s manuscripts are inconsistent with some mentioning Vindili and even Vandalici and Vandilici – a name that is suspiciously close to Vindilici of Vindebona.

The Axeheads of Central/Eastern Europe – Dragon or Stag – Yasher or Leleń?

PublishedJuly 3, 2020 Post authortorino

An interesting series of finds presents itself in various places from central Europe and Russia. Here we have a series of dragon or stag looking creature (yasher?) on, mostly, axeheads (plus stirrups and as a sword) found in the following locations:

Gubin/Guben, Poland/Germany
Żagań, Poland
Schaunburg, Austria
Vienna, Austria
Moscow, Russia (stirrup)
Olen’-Kolodez’, Voronezh Oblast, Russia
Florence, Italy (sword)

These were described by the Russian archeologist Vladimir Kulakov in “The Cultic Weapon of the Balts and Slavs of the 10th-12th Centuries” (Культовое оружие балтов и славян X-XII вв.) in Slavia Antiqua, 1991/1992 (volume XXII, page 115). And he repeated some of this in 2001 in “The Silver Axes of the Chieftains” (Серебряные секиры вождей). The next year after that, in 2002, we had a more detailed description by Felix Biermann in his Mittelalterliche Kriegsausrüstung mit der Darstellung eines gehornten Tieres (in Die Zeitschrift für Waffen- und Kleidungsgeschichte or Kostümkunde?). The same was then further elaborated by Normen Posselt and Paweł Szczepanik in their “Zoomorphic Applications and Representations on the Slavic Temple Rings in the Northern West Slavic Area” (Zoomorphe Applikationen und Darstellungen auf slawischen Schläfenringen im nördlichen westslawischen Raum) in Beiträge zur Ur- und FrühgeschichteMitteleuropas 82, 2017, pages 193-220.

Here are some of the pictures from the above articles in some more detail. A further set of publications is listed in Biermann’s article.

Gubin/Guben, Poland/Germany

This was found on the land of a certain wine dealer, Mr. Pötko of Osterberg street in Guben in 1884. It was lost in 1945. First reported by Jentsch in the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Volume 15.

Żagań, Poland

Found in 1850. Kept at Sagan/Żagań till 1945. Not clear what happened with it afterwards.

Schaunburg, Austria

Found in 1876. Today kept in Linz, Austria.

Vienna, Austria

We know this has been in the Art History Museum in Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien)since 1820 but provenance is unknown.

Moscow, Russia

This stirrup has been in Moscow at the State Historical Museum (formerly the Imperial Russian Historical Museum) since 1926 but the origin of its find is unknown.

Olen’-Kolodez’, Voronezh Oblast, Russia

This is the most recent discovery, found in 1996 by Yefimov in a Golden Horde kurgan from the 13th-14th century. However, it was dated by the discoverer to the 12th-13th century.

Interestingly olen, refers to a stag or deer.

Florence, Italy

Currently this sword is at the National Museum of Bargello (Museo Nazionale del Bargello) in Florence. It was an 1894-1895 gift from the Italian diplomat Francesco Costantino Giuseppe Ressman and is part of the Ressman collection. The location of the original find is unknown. According to Biermann, the museum suggests that it may have belonged to Jaxa (or Jaksa) of Miechów of the Gryf family (1120–1176). There has alway been some people who also believe that this is the same person as Jaxa of Köpenick.

What is the origin of all these axes, the sword and the stirrup? And more importantly, what is the concept behind the motif? No one knows for sure. Biermann argued that the axeheads may have come from Novgorod – at the intersection of Scandinavian, Baltic, Finnic and Asian trade routes. However, an interesting stylistic relative of the above (in my view) is the following depiction of the Karkonosze mountain “spirit”, the so-called Rübezahl, from the year 1561:

You can see the Riesenberg – Giant Mountain – just above.

Riesengebirge is the German name for the mountain range Karkonosze (Polish) / Krkonoše (Czech). Of course, they are curiously close to the Jesioniki (or Jeseníky or Gesenke and Vandal Mountains?) and both are part of the Sudetes Mountains.

On the stag/deer side, there are also potential parallels to the Polish jeleń or leleń that is a stag/deer that, apparently, may have had some divine attributes. You might look for Kazimierz Perkowski’s article on that topic (as well as pics). The Posselt-Szczepanik article mentioned above has further references to Suavic and Polish animal motifs, including stags/deer.

Turning to a dragon alternative/connection, there is also the curious fact that jaszczur means lizard in all Suavic languages, from a reconstructed (apparently) *aščerъ. Whether this was the actual name of a lizard or can be derived from the genitive case of the Name to which the lizard belongs or whose prey it is (or who also is a dragon?), is another matter. The giant Thjazzi also comes to mind, naturally.

And then there is this find of, clearly, a dragon which you can see in Schuchhardt’s Vorgeschichte von Deutschland. It was found in Strzelce Krajeńskie area (German Friedeberg). Totally different style but the same concept of a turning head. Of course, that can just be a result of trying to fit the motif in the limited space available.

Solawas

PublishedJuly 1, 2020 Post authortorino

Keeping with the themes from the prior article, note that the “Scientific Magazine of the Ossoliński Public Library” (Czasopism Naukowy Księgozbioru Publicznego imienia Ossolińskich) has the following statement in an article by the priest Franciszek Siarczyński from the magazine’s inaugural issue in 1828 “An Essay As to Whether Suavs or Suovs the Proper Name [of the Suavs] Is and Which Such Name Should Be In Use.” (roughly translated) (Rozprawa, czyli Sławianie lub Słowianie zwać się i mówić właściwie maią):

“There is the following idea of how the name of Suavs arose: A foreign traveler asked a Suav who he was? The man answered ‘człowiek’ [a “man”]. The foreigner thought he heard Suoviek or Suovak, and this answer provided the name for the whole nation. Others derive the name from the town Skuova on the Dnieper [Šklov/Shkloŭ/Шклоў in today’s Belarus]; others from the river Łaba, that is Elbe, also called Selawa.”

Now, Elbe may or not have been called Selawa but the Thuringian Saale certainly has been and continues to be called Solawa/Solava/Soława by the Sorbs. Of course, this region is also where the ancient writers thought the river Suevus flowed which also gave its name to the Suevi (or vice versa). Sałowa, Salówka and similar names also appear in other areas. An interesting question is whether some or all these names have something to do with zalewa, that is, [the river] that floods. (For Suevi as Uebi (from Łaba), see here, of course, łeb also means “head”).

Sarnicki’s Thoughts

PublishedJune 1, 2020 Post authortorino

Stanisław Sarnicki published his annals of the Poles and Lithuanians in 1587 under the elaborate, though typical for those times, name:

Stanislai Sarnicii Annales sive de origine et rebus gestis Polonorum et Lituanorum libri 8.

Sarnicki, mentioned a number of Polish and other Deities in a number of passages (all below). This passage was translated by Adam Naruszewicz* in volume 2 of his History of the Polish Nation:

“… this God of thunder was called Piorun from the old Poles as almost all our chroniclers testify. This Piorun was worshipped by the Ruthenians in the old days, and they even burned fires for him, as is attested by Herberstein and Guagnini who wrote of Moscovite matters. For they had an idol and a temple at Great Novgorod that the citizens of that city saw as greater than others. Of this Guagnini reports that this statue was worshipped by the Novgorodians with the greatest idolatry. He had the body of a man, a fiery stone in his hand and similar to a thunder: for Perun among the Poles and in Ruthenia means thunder. In his honor a fire was burned from oaken timbers by day and night without pause; and when it came to pass that by the negligence of those sworn to protect it, it failed, they forfeited their lives…”

* An interesting aspect of that is that Naruszewicz mentions Leibnitz noting that Prove is listed in the Szczecin manuscript of Helmold’s Chronicle as “Prone” and, hence, may simply be a reference to Piorun (as shown here from MGH):

This is nothing new and is mostly a regurgitation of information that Guagnini and others must have gotten from Nestor’s Primary Chronicle (PVL). Nevertheless, it’s worth including it here and, as you will note, there are also references to other Deities as you can see here:

The poem at the back of that section is also interesting. It seems to come from or at least be very similar to that slightly different version by Stryjkowski which was published earlier:

“Christ, you have the blind-born Mieszko
Brought to light, brought Poland to Holy Baptism,
It is you Grom, Ladon, Marzanna,
Pogwizd, Ziewanna gave way to”

(Kryste tys Mieszka sleporodzonego
Oswiecil, Polskes przywiodl do krztu swego,
Tobie ustapil Grom, Ladon, Marzanna,
Pogwizd, Ziewanna)

Since Sarnicki relied on Guagnini who may have plagiarized Stryjkowski, this is not surprising. For more on that see here.

As discussed below, there is no evidence that anyone in Poland (as opposed to in Kiev/Novgorod or, possibly, among the Obotrites in Polabia) actually worshipped Piorun as the original name of a Deity. It seems rather that piorun was a “lightning fork” (and may have later become a nickname) of the primeval Jasion/Jasień (ash) Deity.

On Eagles

PublishedMay 26, 2020 Post authortorino

In July 2012, the following eagle emblem from a discovery in the Greifswald area was published on the kulturwerte-mv.de website (MV refers to Mecklemburg-Vorpommern which is where Greifswald is).

Now, the authors of the post suggest similarities with southern German eagles.

Maybe. There certainly are examples of the imperial eagle… but they come rather later. Barbarossa, on the early side, may have had one and manuscripts of the 14th century (see the Codex Balduini Trevirensis from 1340, the Codex Manesse from no earlier than 1304 or the Zürich armorial, also about 1340) show some of those.

Before Albert the Bear bequeathed to it the bear seal, the city seal of Berlin featured an eagle (the later “markish” eagle of Brandenburg) attested from the 13th and 14th century (some claim dates from 1253 and 1280) and that eagle, unlike the above, had its head high. These come from Hermann Brosien’s Geschichte der Mark Brandenburg im Mittelalter (1887):

The seal may have been chosen about 1170 by Otto I, Albert’s son though this is not entirely clear. Whether the fact that the area was surrounded by Suavic tribes had contributes to the selection of the eagle is unclear. Ultimately, the city went with the bear (in 1338 both were on the seal with the eagle seal being pulled by a bear (?) much like a kite).

There may have been other non-imperial eagles from local German lords but am not aware of anything similar to the above eagle on the Greifswald seal.

What the authors of the kulturwerte-mv.de piece do not discuss, however, is just how similar the above Greifswald eagle is – especially with his raised head and beak – to those also eagle known from Polish heraldry including especially the many Silesian but too Greater Polish and Masovian eagles.

The following pictures and information are from various articles including:

by Paweł Pionczewski and Beata Miazga under the title (don’t ask me to translate this): Zawieszka z orłem z Ziębic na Śląsku. Przyczynek do poznania średniowiecznego rzędu końskiego, in Acta Militaria Medievalia, Kraków – Rzeszów – Sanok 2013.
by Jerzy Piekalski and Krzysztof Wachowski: ‘Rodzime i obce‘ w krajobrazie kulturowym średniowiecznych ziem polskich.
by Radosław Zdaniewicz: Dwie oktagonalne głowice mieczy z terenu Górnego Śląska.

In general, the German eagles do not have their head turned slightly upward (the early Berlin seals being the exception), sometimes have a right facing (from the perspective of the viewer) head or have two heads. The Polish and Silesian eagles generally look left and have one head raised slightly upwards. The eagles of the later Teutonic Order also look left but the head is not elevated but level like the German eagle’s.

And then there are these Polish coats of arms that come from the Gelre Armorial (Wapenboek Gelre) which was compiled in the late 14th century (the ones on the left leaf; the others are mostly Polish clan/family coats of arms but show no eagles).

