Category Archives: Religion

Rey’s Bylica

PublishedMay 12, 2019 Post authortorino

The Polish writer Nicholas Rey in his Postilla (written in 1557) attacked certain pagan customs (he became a Calvinist) that were treated as “Christian” by