(BTW note the husaria type (eagle?) wings on two of the helmets in the coats of arms; of course, the much later real husaria wings were not attached to helmets; similar designs were present in non-Polish contexts such as on the markish eagle coat of arms of Brandenburg and, for example, on a case that may have belonged to the commander of the Teutonic Order at Chojnice (though there the eagle looks rightwards).

Of course, famously, the first Polish capital’s name is derived from “nest” (Gniezno). This is attested in the late 13th century Greater Poland Chronicle. However, the legend of Lech actually seeing an eagle at the future town site is of later provenance.

The eagle was also present on the coats of arms of other Suavic and non-Suavic nations. Thus, we see it Czechia, Moravia, Krajina (Carniola) and northern Italy and Tyrol.

In the end, all that can be said is that the single-headed eagle looking slightly upwards to the left (from the onlooker’s perspective) featured prominently in all West Suavic lands including those westernmost lands that became the Holy Roman Empire’s border marches. (Note that the white Frankfurt eagle on a red background, though it may have originated in the 14th century, was first depicted only in the late 16th century).

Jaryło

PublishedApril 26, 2020 Post authortorino

Although information about Jaryło, under that name, comes from rather late sources – 18th and 19th centuries – the feasts of the East Suav Jarilo (Polish Jaryło though that specific name is not attested in Poland – rather we have Jasza or Jesza or Jasień) are easily recognizable in earlier recorded festivities. Perhaps the best Western source on the topic is Felix Haase and his Volksglaube und Brauchtum der Ostslawen. I’ve already previewed here – when discussing Svarozic – a passage from a Jaryło story told by Old Believers that Haase put in that book. Now let’s include more of Haase’s musings on the subject and the rest of the story. Also included are the cites of Haase’s to the Russian authors who actually collected the stories of these customs and beliefs.

Haase’s Jarilo Interpretation

“…Originally, there stood Jarilo in Kupalos place. While he is first mentioned first in the year 1763 in the instruction (poucene) of Saint Tichon Zadonskyi. He had suppressed the old celebration which he labeled idolatrous and devilish and declared it illegal. There had once been an old statue that people had called Jarilo and he [Tichon] had heard from old people that one had called this celebration igrisce (Polish igrzyska) [and] it began on Wednesday or Friday after the Green Holidays and ended on a Sunday. The name is probably derived from jar meaning spring or jaryi meaning bright, strong, tempestuous, young. And also the grains were called jarovyi or jare [compare this with the Polish jarzyny meaning “greens” as in “vegetables”]. In the Cernigov department one speaks of a Jariloviga. In Kostroma there is a Jarilovo pole (Jarilo’s field); in the department Orenburg, a Jarilo annual market [Jahrmarkt or jarmark with a double meaning]. In certain regions of Russia, there were two holidays involving Jarilo, at the end of April and on the last day of the year. Young people played the role of Jarilo. There is the Ivasko Jarilo, the Moscow marksman, known from a 1605 document and Ivasko Jarilo who lived in Astrakhan (mentioned in 1672).”

“In Voronez one celebrated the games of Jarilo till 1673 [lasting] from the last day before the Great Fast/Lent, before Peter’s Fast till the Monday of the Fast [?]. A man was adorned with flowers, ribbons and little bells, and on his head there was a flower decorated hat. His face was painted red and white and in his hand he held bells. Using the name Jarilo he went majestically through the city, followed by youth who laughed at him but also kept him fed with sweets. The feast ended with fistfights, drunkenness and frequently with killings.”

“In Kostroma, where the celebrations were held till 1771, an old man would toss a doll – featuring male genitals – into a grave. Drunk wailing women would accompany him and then the doll was buried. In governorate Tver the celebrations took place on the first day of the Apostles’ Feast on the River Lazur until the year 1805. The youth danced a blanza – a round dance in pairs of eight). In the governorate Penza and Simbirsk, they buried the gorjuna during the Green Holidays; and in Murom on the first Saturday after the Green Holidays. A straw doll was carried out of the village with singing and finally thrown into a river. The custom degenerated into a game: in such children’s games an old woman called Kostroma was declared dead and then suddenly she jumped up and frightened the children. In the governorates Ryazan and Tambov this celebration is called: the burying of the prince. This is portrayed by a young boy who is wrapped in a towel and his sickness is wept over. When the prince has ‘died’ he is laid down in a cornfield and people sing their lamentations. In central Russia the holiday was celebrated with the first or last sheaf collected. In Vladimir on the Kljazma, in Suzdal, Penza, Simbirsk it was celebrated on the Green Holidays or on the eve of the Green Holidays as the funeral of Kostroma or Kostrobowka; in Murom it was celebrated on the first Sunday after the Green Holidays; at Nizniy Novogorod and Vjatka on Saint Peter’s Day [June 29 which in the Gregorian calendar of today is July 12]; in the governorates Novgorod and Kazan, prayers we held during the Green Holidays on collecting rye or summer cereals and there were dances to honor Jarilo. The fields and the livestock were sprinkled with holy water. In Nizniy Novogorod and Tver there it was common to hold a bridal show on this day and young people were permitted to kiss and hug.”

“From the fact that the holidays were celebrations on different days and in different ways, one can deduct that the meaning of the holiday had changed. In the governorates Penza and Simbirsk a girl was chosen to play the part of Kostroma. The other girls bowed before her, placed her on a plank, tossed her singing into a river and washed her. Then all jumped into the water and bathed. Then one went back to the village and concluded the day with games and dances. In the region of Murom the Kostroma was portrayed using a straw puppet; people danced around her, threw her in water and lamented her death.”

“The Jarilo week held a special potency for love spells. The following spell was especially used: ‘I, God’s servant, stand up and go into the clean sea. There come towards me fire, polynja? [these days this means something like a watery polana, that is a clearing, amongst ice (as opposed to trees)] and a stormy wind. I bow down before them deeply and say: hail [Haase uses Heisa] fire and polynja.'”

“Since this spell was used precisely during the Jarilo week, we can infer from this that Jarilo was a God of Love. Yet this that this was a love spell can only be shown by connecting this data with other information. From the Old Believers we learn that: ‘the Jar goes by during the nights that are called chmelevyja.’ In certain areas Jarilo is called Ur Chmel’ and the chmelevicy nights are treated by village youth as the merriest. The Jar goes through the nights wearing a white silk fabric with gold and silver patterns, on His head a wreath with red poppies, in His hand ripe ears of corn of all different kinds of grains; where the God Jar steps on the chmel‘, there grains grow high unseeded. He touches with the golden ear a young man in his sleep and ignites his blood; Jar chmel’ touches the sleeping girl with the red flowers and sleep escapes her, resting becomes difficult and she dreams of her beloved.”

“Thus, here we have the proof that Jarilo stood for Eros. Other customs also remind us of this. As already mentioned, there was the custom of putting a puppet in a grave, a man with his member which was often portrayed as a giant phallus. The accompanying women sang during this procession ‘obscene’ songs. Allegedly, during these celebrations ‘male seed’ was released into a bucket [of water?] which was then drunk. And when we have already heard the complaints of the Christian preachers about the shameless practices that were connected with the festivities, these may refer precisely to the Jarilo celebrations. Jarilo is here without a doubt portrayed as a God of love and fertility. But that is still not the original [function of his]. Jarilo is not originally simply the God who gives people love and fertility, he is the Sun God who celebrates his wedding with Mother Earth, embraces her with love and through this embrace creates fertility for the Earth, even produces man therefrom. We have proof of this here from an old tradition of the Old Believers by whom the old customs have been preserved more purely since they did not concern themselves with the prohibitions that came from church and government places, and since they retained the old customs and ideas consciously in opposition [to the established religious and state order].

A legend of the Old Believers tells of how Jarilo loved the wet Mother Earth:

“Mother Earth lay in cold and darkness. And the always young, always happy Jar of the light spoke so: ‘let us look at the wet Mother Earth, [to see] whether she is pretty, whether appeals to us.’ And the flaming look of the light Jar in one moment cut through the unending layers of darkness which lay over the sleeping Earth. And there where Jarilo’s glance filled the darkness, there the red Sun began to shine. And the hot waves of Jarilo’s light poured out by means of the Sun. The wet Mother Earth awoke from sleep and in her youthful beauty she stretched herself out like a bride on the marriage bed. Eagerly she drank the golden rays of the invigorating light and from this light there spilled out hot life and the bliss of craving into her limbs. And the Sun rays conveyed the sweet words of the God of Love, of the ever young God Jarilo: ‘Oh you wet Mother Earth! Love me, the God of light, as my beloved I shall decorate you with blue seas, with yellow sand, with green grass, with red and blue flowers. By my you shall give birth to an unending number of dear children.'”

“And Mother Earth liked the speech of the God Jarilo, she loved the happy God and thanks to his hot kisses she became pretty and decorated herself with grasses and flowers, with dark woods and blue seas, with light blue rivers and silver lakes. She drank the hot kisses and from her bosom there flew birds, from the caves there there ran out forest and field animals, and in the streams and seas there swam fish, in the air there whirred about the little flies and mosquitoes… and lived, all loved, all sang praise hymns to the father Jarilo and to the wet Mother Earth.”

“And once again there sounded from the light Sun the love words of Jarilo’s: ‘oh, hey you wet Mother Earth! I have adorned you with beauty, you have given birth to many dear children. love me some more and you will give birth to your love children. Mother Earth liked these words. Eagerly did she drink the life-giving rays and she gave birth to Man… and as he rose from the Earth’s bosom, the God Jarilo hit him on the head with his golden leash, his lightning. And from this blow, there arose reason inside of Man… And the God Jarilo greeted his dear Earthborn son with heavenly thunder, with rays of lightning; and these thunder rumbles shook all living things on the Earth… little birds fled into the heavens and wild animals hid in the holes, only Man raised his head towards the sky and answered the speech of the thunder God with eternal words. And as they heard this word and saw their king and ruler, so bowed before him all the trees, all flowers, all grasses, all animals, all birds, all of living creation and they became his servants.”

“And Mother Earth exulted in luck and happiness. She felt that Jarilo’s lover was no mere fortune and that there was no limit to it. But after short time, the Sun began to lower itself, the long days became shorter, the cold winds were blowing, the singers, the little birds fell silent, the wild animals howled and there shuttered from the cold the kong and the ruler of the entire living and inanimate Creation… And the countenance of Mother Earth changed and from grief and worry she washed her face with bitter tears… and so cried Mother Earth: ‘o wind, o wind, why do you blow so ice cold on me? You, eye of Jarilo, you light Sun, why do you not warm me and shine on me as before? Does the God Jarilo not love me anymore? Shall I lose my beauty? Shall my babes go into the ground? Shall I again lie in darkness and cold? Why have I then gotten to know the light? Why have I experienced life and love? Why have I gotten to know the bright rays, the hot kisses of the God Jarilo?’ Jarilo was silent. ‘I do not cry for me,’ complained Mother Earth shuddering from the cold, ‘my heart mourns my dear children.’ Then spoke Jarilo: ‘Cry not, mourn not, wet Mother Earth, I left you not for long. Had I not left you then you would have burned down under my kisses. To protect you and our children, I lessen the warmth and light for a while. The leaves will fall from the trees. The flowers and grasses will wilt. You will dress yourself in a snow garment. You will sleep till my return… And when the time comes, I will send you a messenger, the happy spring and right after spring, I will come myself.'”

“But Mother Erath cried further. ‘Don’t you feel sorry for me Jarilo? Do not the cries of your children reach you? Have mercy at least on your love child, who answered your thunder speech with eternal words. It is naked and weak, it will shortly perish if you take away heat and light from us.’ And the God Jarilo struck a stone with lightning, his flaming blitz hit the trees. And he said to Mother Earth: ‘Now I have brought fire to the stones and the trees. I myself am in this fire. With his mind will Man figure out how to take light and fire from wood and stones. This fire is my gift for my love son. For the entire living Creation will this gift be a fright and terror. Only for him alone will be of service.’ And so the God Jarilo left the Earth. Terrible winds blew, dark clouds covered Jarilo’s eye, the red Sun [and] white snow felt and enveloped Mother Earth like a pall. All froze, all fell asleep, only Man slept [but] did not slumber. He had the great gift of Father Jarilo and with it light and warmth.”

“Here Jarilo is clearly referred to as a Sun God, who brings love and fertility by means of his domain over fire, which causes nature to grow and bloom and gives magical powers to plants which [in turn] benefit people. For this reason is the fern to be explained as the mysterious fire plant, which only flowers on the day of Kupalo; out of this we have explanations for the fire worship associated with Kupalo-Jarilo, for the jumping through fire, for the wheel as symbol of the Sun wheel. The water in the sea and the lake and the streams owes its existence only to Jarilo; it is a element given to the moist Mother Earth that increases fertility. The constantly repeated expression ‘moist Mother Earth’ indicates a natural connection of the Earth with water so as to preserve fertility. We find the above description the idea of the dying of the Sun and of Nature. And so are explained the customs of burying of the originally majestic, possessing the full strength of youth, Jarilo, of that fertility God and love God, [customs] that morphed into obscene pleasures and mocking games, when people had forgotten the original meaning of the festivities. Now it becomes clear why the man who stood in for Jarilo in Voronez was all made up in white and red. Red is the color of the glowing Sun and of the fire. When girls playing the role of Jarilo were bathed or buried by the river, it may still have been the memory of Mother Earth as Jarilo’s beloved.”

Lathander may be the gaming world’s version of Yarilo – at least in concept

Interestingly, Man is the son of Yarilo but can be analogized here also to the fruit of the land, the bounty, the harvest, that is to say, the birth/rebirth has a human but also agricultural aspect. This is further described below when the same cognates/concepts appear in connection with agriculture and growth – ultimately, “wealth” we ought to remember is what is associated with Plutus, the wealth of the soil and the son of Iasion and Demeter. As discussed below, it seems that Iasion/Jasień/Jasion/Jason (?) and Yarilo are the same Deities.

Some Cites for Jarilo

Note that the earliest mention of Iarilo appears to be from 1765 when the Russian Orthodox Church forbade the Iarilo holiday in Voronezh. In Kostroma (see above discussion by Haase) a straw effigy with an enormous phallus was being burned as late as 1771. Since actual mentions of Jarilo are somewhat difficult to find in primary sources here are some cites to secondary sources given by Haase:

Golubinsky, Yevgeny Yevsigneyevich (or Evgenij E. Golubinskij, Голубинский Е.) История Русской Церкви or Golubinskij, E. Istorija russkoi cerkvi I 1. 2 1902 II 1 1900; I 2; 2. 855
Sobolevsky, A. (or Sobolevskij): Velikorusskija narodnyja pesni 7 Bde 1985-1902; 267, 269
Zabylin, M. Russkij narod, ego obycai, obrjady, predanija, sueverija i poezija 1880; 83
Zabelin, I Istorija russkoi zizni s drevneiscich vremen 1879
Trudy 24, 1 (1883) Nr.10, 292
Zapiski: Zapiski russkogo geograf. obsc Etnografija I (1871) ff.; II 85, 87/88

Other cites relating to Jarilo:

Melnikov, The Complete Collection of Works (or Collected Works) Polnoe sobranie sochinenii (Полное собраніе сочиненій) by Pavel Ivanovich Melnikov (alias Andrey Pechersky, Russian: Па́вел Ива́нович Ме́льников (Андре́й Пече́рский); hence Melnikov-Pechersky) volume 4, pages 202-203.
Anickov, Evgenij Vasilevic, Vesennaja obrjadovaja pesnja na Zapade i u slavjan.
Shpilevskiy, Pavel Mikhailovich (Павал Шпілеўскі or Павел Михайлович Шпилевский or Paweł Szpilewski (1827-1861) was a Belarussian ethnographer who wrote a study of Belarussian folklore – Belarussian Folk Traditions (Белорусские народные предания). The first two volumes were written under a pseudonym – Pavel Drevlyanskiy (П. Древлянский). The first volume saw print in 1846 as part of the Supplements to the Journal of the Ministry of Education (Прибавления к Журналу Министерства народного просвещения).
Pogodin, Mythologische Spuren in russischen Dorfnamen.
Kulisic, Petrovic & Pantelic, Srpski Mitoloski Recnik; 156-157.
Ivanov, V. V. & Toporov, V. N. Issledovanija v oblasti slavjanskih drevnostej, 1974; 215.

Other Related East Suavic Sources

Although Jarilo/Iarilo only appears in the above cited sources, similar names pop up in various other places.

In the Laurentian Codex, we have a mention in the Chronicle of Novgorod, under the year 1216 of a commander by the name of Yarun/Jarun/Iarun (compare with Peron/Perun; compare this pairing too with Jason/Paron or Iasion/Pareantus): “And Yarun had shut himself up in the town with a hundred men and beat them off. And Mstislav [Mstislavich the Daring] went and took Zubchev and they were on the Vozuga; and thither came Volodimir Rurikovitch with men of Smolensk. They were coming along the Volga, making war, and said to him: “Knyaz, go to Torzhok.” Mstislav and Volodimir said: “But Mstislav and Volodimir said: “Let us go to Pereyaslavl; we have a third friend.” And there was no news where Yaroslav was, whether at Torzhok or in Tver. And Yaroslav’s guards attacked Yarun behind Tver, and God helped Yarun and they killed many, others they captured, and others escaped to Tver.” [from the Mitchell/Forbes translation]. Jarun is also a neighborhood of Zagreb in Croatia as well as the ancient Greek name of the Iranian island of Hormuz (yes, from the Straight of Hormuz).

Note that though the above name as used in the Chronicle may not have overtly religious connotations, such connotations can be inferred from other sources described here. Indeed, Oskar Kolberg, in his ethnographic description of Chełm area (in eastern Poland, east of Lublin – it seems in Ukrainian villages) says that “the oldest devil is called Jarynec and he lives on a tall mountain and from their he issues orders to his subordinates, the lesser devils who dwell in the hills and bogs.”Jarynec” is a diminutive form of Jarun/Yarun.

In the Chudov codex (16th century) we have the Saint Gregory’s Sermon, where it is said that the ancient pagans worshipped a Yadrey: “…and other pray to the God of the Household, to the Goddess Vela, to Yadrey…” [the below is from Mansikka’s Die Religion der Ostslawen]

Incidentally, the “d” is not problematic here. Note that there are many similar words in Suavic languages that have approximately the same meaning and are cognates with the yar and yas forms:

jędrny (firm, youthful)
jądro (kernel)
Jędrzej (form of Andrew)

Incidentally, the nasal “ę“ is clearly cognate with the “en” form and hence jędrny is also cognate with jendry which is clearly cognate with Indra.

Likewise the consonants that follow the y sound are aplenty, again though, with similar meanings. Compare, for example, the above “a” and “e” with the “u” sound in: jurzyć się (to be lustful) or jurność (virility). Check out Aleksandr Nikolaevich Afanasyev’s Поэтические воззрения славян на природу [typically, though awkwardly translated as “The Poetic Outlook on Nature by the Slavs”].

Musings on “Jar” the Green

What else can we say here? Well, apparently, Jarilovo appears four times as a village and there is also a Jarilovic near Great Novgorod. In the Laurentian Codex we hear of a Jarun (compare this form with Perun).

We note that Shpilevsky portrays Jarilo as a man on a white horse or as a woman wearing a white cloak. Apparently, if he was a man, he would appear naked. His head was covered by a wreath of spring flowers and in his hands were cereal ears/spikes. Jarilo was shown as young, with light eyes and curly, blonde hair. Wherever he walked by the harvest would be good. Whoever he glances at, that person falls in love (though not necessarily with Jarilo!). In many folk songs, people would ask him for a hot summer and a great harvest. Haase weaves this into his theory as shown above.

The Belarussian description is interesting in that the Jarilo songs would be sang by groups of walking women, one of whom was sitting astride a horse that was tied to a pole. Obviously, the a horse tied to a pole cannot get far so how could these women be walking anywhere? A solution would present itself if the horse were walking around the pole, perhaps simulating the revolving Sun. The women apparently sang the following song:

Jarilo wandered / The world whole / Birthed rye in the field /
Sired people’s children / And wherever he took a step / There came rye aplenty /
And wherever he’s on the seeds / There a rye ear blossoms

We have this summary from Jerzy Strzelczyk‘s dictionary-like list entitled “Myths, Legends and Beliefs of Ancient Suavs” (Mity, podania i wierzenia dawnych Słowian):

And Max Vasmer says the following regarding the Suavic word jar:

Obviously the word is the same as the English year or German Jahr and refers to vegetation. As shown in the Vasmer dictionary above, jar also means a “canyon” but not just any canyon; instead, referring to a vegetation covered canyon that had been carved out by a stream.

A jar

In Polish the various yar/jar cognates also include jary – meaning “rushing” or “swift” as in “a rushing river” and jarki – meaning “fast moving”; (compare this with the English verb “to jerk”). Apparently, jarowanie may refer to preparing seeds or prepping a horse for a race.

Along the same line of reasoning, it is important to note also that there was a Thracian Divinity, that these days is commonly referred to as the Thracian Horseman. He was known simply as “hero”. Now, the Thracian language expert Dimiter Detschew speculated (in Die thrakischen Sprachreste, Vienna, 1957) that the Thracian for hero was *ierus or *iarus... (of course you have to be careful some of the stuff in CIL that he cites to support that proposition may actually say IFRU not IERU). This nicely ties into words such as horse or Horsa (Hengist and Horsa) or, for that matter, hero and Chors. For more on the Horseman see here and here.

If you want to get an even bigger kick out of this, note too that the related Dacian Riders were apparently derived from the Thracian Rider. Now, these Dacian horsemen are sometimes shown with a Goddess holding a fish. There is a stone sculpture of such a figure at Ślęża Mountain (see here).

There also a ridiculous number of agricultural connections. For example, you have the Polish (and other Suavic) jarzyny for “vegetables.” A young wheat is in some places called jarkisz and the hordium grain, jarzec.

Finally, an interesting piece of trivia is that in Hebrew the word for “green” is ya-rokh (יָרֹוק) which (interestingly too, “white” is pronounced, lah-vahn). That rok means “year” in Polish/Czech (Ukrainian, rik and in Russian… god) seems a rather interesting coincidence (?). Of course, we could go further. Take the name Jerusalem – Yerushalayim. Though this is far from clear (and is claimed to be a later development), the ending -ayim indicates the dual form in Hebrew. Since the city has two hills some have suggested that the name may refers to those two hills (rather than a local god Shalem). If so the city name could mean something like “Green Hills”… (For that matter, the Greek ἱερός (hieros) means “holy”).

More Than a Sun Deity or Pure Lunacy?

As already mentioned here, ya-ra-ti (jarać) refers to “burning.” We are a step away from the “Burning Bush”… BTW This is the same concept as the Russian yarkiy (яркий) meaning “flamboyant” or “bright.”

That Jarilo had solar connections Haase proved in sufficient detail above. The lunar connections of the deity are interesting as well, however. Let’s turn to that.

An interesting connection may be drawn from Egypt and the Levant. The Egyptian Moon was referred to as Yah which name later also came to signify a Moon Deity. Of course, we all know that Ra was the Egyptian Deity of the Sun. So, put together, what we already alluded to before, we mention again because the Y-r form of Jarilo or Yarilo practically invites drawing this connection.

Focusing on Moon Gods, with similar names to Jarilo we have the Moon Deity Yarikh in Canaan (mentioned in the Ebla texts before 2000 BC and another – Yarhibol – at Palmyra.

And then there are these Hittite texts (Johan de Roos translation/edition).

Of course, Osiris too was as much or perhaps more a Moon Deity as a Sun Divinity. The person who noted this earliest in modern times was James Frazer when he wrote the following:

“There are far more plausible grounds for identifying Osiris with the moon than with the sun:

1. He was said to have lived or reigned twenty-eight years; Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, cc. 13, 42. This might be taken as a mythical expression for a lunar month.

2. His body was rent into fourteen pieces (ib. cc. 18, 42). This might be interpreted of the moon on the wane, losing a piece of itself on each of the fourteen days which make up the second half of a lunation. It is expressly mentioned that Typhon found the body of Osiris at the full moon (ib. 8); thus the dismemberment of the god would begin with the waning of the moon.

3. In a hymn supposed to be addressed by Isis to Osiris, it is said that Thoth

“Placeth thy soul in the bark Ma-at,
In that name which is thine, of God Moon.”

And again,

“Thou who comest to us as a child each month,
We do not cease to contemplate thee,
Thine emanation heightens the brilliancy
Of the stars of Orion in the firmament,” etc.

Records of the Past, i. 121 sq.; Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie der alten Aegypter, p. 629 sq. Here then Osiris is identified with the moon in set terms. If in the same hymn he is said to “illuminate us like Ra” (the sun), this, as we have already seen, is no reason for identifying him with the sun, but quite the contrary.

4. At the new moon of the month Phanemoth, being the beginning of spring, the Egyptians celebrated what they called “the entry of Osiris into the moon.” Plutarch, Is. et Os. 43.

5. The bull Apis, which was regarded as an image of the soul of Osiris (Is. et Os. cc. 20, 29), was born of a cow which was believed to have been impregnated by the moon (ib. 43).

6. Once a year, at the full moon, pigs were sacrificed simultaneously to the moon and Osiris. Herodotus, ii. 47; Plutarch, Is. et Os. 8. The relation of the pig to Osiris will be examined later on.

Without attempting to explain in detail why a god of vegetation, as I take Osiris to have been, should have been brought into such close connection with the moon, I may refer to the intimate relation which is vulgarly believed to subsist between the growth of vegetation and the phases of the moon .See e.g. Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. 221, xvi. 190, xvii. 108, 215, xviii. 200, 228, 308, 314; Plutarch, Quaest. Conviv. iii. 10, 3; Aulus Gellius, xx. 8, 7; Macrobius, Saturn. vii. 16, 29 sq. Many examples are furnished by the ancient writers on agriculture, e.g. Cato, 37, 4; Varro, i. 37; Geoponica, i. 6.”

Importantly, as seen above, Frazer saw Osiris not as the Sun and not just closer to being a lunar Deity but as the God of Vegetation. He goes on:

“In the course of our inquiry, it has, I trust, been made clear that there is another natural phenomenon to which the conception of death and resurrection is as applicable as to sunset and sunrise, and which, as a matter of fact has been conceived and represented in folk custom. This phenomenon is the annual growth and decay of vegetation. A strong reason for interpreting the death of Osiris as the decay of vegetation rather than as the sunset is to be found in the general (though not unanimous) voice of antiquity, which classed together the worship and myths of Osiris, Adonis, Attis, Dionysus, and Demeter, as religions of essentially the same type…”

Now the connection of Jaryło to vegetation is obvious from the above and is further discussed below. In the meantime it remains to show the connection to the Moon.

Here we can be helped by one of the best webpages on Polish pre-Christian beliefs (unfortunately, thus far, only in Polish), appropriately named Polish Gods: Bogowie Polscy.* According to an essay on this page by Kazimierz Perkowski:

“The most direct and popular (other than biblical) in the pool of connotations that appears around the name Jaś are those connotations, we stress that come from rituals, connected with brightness and with a person that is widely respected and, we can say, luminescent. For Jaś as well as Jasień are the names given to the bright moon, the maker of storms and rain, a flying persona of a brave warrior, a wanderer, unmarried, a suitor, a groom as well as of a Polish folk name of a devil and a partner of the Goddess Marzanna, which we will write about more extensively in subsequent parts of this piece. Finally, we note that the name Jaś is not any diminutive [of John] but rather a folk name in and of itself. If that were not enough, in one of the traditional Christmas carols from the region of Greater Poland, the name Jaś appears in place of… Jesus and the other way around…”

*note: the site bogowiepolscy.net has been subsumed into something called Weneda which seems an inferior project; many of the essays and posts have been removed.

It may also be relevant to note here that, aside from Dionysos or Osiris, another deity that may have something to do with the Thracian/Phrygian Sabazios (Ancient Greek: Σαβάζιος) whose name may be pronounced Savázios (Sovi?) or Sabadios (Boda?) who is also referred to as the Thracian Rider and who was also associated with Father Liber and with Dionysos. Not to mention that the Sabazios hand possesses obvious phallic connotations. Sabazios may also have given the name to sobótki, the fires lit by the Suavs in their celebrations of the arrival of summer. Of course Sabazios also has lunar connections (compare the sabattu or sabpattu which has been dated to 2,000 BC and means full day, that is full moon day; note too the similarities between pattu “day” with pater or father).

Jaś – the Master of the Moon’s Power

“In Coats of Arms, legends and old myths” [Herby, Legendy i dawne mity], one of the most important publication dealing with the topic of Polish mythology, its authors, the professors Marek Cetwiński and Marek Derwich observe that the primary Gods of the Western Suavs were most likely Gods with lunar connections. The most telling example here remains the Rugian Svantevit, which according to the sources, was a God on a white horse who constantly travelled at night (like the Moon) fighting the enemies of the Rugians. Attention can be drawn too to the most important attribute of Svantevit, the horn of plenty filled with mead, an object with an obvious lunar symbolism. And among many Polish family legends a main motif features the battle of a hero – aided by the light of the moon – with an enemy possessing chthonic attributes. At the same time, as noted by professor Aleksander Gieysztor, the persons of Svantevit, Jarovit, and Jarilo appear as thunder Gods, the hypostases of the God Piorun. So are all of these research positions presented here inconsistent and the thunder and lunar characteristics mutually exclusive? Absolutely not. The Moon as much as thunder deities were connected after all with rain and the sky water [Wodan] – and these ensured (or took away) fertility and prosperity. We could also point out the East Slavic report about a lunar (as per a common hypothesis) deity Chors, called in some notes “the thunder angel” as well as, most importantly for this essay, Polish folk beliefs. These last ones treat the lunar and thunder ideas interchangeably. Our Jaś appears connected with the Moon:

“Ponad lasejkiem czarna chmurejka,
ponad to chmurejko jasny miesiączejko.
Nie jest to miesiączek, Jasio wojowniczek,
wywojował sobie sto złotych jabłuszek.”

[A carol from the Lublin region, Słownik stereotypów i symboli ludowych, vol. I, part 3, 2012, p. 111]

“Jasna nieba, jasna słońca, jasień miesiąc
i jasne gwiazdy, i święta Trójca, i Matka Boża,
stań do pomocy, jak we dnie, tak i w nocy.”

[a charm asking help from a rose, Słownik stereotypów i symboli ludowych, vol. I, part 1, 1996, p. 171]

„A u miesiąca dwa rogi,
a u Jasieńka dwa braci”

[Słownik stereotypów i symboli ludowych, vol. I, part 1, 1996, p. 162]

“Jedzie Jasieńko do dziewki,
Jako miesiączek do Zorzy […]
Herny (pyszny) Jasieńku kozacze,
Gdzie się mi bierzesz przeciw nocy?”

[Wisła, vol. VII, part 4, 1893, p. 691]

“We see here a solid connection between the folk-preserved persona of Jaś and the Moon. I would warn, however, against assuming the first is the literal personification of a heavenly body. For the Moon [księżyc], frequently called miesiąc or miesiączek [today meaning a “month”], in old Polish folk beliefs was filled with a number of male and female characters. He is a kind of a transporter or a steed allowing travel to and from the netherworld. The Polsh name for the Earth’s natural satellite – księżyc – is curious. This name, as noted by professor Mikołaj Rudnicki, could have originally been connected with a Lechitic [West Suavic] lunar Deity, only later coming to mean the actual Moon. We should add that the Polish association of the Moon [with a male prince] are rather unique in the European context. Hans Biedermann in his “Symbols Lexicon” notes that the Moon is typically associated with female characteristics, just as “the names of the Moon in European languages are female, the exceptions being the German der Mond and the Polish Księżyc.” It is possible that the rural Jaś, described in tens of Polish songs as “serving the lord”, could have been that księżyc – the son of książę [the former is either a diminutive of the latter or the “son” of the latter – much as Svarozic – Svarog]. Another element connecting the image of Jaś with the Moon is the attribute of the golden crown… “

“Jedzie Jasiek z Torunia,
Złota na nim koruna;
Konie z góry stąpają,
Srebrem, złotem brząkają.”

[Wisła, vol. III, part 4, 1889, p. 750]

“Miesiącowi złota korona,
A mnie szczęście i fortona;
Miesiącowi cześć i chwała,
A mnie zdrowie!”

[Wisła, vol. XIV , part 4, 1900, p. 468]

“We will now move on to the mentioned interchangeability of the thunder and lunar portfolio. In Polish myths the Moon battles, similar to a thunder deity, with chthonic beings, and even uses for this purpose the typical weapon of a thunder god – the stone. In a number of variations of this tale, there is an attack that takes place during a full moon and it is against a villain, perhaps a thief in the fields, but most often a water spirit or drowned person (a memory of a chthonic deity) or against smaller female water divinities…”

“…In the syncretic folk traditionalism, the bright and warm season, originally connected with a thunder deity who opens and closes vegetation, begins in the spring on Saint George’s day [April 23] and ends in the fall on Saint Martin’s day [November 11] (in the Catholic tradition) or Saint George’s day (in Orthodoxy). On Saint Martin’s day, the original manifestation day of the thunder deity – we find preserved to this day an important element of lunar symbolism: the famous Saint Martin croissants. Baked to this day in Greater Poland, they represent, it is believed a memory of a vicarious offering in place of the earlier ox sacrifice. The context is completed by a whole series of Polish riddles wherein the roar of an ox – an animal associated with the Moon (for example the folk bald ox) as well as the animal of the thunder divinity – is identified as a far off sound of thunder…”

“…If Jaś the suitor was perceived as the cause of a storm, was he also, in light of the above, connected to the Moon? Such beliefs have been preserved particularly in Eastern Poland, where in songs and tales, the Moon remains associated with the young groom, a single man. He marries or seduces the bride – the Sun, or rather the “solar sister” – the Zorza/Jutrzenka, the morning Venus (in old Polish tales Lela/Dziedzilela). This motif is visible in a number of wedding songs:

“Jedzie Jasieńko do dziewki,
Jako miesiączek do Zorzy”

[Wisła, vol. VII, part 4, 1893, p. 691]

„A gdzie słoneczko wschodzi,
Młody Jasieńko chodzi…”

[Lud, year 9, 1903, p. 226]

…In the above part of this essay, we took a look at a number of supernatural attributes in the folk image of Jaś. He turns out to be the ritualistic causer of the storm and bringer of rain, as well as the eternal wanderer and sky warrior. Simultaneously, Jaś like the Moon “runs against the night” and illuminates its darkness. Finally, Jaś is a suitor seducing Jutrzenka-Zorza…”

[the authors cite another interesting tale:]

“Jasio chodzi po drobnej leszczynie,
Orzechy szczypie, w kieszonkę sypie
Nadobnej Marysi, swojej dziewczynie.”

[Polish folk song]”

This obviously suggests a connection between Jaś and Marzanna, potentially the frozen Earth. Also note the nuts are again a motif connected with Jarilo/Iarilo in Rybakov’s listing of songs mentioned below. Some of the above is not necessarily entirely convincing but the essay does contain a number of interesting suggstisons/clues.

The author, of course, notes the similarity of Polish Jaś with the East Suavic Jarilo/Iarilo (particularly, in the attribute of the horn – cornucopia) so let’s bring this back to Iarilo.

Back To Jaryło/Jarilo/Iarilo

The first step is to recognize that Jarilo, as indicated by the above, is either the same Deity or a closely related Deity to the pagan Gods found among other Suavic tribes and Balts.

Take for example, this Ukrainian book, written much like Strzelczyk’s listings, includes entries for:

Jarilo,
Jarowit, that is Gerovit and
Jasion/Jasień

Further, Jasza/Jaszer is the form promoted among others by Boris Rybakov who provides these creations:

So there sits, sits Yasha under a nut bush (there is that bush again):

Сиди-сиди, Яша, под ореховым кустом,
Грызи–грызи, Яша, орешки каленые, миломю дареные.
Чок–чок, пяточок, вставай Яша, дурачок,
Где твоя невеста, в чем она одета?
Как ее зовут? И откуда привезут?

In another version we have Yasha sitting on a golden chair: (this version from Perkowski is a little different than Rybakov’s above):

Сидит наш Яша
На золотом стуле,
Ладу, ладу, ладоньки,
На золотом стуле.
Щелкат наш Яшенька
Калены орешки…
Калены-калены,
Девушкам дарены…
Бабам посулены…

Roughly speaking the geographic attestation, therefore, is as follows:

Western Lechitic tribes (Veleti) – Gerovit (pronounce Yerovit or, if you will, Yarovit)
Eastern Lechitic tribes (Poles) – Jasień or Jasion (ash) or Jasza/Jesza (pronounce Yasien or Iasion orYasha/Yesha)
Belorussians – Jarilo (pronounce Yarilo)
Ilmen Suavs/North-Eastern Russians – Jasza or Jaszer (pronounce Yasha or Yasher)

Of course, one group of northern Suavs is not clearly reflected in the above list: the Ukrainians. And here we have another hint regarding the nature of this Divinity. Among the Kievan Polans, that is Ukrainians, the most obvious candidate for the portfolio of the Sun God and Moon God and, therefore, maybe also Vegetation God, is, it seems, Dadzbog Chors (though, it is also possible that Chors is the son of Jasień – certainly the Osiris-Horus similarities is of interest).

The God of Vegetation and Fertility, Life, Light and Motion

So Haase is not wrong that Jarilo was a Sun God. In fact, Haase was right that Jarilo is, in fact, more than that – in that he is also a God of Love (or at least lust!) and, therefore, vegetation. But beyond that Jarilo is a Lunar Deity. This is the hypothesis of the “one rider” – perhaps akin to the Latvian Ūsiņš. Most generally, perhaps, Yarilo is a God of Life, Virility and, ultimately, Motion.

It is, of course, possible to view this slightly differently. For example, looking to Lithuanian mythology, we can ask whether there were in fact two Deities: the Sky Twins or Ašvieniai. Perhaps their names were Yas and Yar? If you want to spin this out further, a connection can be drawn to the Vandalic Assi and Ambri though this is obviously a major leap.

And another thought, were these “twins” always both men or, to bring this back to “Mother Earth/Father Jarilo/Iarilo” or “Sun/Moon”, was one of the twins perhaps a woman?

Interestingly, also Mars (though seemingly not Ares) had an agricultural beginning before becoming a god of war. If so, the suggestion that Gerovit may have been the same as Mars may actually have been more accurate than the writer of the Life of Otto of Bamberg may have suspected.

To view some other posts on Jaryło you can take a look here as well as here and here.

Further Tamga and the Like Spear/Lance Finds

PublishedMarch 1, 2020 Post authortorino

We’ve discussed spears with runes & signs here and more specifically here:

Rozwadów, south-east Poland,
Soshychne, western Ukraine
Dahmsdorf-Müncheberg, eastern Germany

as well as here. Here are some other “tamga” spears. Tamgas are associated most typically with the Sarmatians. Yet, as we will see these spears are not found where the Jazyges resided and Ukraine, the are ruled by Sarmatians and later the Goths also does not generally yield tamga spear finds. Perhaps they could be associated with the Veneti Sarmatae. Some of these are from a 2012 article by Yatsenko & Dobrzanska. Others from Gustaf Kossina’s ever giving Die deutsche Vorgeschichte: Ein hervorragende nationale Wissenschaft or other Mannus-related publications such as Martin Jahn’s Die Bewaffnung der Germanen in der alteren Eisenzeit etwa von 700 v. Chr. bis 200 n. Chr. I also give citations in the text to various Polish articles announcing these finds (or analyzing them in depth). For more on this stuff is currently Bartosz Kontny if you can read Polish, of course.

Jankowo, Poland

This in the area of Mogilno is also the site of the discovery of the Jankowo “head” (for that discovery as well as its “viking” interpretation, you can see, for example, Der Kopf von Adolfinenhof Kreis Mogilno, eine Wikingische Holzplastik?)

Żurawiczki (Kamienica), Poland

There are actually two finds here. The first is this:

And the second this:

The other side of this spear apparently was too worn out to provide anything of interest though we know it contains dots and a few concentric circles.

This was described in Włodzimierz Antoniewicz’s Żelazne oszczepy inkrustowane z Kamienicy, w pow. jarosławskim, „Przeglad Archeologiczny”, t. 1, s. 99–111 (1919) as well as other articles including in Andrzej Kokowski’s Problemy badania dziejów kultury przeworskiej in Kultura Przeworska, Lublin vol 1.

Zadowice, Poland

We can also see a similar “tree” symbol on an encrusted sword from Lachmirowice and Egge as discussed in Tadeusz Horbacz’s and Marek Olędzki’s Inkrustowane Miecze Rzymskie z Barbaricum i Obszarow Przylimesowych Imperium Romanum: Wybrane Zagadnienia in Acta Universatis Lodziensis, Folia Archaeologica, vol 17 (1992).

Grunówko, Poland

Another location where spears have been found is Grunówko. There are two specimen from Grunówko (near Wschowa by Leszno) though the silver encrustings apparently had melted in the ritual flames. The original publication here was Kurhan w Grunówku pod Lesznem by Romuald Erzepki from the Zapiski Archeologiczne Poznańskie, volume IV (1888). Here is the first:

And here is the other:

Września, Poland

Podlodów, Poland

The cover of Andrzej Kokowski’s Lubelszczyzna w młodszym okresie przedrzymskim i w okresie rzymskim features the following spear:

In order to identify it you can read Jan Gurba’s and Zygmunt Ślusarski’s 1966 article Bogato wyposażony grób z III wieku z Podlodowa w pow. tomaszowsko-lubelskim, „Przeglad Archeologiczny”, t. 17. This was discovered in the village of Podlodów by a local farmer – Jan Kukis in 1959.

You will soon discover that the spear actually looks like this:

Or rather like this:

Stryczowice by Ostrowiec, Poland

For more of this and others check out Andrzej Nadolski’s Kilka uwag o inkrustowanych grotach oszczepów z późnego okresu rzymskiego, Slavia Antiqua, t. 2 (1950) or Z problematyki badań nad wczesnośredniowiecznym uzbrojeniem polskim from “Z Otchłani Wieków: pismo poświęcone pradziejom Polski, Tom 21, Numer 5 (1952). More recently, see Jacek Andrzejowski’s Groty włóczni ze znakami symbolicznymi ze Stryczowic in „ZOW”, t. 61, nr 1–2.

Gać, Poland

For more on this you can check out an article by Anna Lasota, Cmentarzysko z okresu rzymskiego w Gaci w swietle nowych badan or Marcin Biborski’s Zdobiona broń z cmentarzyska ciałopalnego z okresu wpływów rzymskich z Gaci k. Przeworska in Materiały Archeologiczne, t. XXIII (1986).

Bodzanowo, Poland

The Bodzanowo of this spear lies about midway between Inowrocław and Włocławek.

Kopaniewo, Poland

This is from Jahn’s book where he says it comes from Koppenow, now Kopaniewo in Lębork County, Pomerania, Poland. Apparently, another example of this is from Neugut (near Sławno?).

Silesia, Poland

On this one you cannot see any taigas but you can see the “moon” symbols.

The specific location of this find is uncertain. More on the topic in Rudolf Jamka’s Ozdoby oręża i narzędzi z podokresu późno-lateńskiego i okresu rzymskiego, odkrytych na Śląsku, “Polska Akademia Umiejętności – Prace Prehistoryczne”, nr 3. Quite a similar example comes from Hoppenrade, east Germany – see below for that.

Rogów Opolski, Poland

Here you have the same spear shown in two different ways.

Once again see the Rudolf Jamka article for more on these which also refers to articles by Raschke (from whom comes the version of the picture on the left) and Kurtz (same for the right side version). The tamga signs seem quite few and barely visible.

Sobótka, Łęczyca, central Poland

These pictures come from G Rycel’s’ article Cmentarzysko kultury przeworskiej w Sobótce (st. 1), woj. konińskie, Prace i Materiały Muzeum Archeologicznego i Etnograficznego w Łodzi. Seria Archeologiczna, nr 24 (1981). This Sobótka is between Warsaw and Poznan.

Here the “lunar” as well as “solar” (in the top picture) symbols are clearly visible.

Nadkole, Mazovia, Poland

Here is an interesting example of lunar and triangular (?) symbols from Mazovia.

For more information you can check out Jacek Andrzejowski’s “Nadkole 2. A Cemetery of the Przeworsk Culture in Eastern Poland.”

There are a few similar spears from outside of Poland. Such as this.

Medow, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, east Germany
(Medowe or Miodowe)

Zihl, Switzerland

This Swiss example comes from Jahn’s book.

Недобоївці/Nedoboyivtsi/Nedoboivtsi, western Ukraine

Valle, Norway

Mos, Stenkyrka, Gotland, Sweden

This is an example from Sweden from an article “Runes and Romans in the North” by Lisbeth Imer (also her drawing).

With this exception, the Scandinavian versions of these spears or lances do not appear to be adorned by any of tamgas that are present on all the other spears shown here. Nevertheless, since some of them are quite cool and famous we show some below.

Hoppenrade, eastern Germany

This too comes from Jahn’s book.

Vimose, Funen, Denmark

This technically is not a spear but a sword scabbard but the left marking on this appears to be a tamga-like designation.

Ok so let’s map these tamga finds.

The makes clear that these tamga signs were not “Scandinavian” or “Nordic” in any common sense of the word. They are not found in central or west Germany or in France. On spears they appear primarily in Poland with a few examples also in the immediate surroundings. But the curious thing is that, outside of spear or lanceheads, they are found even earlier in the past – primarily in the Bosporan Kingdom but also in other places, including, again, in Poland. That is a topic for another time. In the meantime let’s look at some other spear finds that do not have tamga markings but do feature embroidery and runic symbols.

Of course there were many spears featuring various “patterns” that did not contain any tamga signs or runes or other characters such as these. In Poland you have examples such as these.

Prusiek, Poland
near Sanok

This comes from articles by Renata Madyda-Legutko, Judyta Rodzińska-Nowak and Joanna Zagórska-Telega. There apparently is also another Prusiek spear.

Or take a look at this.

Gródki, Poland
near Dzialdowo, Nidzica
(Grodtken near Soldau, Neidenburg)

For other decorated but not with tamga signs spears, check out the spear from Niemirow or Stara Rudowka.

And then there are quite a number of runic spears, mostly in Scandinavia or England such as these. They contain runes or other markings but not tamgas.

Wurmlingen, western Germany

The Wurmlingen speer certainly contains runes and other etchings but they do not appear to be similar to any known tamga signs. It is also much more recent, being dated apparently to the seventh century.

Vimose, Funen, Denmark

Back to Vimose again.

Øvre Stabu, Norway

Łada Placenames in Central & Eastern Europe

PublishedFebruary 1, 2020 Post authortorino

Just as the name Jasień is present in many town and river designations in Poland and vicinity so is Łada. Dlugosz spoke of a village named Łada and we’ve identified such a village already but there are more such place and water names. The following comes from various sources supplemented by the “Geographic Dictionary of the Polish Kingdom and Other Suavic Countries” (Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich).

Here is a list of some of those in and around Poland.

Villages

Łada – a village in the Lublin voivodeship. The river Łada runs through it. First mentioned in 1245 during the invasion of Ruthenian dukes of the “Lachic land” when Duke Wasilko raided the Łada and Dzwola areas. In the 14th century it was a royal village (that is it belonged to the crown). In 1377 it somehow came into the possession of Dmitri of Goraj (the royal treasurer) and then his nephews. The Lublin voivode Mikołaj Firlej bought the village in 1508. In 1517 it was sold to Wiktoryn Sienieński who then donated it to the Gorka family. At the end of the 16th century it was bought by Jan Zamojski. The village suffered during the Napoleonic wars. It was partly repopulated by Uniates. In WWII most of Łada burnt down during a German air raid.

Łady – a village in the Mazovian voivodeship.

Ładawy – a village in the Łódź Voivodeship.

Ładowska-Wola – a village in the Mazovian voivodeship.

Ładzice – a village in Radomsko County, Łódź Voivodeship.

Ladzin (Ładzin) – a village in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship.

Ładzyń – a village in the Mazovian Voivodeship.

Ladorudz – a village in the Greater Poland Voivodeship.

Ładomierz – a former village near Wielun.

Lada – a village in Slovakia

Ladomirowa – a village in Slovakia.

Ladce – a village in Slovakia.

Ladygos (Ładogole) – a village near Vinius.

Ładyżyn – a village in Lithuania near Lazdijai.

Ładowszczyzna – formerly a private village near the town of Lida, Belarus.

Ladeniki (Ładzienniki) – a village in Belarus.

Ładonicha – a place in Дзісна region in Belarus.

Ladorozh (Ładoroże) – a village in Belarus on the Ukrainian border.

Malye Lyady (Lady) – ancient town and goods near Smilavichy in Belarus (part of former Červień or Chervyen (Чэрвень) fka Igumen (Ігумен) district.

Ladasna (Ladosno, Ładosno) – village in Belarus.

Ladyzhin – a town in Belarus.

Ładyżycze – a town in Belarus on the Braginka (Brahinka) river; today in the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

Lyady (Łady) – a village on the Belarussian – Russian border, east of Orsha (incidentally just West of the Russian Yasenets).

Lyadovichi (Ladowicze) – a village near Kobryn in Belarus.

Ladantsi (Ладанці, Ładańce) – Ukrainian village near Lviv.

Ladychyn (Лади́чин, Ładyczyn) – a village in Ukraine near Ternopil.

Ladyzhyn (Ладижин, Ładyżyn) – a town in Ukraine.

Ladyzhynka – a town in Ukraine.

Liadova/Lyadova – Ukrainian village on the border with Moldova on the river Liadova (presumably meaning “icy”).

Ladendorf – A village in Austria.

For a Liedena in Spain – rather curious next to Yesa – see here.

Rivers

Biala Łada (White Łada) – starts northwards around the town of Chrzanów, heads south past the village Łada towards, then through Bilgoraj and merges with the Czarna Łada at Sol or so to form Łada.

Czarna Łada (Black Łada)- starts at Dabrowa/Gorecko Koscielne, then heads west towards Bilgoraj where it merges with the Biala Łada to form Łada.

Łada – the combined Łada has a short run west into the River Tanew.

Ladosnianka (Ładośnianka) – river near Lepel/Niemirava/Ladosno in Belarus.

Ladantsi (Ладанці, Ładańce) – Ukrainian stream near the village of Ladantsi. Flows into the Marushka river.

Liadova/Lyadova – river in Ukraine. Flows through village Liadova/Lyadova.

What about Germany? Well, there is the river:

Leda – the river Leda is in NW Germany and, of course, has an “e” not an “a” but its old name was shown with an “a” as in: fluuium Lade, flumen Lathe, Lathamuthon. The below etymology of Greule’s is rather improbable.

Other

Ladowa Niwa – a hill near Łukawiec (Лукавець, Lukavets’), Subcarpathian Voivodeship. Łukawiec itself was founded already in the 16th century.

Here is a map of the above.

Of course these are only some such names and there are many others such as several place names Łady near the Belarussian Dzisna (Дзісна), Ładycza, Ladzyny, Ladźwienie, Ladce, Ladniki, Ladna, Ladki, Ladendorf, Ladenberg, Ladeskul, Ladce & others. You could also look elsewhere such as at Ladenburg (remember Imple o Lada from the Rhine province).

Annual Polish Pagan Customs

PublishedJanuary 13, 2020 Post authortorino

Here is a list of Polish, mostly pre-Christian, festivals of the annual cycle that survived in some form till recent times. As I discover more interesting things, I will try to continue adding to this article.

The Rites of Spring

Gromadki, Śmigus Dyngus, Kogutek, Gaik

The calendar began with a feast and a custom of ancestor remembrance. People burned candles and left food for their ancestors on the grave sites – the so-called gromadki. This typically happened on the Christian Maundy Thursday (before Easter) and was, perhaps, a type of dziady commemoration – remembering the dead celebration (more on that below in the rites of winter). Since this was also “Fat Thursday” and hence a day of doughnuts, there seems to have been plenty of foodstuffs to share with dead souls.

The Monday after Easter is typically the Śmigus-Dyngus Monday. On it men and women would go around and try to surprise each other by spraying the others with water. Younger folks would perform another ritual with young men and boys going around with a stylized rooster (kogutek) and young women going around with branches bound together to represent a young forest (gaik). The dyngus were the trinkets obtained by these spring carolers from the houses that they stopped at to sing and then ask for “payment” for the performance.

Although some have connected dyngus with payment (German: Dingen > things), a much more likely etymology, especially given the context of spring rites, spring rains and the rebirth of the world is the Prussian word dangus which means “sky.” This would also explain the suffix (-s) which is common in Baltic languages.

The kogutek, also celebrated on the second day of Easter, involved a rooster, typically stylized out of a pumpkin or made out of batter with attached feathers and a comb made from red cloth. The rooster was attached to a small wooden plank that sported wheels and served as a cart to have the rooster travel around the village. The procession started at a wealthier farmer’s house from whom a present was obtained and then went house to house while singing, playing pipes and obtaining gifts (the dyngus) from the residents. Eventually the whole troop found its way to the local tavern and then the things obtained were parceled out among all the gathered with everyone concluding the day’s events with a drinking party. The kogutek would then be stored with one of the partygoers till the next year.

The gaik involved young women and kids being led by one lady, again going house to house. The leader would carry a “forest” of greenery, plants, branches, adorned with many colored ribbons as well as, sometimes, with shining baubles. At each house this troupe would sing and, in return, also get small presents. The gaik was also occasionally referred to as maik (reffering to May).

Zielone Świątki

Zielone Świątki simply means the “Green Holidays.” These were associated with all kinds of games. In parts of Kujawy (on the Bachorza channel or at Lubień Kujawski), till about the beginning of the 19th century, the villagers played a game called the “King of Shepherds” – essentially a race (the “track” marked with wooden sticks) to bring one’s cattle herd to a previously agreed place the fastest. Both men and women partake and apparently both royal titles – king and queen – were available for the taking (for an annual period). Afterwards, all manner of simple gifts were given and the completed race turned into a party. In other parts of the country a similar “king” game was played involving horse races.

Later, on the first of May people would go out for walks – on the so-called majówka.

In Warsaw, the citizenry would head to Golendzin across the river where, so the tale goes, one lady from Old Town, chosen at random would be wed. The ferries would be adorned with birch branches and all manner of ribbons. The local mayor would collect the dowry for the bride from the party goers.

It seems that in the days of Jan Casimir, when the Swedes occupied Praga (in 1655) – on the East bank of the Vistula – the citizens unwilling to cross the river, conducted their majowka instead at Bielany, north of Warsaw. In other tellings, the relocation from Golendzin to Bielany was occasioned by the construction of the Camaldolese monk monastery at Bielany about 1630 – whether the monks invited the partygoers or the partygoers showed up of their own is another matter. (In fact, a similar event was sponsored by the Camaldolese of another Bielany near Cracow and may have been sponsored by other such monasteries elsewhere). In any event, the weddings continued, sporadically, even as late as 1766 (during the reign of Stanisuav Augustus) but over time the majowka became more of an all day nature outing for the citizenry.

Whenever the kings Augustus II or Augustus III were in town, they would join the partygoers at Bielany where the ladies, particularly of the lower classes, would wear all kinds of colorful clothes and the coachmen would arrive with green-adorned carts.

In fact, even more generally, wagon and carriage drivers would place greenery on their carts and on their horses. During this month of May, even as late as the reign of Sigismund Augustus, married women would gather at a meadow and hold hands dancing and singing, praising spring.

On the Eve of the Green Holidays (the Pentecost, Whitsun, Whitsunday or Pfingsten in Germany) which was the Sunday (fifty days after Easter, for example May 12th), the partying and playing began.

During those days all the houses (and churches) would be “mayed” that is covered in green leaves and the townspeople would play zielone. Later, the custom included covering the floors in the house (as well as in churches!) with sweet flag leaves (tatarak). The house lobby/foyer (sień) would be covered with birch branches. Various green herbs would also be placed on ceilings, on the windows and on pictures (especially on pictures of Holy Mary).

This was also the season of cake making (babki and placki).

At nights during those May days, there would begin the so-called sobótki. Fires would be lit on top of the hillocks and men and women would jump over them all the while dancing, singing and laughing.

Around 1405, the preacher and professor of Cracow University, Lucas of Great Kozmin also mentions dances with swords:

“I recall that in youth I read in a certain chronicle that there were in Poland Gods and from those days to our times such rites come that young women dance with swords, as if in offering to the pagan Gods, and not to [the] God, as well as [dances of] young men with swords and sticks, which they then hit about…”

These games would continue throughout May and June until Saint John the Baptist’s day. And, in fact, Lucas’ description may relate specifically to Saint John’s Day. On the night before, that is the Vigil (Wigilia) of Saint John, people celebrated the Sobótka. This ancient rite involved fires, wreaths placed on river water (often with a candle) and bylica which was put over house roofs. So let’s go to that.

Sobótka

The longest night of the year – so-called “Saint John’s” Eve – was also an occasion to perform ancient rites. Those typically involved making wreaths and garlands for the ladies followed by late night gatherings and the setting of fires usually in the fields (going ku-pole) or on hilltops. Next came the dancing around these fires. Young women lead those gatherings and young men joined later. They would then couple up and dance around the fires and, often, jump through them – sometimes together. (Incidentally, sobótka is only indirectly related to the “Sabbath” (though perhaps more to the “witches’ sabbaths.” Rather its direct etymology seems to be connected with certain West Anatolian festivities).

In some places, like Kujawy, all the village huts would be decorated with łopian (burdock) leaves (of the Asteraceae family – Kletten in German).

The wreaths would typically be made of bylica (artemisia or mugwort) though other plants were utilized as well, including piołun (common wormwood also a type of artemisia), dziurawiec (Saint John’s wort), leszczyna branches (hazel), mięta (mint), ruta (ruta or rue), biedrzeniec (pimpinella) or czarny bez (black elderberry) were seen as having beneficial powers on this day. Of course, the most coveted was the fern flower – a mythical flower much like the four-leafed clover. Women would take venture naked into the woods, most often with their male companions, in search of this flower. As I understand it, few had found the flower though some had had an altogether good time nevertheless.

In a related custom, the wreaths (wianki – pronounced “vyankee“) would often end up being placed on the surface of local rivers and sent gently floating with the current. Frequently, they would also carry an attached candle so that they remained visible from afar. While women would float the wreaths on water, young men would light small fires on the river banks. These custom continued even into the 18th and 19th centuries when inhabitants in Warsaw would gather on the banks of the Vistula to send their wreaths on the way to the sea while cheering them on from the local bridges. Local potentates would also give out small gifts to the public on the occasion and the common people would exchange presents amongst themselves. The last Polish king – Stanisuav Poniatowski – was recorded attending these events. Sometimes the plants were forgotten and other means were used to float a fire; for example, in Pomerania, local inhabitants would place small barrels full of tar on the water surface and set them on fire, watching them head out to the Baltic.

Such gatherings were known in Poland as sobótki (diminutive for “sabbaths”) or palinoce (pronounced “palinotze“) aka palinocki (pronounced “palinotzki“) (that is “burning nights”). The rituals are alluded too already in the 11th century by Thietmar who describes Mount Ślęża in Silesia. That same mountain would be referred to as sobótka in the 13th century. The clergy typically bemoaned such pre-Christian relicts and forbade them as I have described previously:

“Prohibit too the nightly dances that take place during days of the sabbath (sobótki or kupalnocki in the summer) and on the days of the Saints John the Baptist and Saints Peter and Paul, for there are fornications and adultery and incest committed in those times.” (Bishop Andrzej Łaskarz Statutes from the 1420s)

& here:

“populi multitudo sexus utriusque assolet de consuetudine confluere, ubi tubarum, timpanorum. fistularum, aliorumque musicorum generum exercicia adhibentur, chorearum ceterorumque jocorum plausus exercentur…” (Royal Decree of Casimir IV from 1468)

& here:

“For this reason these pagan [maidens] dedicated this herb to her and when the day [of Diana/Artemis] was celebrated some hung it up around houses while others girded it on: and this was done on the twenty fourth day of the moon [month] June, on our day of Saint John: and so they [the ladies] lit fires in the night, danced, praying and honoring the devil. [And] this pagan custom they [women] refuse to forsake to this day, for so they make offerings of this herb hanging it and girding it on. And they honour holidays of this devil [i.e., Diana/Artemis] by making sabaths [sobótki], burning fires, kindling fires with planks [sticks], so that there should be the right devilish holiness: there they sing devilish songs, obscene/filthy while dancing.” (Marcin of Urzędów, circa 1500 – 1573.:

It is curious that these festivities were so much like the festivities conducted around Rome in honor of the Deity Pales (the so-called parillia). Palić, of course, means “to burn” in Polish. For more on these customs, see here.

Dożynki
(Okrężne or Wieńcowe or Święto Plonów)

First, let us note that there were some harvest festivals that were done during the overall harvest but after the conclusion of harvesting particular type of grain. Specifically, after the collection of żyto (English secale or German Roggen) or pszenica (wheat or Weizen), you had the game of pępkowe. This involved catching the slowest female harvester and forcing her to cut the last stalk – the pęp or, in the diminutive, pępek. This pęp is made part of a bouquet consisting of it and a variety of field flowers collected and is carried by the “tardy” farmer girl to the manor house for which she is rewarded by the local lord along with the accompanying “crew.” Curiously, the pępek is also the name for the navel and the cutting appears to imitate the cutting of the umbilical cord as in a birthing ceremony.

Dożynki these days refers to the Polish harvest festival. Specifically, the word refers to the cutting (dożynać derived from żąć, that is ścinać, kosić, all of which refer to cutting) of the (final) harvest.

Technically, the meaning of the word may have changed over the years and in different parts of Poland. Thus, some think that the cutting that dożynki referred to originally was the cutting of the ozimina, that is of winter wheat, that is of a biennial crop, during the late fall. Technically, this was a separate – and later (in September/October) – activity from the earlier harvest of the current – annual – crop (in August/September). That is, after the actual harvest of the annual crop, the winter crop would be sown and prepped for the winter via the dożynanie and would be harvested next year (though, typically, earlier than the annual crop). As part of the dożynki of ozimina, a garland or wreath (wieniec) would be brought back to the village for the landlord.

If this is true then the earlier activity of the fall harvest was instead called okrężne, the act of going “around” the krąg that is around the fields and checking for any remaining crop. It was that name that came to mean the festivities associated with the harvest, including the ultimate feast/party.

However, because the fall harvest and the associated okrężne of the annual crop would come within a month or so of the dożynki of the biennial crop, the latter name – which could be associated just as easily with the cutting of the harvest as of the ozimina – ultimately displaced okrężne as the name given to the festivities and rituals associated with the fall harvest.

(In some places in Poland, the old name of okrężne now refers to the actual feast part of the dożynki, the latter, originally, unrelated term having subsumed the former. Also, in some places dożynki are called obrzynki and, elsewhere, more appropriately for dożynki, wieniec or wieńcowe (for example in Kujawy), names referring to wreaths that would be created as part of the dożynki of ozimina. Apparently, in Opole Silesia the harvest fest is called żniwniok. Finally, another common name is simply Święto Plonów or the Holiday of the Harvest).

In any event, here we are discussing the earlier-occuring harvest festival. This took place in August or in early September.

After clearing all the harvest from the fields by doing a final walkthrough “around” the fields and cutting the final kłos (the so-called “ear” or spike of the stem of a cereal plant), the villagers would make a garland/wreath entirely from the harvest cereal stalks and then head back to the village to celebrate. Sometimes the local lord’s kids would be part of the party coming from the fields. In some parts of the country this party also “captured” the landlord’s field officials – such as the field administrator and the lower-ranked tallyman (karbowy). These would then serve as “hostages.”

The group would then make its way through the fields to the house of the local lord (the dziedzic). They would find the gates closed but… after showing him the harvest wreath, they would be let in. (Compare this to the “gatekeeping” ceremony at the Temple of Svantovit at Arkona). If “hostages” had been taken, the landlord would now buy the “freedom” of his employees. Then the feast would begin.

The first drink would be taken by that local lord and the village leader, the highest ranking kmieć (that is farmer peasant), the so-called sołtys. After the feast the lord would dance with the village leader’s wife and the lady, the lord’s wife, lest you think this a one way street, would dance with the village leader (the sołtys). In other words, this particular feast’s economics brought all classes together.

Takci bywało, panie, pijaliśmy z sobą,
Ani gardził pan kmiotka swojego osobą;
Dziś wszystko już inaczej, wszystko spoważniało,
Jak to mówią, postawy dosyć, wątku mało.

Music, dancing and various games were part of the festival but the highlight, of course, was the actual feast.

Much preparation would go into ensuring a variety of drinks and foods were available for that party. Piwo (beer) was brewed along with miód (mead that is miód pitny which translates into “drinking honey” as opposed to regular honey) as well as other concoctions such as krupnik which, in this case, did not mean a soup but rather combination of vodka and mead. Cattle would be slaughtered for the beef. Among the soups, a popular type was, of course, barszcz (borscht). Bigos, the Polish stew combo of chopped meat (often beef) and cabbage (sauerkraut). Another course were the zrazy which were are thin slices of meat rolled around various stuffing components (mushrooms, vegetables, eggs, bacon, potatoes). For those grain-inclined, there was also kasza (kasha), typically made from gryka (buckwheat).

Interestingly, already Jan Długosz (15th century) mentions similar harvest celebrations in Lithuania as well. There, he says, the parties took place in the holy sacred groves to which the people would bring the harvest (presumably in thanks to the Gods) in the fall. They would also make offerings from oxen, calves and rams and would party for three days, eating (the food offerings!), dancing and playing a variety of games. It is not clear whether these were Lithuanian customs or the customs of those people who the Lithuanians captured from neighboring regions (such as Mazovia) and brought East as prisoners (typically to harvest and colonize the vast forest lands that covered most of Lithuania and Belarus).

The Rites of Winter

Dziady

Dziady – the day of remembrance for the dead be they direct “ancestors” or simply passed away relatives and friends – are perhaps the most remembered Suavic holiday. This is certainly largely due to Mickiewicz’s play of the same name which served to etch this particular practice into Polish memory. It is widely believed that the Christian All-Saints Day or All-Souls’ Day (zaduszki) replaced the ancient Polish pagan traditions. While this may be the case, the matter is rather more complicated than just that.

As a starting matter, ancient Suavs actually had several days devoted to the Dead at various times of the year. In Belarus, dziady were held at least three times: right before the end of zapusty (for that see below) at the beginning of the calendar year; during the week before the Green Holidays; and one or two weeks before All-Saints Day. In Poland, as discussed above, there were gromadki on Thursday before Easter. And, at the Christmas meal, a place is left at the table (complete with a plate and cutlery) for a “wanderer” though this may originally have been intended for souls of ancestors. This would suggest that such ancestor and dead remembrance customs were part of a number of Polish rites which, in and of themselves, had nothing to do with ancestors or the dead. Thus, perhaps a more accurate statement regarding the timing of these rites is that anytime there was a party, people would do the decent thing and also take a moment away from the festivities to recall their dead relatives. Perhaps this was out of a desire to secure the favor of the dead in the upcoming undertaking, or to placate them so that they would at least not interfere with such undertaking or simply out of a human need to remember.

Further, to the extent we look for Suavic origins of the Christian holy days from the beginning of November, that is of the All-Souls or All-Saints Day, we should look rather to an earlier calendar time for associated traditions. It was in Belarus that the Christianity failed to stamp out various ancient practices associated with ancestor remembrance. And as mentioned above, in Belarus, a dziady holiday fell around the middle of October (though this may perhaps be a result of the Eastern calendar being used). What was it like? The practices (mentioned by Tyszkiewicz as quoted by Józef Gołąbek in Dziady Białoruskie) included: at night calling upon the shadows of the dead in what we would today describe as a séance): tossing crumbs for the shadows of those dead – not necessarily ancestors though all relations – who died in the given dwelling; the leaving of food and drink outside on the exterior window sill so as to provide food for traveling souls; finally, visiting the graves and delivering the food and drink to those dead who did not decide to come to the house.

In some parts of eastern Poland similar practices persisted though they had been mostly stamped out. Specifically, in the Ruthenian Podlasie (around Bielsk Podlaski), we have evidence of the dziady on the first of October. This suggests that the feast itself could also be connected with the harvest feasts. In any event, the whole feast would begin with the placing of a candle called gromnica in the main “honorary” corner of the house called pokut (hence pokuta – penance? or is it simply from pokąt meaning “corner”). (Incidentally, a gromnica was also the type of candle placed in the hand of the deceased, supposedly to help light the way for such departed. Further, as noted above, a gromnica, was also used prior to spring arriving to ward of thunder strikes). The dishes would be richly prepared as much as for Chrismas save that they were mainly meat dishes (not fish, as for Christmas). Further, the feast would begin with a drink and some of it would be spilled under the table for the dead souls. Likewise, morsels of food from each dish would be thrown under the table for the same purpose.

Interestingly, another festival similar to dziady was still alive in the 19th century in Bretagne (see the remarks of Józef Henryk Kallenbach on the work of Anatole Le Braz regarding the practices in Spézet, Bretagne). Whether the similarities are due to Celtic or Venetic influence is, of course, another interesting question.

Gwiazdka & Jasełka

The winter festival of Gwiazdka was the same as Kolęda. Gwiazda means “star”. However, long forgot, it also meant a “tree.” Around this time people would walk around the village with a “star” and sing, what we would today call, carols. These carols to this day are known as kolędy. Although koledy is generally derived from the Latin calends, this may simply be because the Latin word was recorded first. Lęda in Polish means simply an untilled field and is cognate with “land.” From this name we have also the tribal name of the Lendians (Lędzianie also, possibly, cognate with Leugii/Lugii). Among the Eastern Suavs going out to hold festivities in the untilled field (kolyada) in the winter seems similar to going out to hold festivities in the tilled fields (kupala) in the summer (with “ku” meaning towards or, alternatively, koło meaning “around”).

All this involved two further characters: the gwiazdor as well the Toruń or Turoń. The gwiazdor was the bringer of presents (a forerunner to Santa Claus) and he was represented symbolically by the gwiazda – the star that was carried around. Behind that star there would sometimes “hide” the Turoń. This was a person typically dressed as an animal of uncertain pedigree – a quasi horse, bull and goat (etymologically connected with the tur or auroch, a similar “bull” figure reappears during the Easter season as Tracz or traczyk). When the party arrived at a house, wishing happy festivities, the Turon previously “hidden” by the gwiazdor would jump out and act out all kinds of craziness.

At this time, ancient Poles celebrated jasełka from the Polish jasło meaning a “manger” or “feeder”. A manger (which comes from the French “manger” meaning “to eat”) corresponds to the Polish jasło which refers to eating presumably in the context of winter feasting connected with the gwiazdka (the word jasełko reappears at Easter where it refers to a small typically wooden bowl with offerings). It seems somewhat suspicious however that the name is also possibly cognate with Jasion – the Polish Primary Deity associated with the Sun and Moon. In general, however, the feats days appear to coincide with the start of “eating” through the winter supplies gathered at harvest time. Once the days began to be longer and the “Tree” began to grow back, the villagers felt freer to dig into the garnered provisions in expectation of Spring. (The Church appears to have transmuted this holiday into the celebration of the birth of Jesus who, curiously, was alleged to have been born at an animal feeder, that is a “manger” or trough (German Raufe, Krippe = crib). The fact that a manger looks like a baby crib may have had something to do with the association of these two concepts. The Christian version added young men walking around the village with a “szopka” which is a crèche.)

In the house, the tree was not used but jemioła (mistletoe) would frequently be hung from the ceiling. In other instances this would be the tip of a fir, spruce or pine. This was called podłaźniczka or podłaźnik (which with the pod- meaning “under” seems to refer to the ceiling somehow, though łaźnia means hot baths so who knows) or, in the Christian nomenclature sad rajski (Garden of Eden) or simply, jutka or wiecha or gaj (like gaik). Alternatively, it was called boże drzewko – God’s tree – of course the plant used had to be evergreen or at least then green. The ash tree, that is jesion – is, of course, deciduous and, thus, had to be reborn to be green again.

These winter festivals started after the winter solstice (around Christmas or, really, the Roman Feast of Sol Invictus) and continued for the next two weeks or so.

Zapusty

After that the winter merrymaking continued for the next month under the name zapusty (starting with the Christian Feast of the Epiphany or Three Kings Day and basically corresponding to the carnival). In fact, although certain aspects of the winter holidays are associated with their beginning – such as the gwiazdor and the jasełka, in general it is fair to say that the festivities rolled right into the new year and the partying continued throughout this entire period.

Among the wealthier classes of Polish society, a popular entertainment was the kulig – sleigh ride through the snow covered country between various manors. Often multiple sleighs would take part along with accompanying horses of servants. The travelers would don on various outrageous costume and would drive manor to manor picking up further participants. One manor would be selected as the final destination and a messenger would be sent ahead to inform the inhabitants of the impending arrival of the party. The host would arrive at the gates, where the lights were out and all was pitch dark as the locals would act as if they were not expecting anyone’s arrival. One of the party would knock on the doors, be let in and after some time “arguing” and negotiating with the manor dwellers, the lights would go on as a signal that the party was welcomed in at which point they would all stream in. These kuligs would often last several days and sometimes made multiple way stations.

Towards the end of the of the “zapusty” period (especially on Tuesday “zapustny“), final days of partying took place – the so-called ostatki. The custom of dressing up and walking around the village also also made its come back at this time. Specifically, young men went around dressed up as bears, horses, goats or storks and went around the village usually in the afternoon. This typically involved having the animal head attached to a stick along with sheets covering the young actor hiding under the same. The “animal” – much like the afore-mentioned Turoń – would then jump, poke and the like. Its mouth was movable with the jaw controlled by a piece of rope that the actor or his colleagues would operate to imitate speech. They would stop by a house and then the various animals would act up and sing. Sometimes this was referred to as a koza that is a “goat.” The whole group would then end up in a tavern in the evening where they would collect money to pay for the local violin player. This donation was called podkoziołek. In exchange the player “sells” various young ladies to the paying men. Conversely, those women who have not been sold pay him for an unspoken for man. All of this is done with jesting, cheering, jeering and singing and the group ends up dancing. In other places, the actual zapust would be personified with men walking around wearing conical paper hats with colorful ribbons. Occasionally, they called themselves bachuski (as if referring to Bacchus).

The name zapusty is somewhat mysterious. It may refer to the preparation for the great fasting of the Lent (that is post). Or it may refer to something like zaloty, that is courtships – the “preliminaries” of the Rites of Summer. Thus, for example, it was common to attach klocki that is “blocks” – in actuality consisting of sticks, bones or chicken feet – to those who did not get married during these festivities. Another alternative, and perhaps more likely, is to the eating of the winter supples – zapasy or, perhaps even more likely, to the emptying of cellars and granaries (“pusty” means empty). Presumably, it is not related to winter neglect (zapuszczone) of the fields or of the person’s appearance.

Gromnica/Marzanna

The last well-known winter rites consisted in the preparation for the arrival of spring and the official throwing out of winter.

The gromnica was the candle used in the ritual protection of the house against the desired but potentially dangerous arrival of spring storms (or, likely, of the Sky God – Jasion). It was meant to protect against thunder (grom) and specifically the effects of that thunder such as, of course, fires. The candle would be used to ward off thunder by making crosses on the main beam of the house. This was apparently absorbed into the Christian feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Tempe which in Poland was called Matki Boskiej Gromnicznej, that is the the Mother of God of Gromnica or, if you will, of thunder perhaps. When spring storms came, the same candles would be brought out to ward off the house being struck with thunder (keeping in mind that these houses almost universally had thatched roofs at that time).

With the defensive preparations for spring out of the way, you could move on to getting rid of winter. This was done by dressing up and taking out of the village the puppet of Marzanna. Typically, this puppet would be made of straw, dressed up and then officially transported out of the village to a nearby body of water into which it would be thrown. This has been interpreted as a ritual drowning of “winter/death” personified but matters are not so simple. Długosz identified Marzanna with Ceres and it appears that he was onto something. It is noteworthy that where no body of water was readily available, the villagers would sometimes burn the puppet. In this regard, as noted before, marznąć means “to freeze” and zamarzać means to freeze over. Interesting connotations may be seen in other “earthly” words such as the East Slavic mir (world), morze/mare (sea) or zmora (nightmare also perhaps connected to the “mare” horse). Thus, the puppet appears to be nothing more as the frozen Earth personified and the act of unfreezing Mother Earth is done by melting in running water (“drowning” but not really) or by the use of of fire, that is, burning. The fact that early Suavs used slash-and-burn agriculture (on “the Earth”) also suggests a connotation to the beginning of the agricultural cycle. The role of the Sky God in all of this who tosses bolts that “melt” the Earth (compare the PIE *meldh- with młot or molot (hammer) and miollnir – the “melting tool” of the Sky God with which He unfreezes the Earth, that is is the “Great Melter”).

Marcin Błazowski’s Information

PublishedJanuary 5, 2020 Post authortorino

Another relatively late source for Polish Gods is a mention from the year 1611 by Marcin Błazowski (aka Błażewski or Błażowski). Błazowski was the translator of Marcin Kromer’s chronicle (written in Latin in the original) into Polish. While translating the passage about Polish Gods (which Kromer mostly got from Długosz), Błazowski decided to expand on Kromer’s brief description providing some additional information about Łado that he, it seems, felt comfortable supplementing Kromer on by reason of Błazowski having experienced some of the related celebrations in Ruthenia (around Sambor in Ukraine). He also gives more detail than Kromer on Pochwiściel.

Here are the relevant passages:

“Thus, the Poles and other Suav nations worshipped as Gods Jupiter personally, Mars, Pluto, Cerera, Venera, Diana: calling them: Jessa, Lada or Ladon, Nya, Marzana, Zezylia, Ziewonia. It is those that they understood as such; it was them that they offered altars, steeles, groves and priests to; it is to those that they made sacrifices to; killed cattle for; for their fame did they come together to annual holiday celebrations, feasting, dancing, clapping, singing and playing a variety of games. Of these idolatrous celebrations Dlugosz himself, having experienced them in his days some time after the Christian conversion, speaks of, saying that men and women, the old and the young would gather together in the fields for games and dances, precisely during our holidays; which gatherings they called stado [meaning “herd”] as if referencing a herd or a flock of some kind. From this, apparently, Ruthenia and Lithuania, the villagers especially, preserve the custom of dancing, clapping their hands and repeating Lado. Kromer does not discuss Ladon sufficiently, favoring pithy assessments, I guess; for this reason, having been born in this land, I provide a more complete description from Ruthenian texts and customs that I was able to get a hold of. For Ladon, the Ruthenian nations, took at times for such a God to whom they ascribed the rule over all fortune and important matters, making him the Lord of all good fortune; for this reason they called to him during the baptism of their children, during games, parties, weddings and all other matters of relevance. Much as the Catholics [would call upon] Hymen, the Greeks [upon] Iao or Bacchus and others. All of Ruthenia retaining this souvenir of paganism till this day, especially in wedding songs, they bring up the afore-mentioned Ladon: for either with their hands [hitting] against the table or with hand against hand [clapping], at each stanza of a song, they sing of him. Let us now return to Kromer…”

“…I would, however, say that Pochwiściel is a whistling wind or tempest, which whirls with great momentum and whatever it hits, it swirls it around; and even its name itself indicates this: for it it appears to be called Pochwiściel from the manner of its blowing (for it whistles as it blows) or from the lifting of things it comes upon [chwytać – to grasp, grab, lift]. But I will leave this to the judgment of the reader. I think though that also Ruthenia and not just the Mazurs worshipped this Pochwiściel (if he is a wind) for this reason: even today in Ukrainian Ruthenia, whenever a this gale appears in front of their eyes, they bow their silver heads to it in various ways.“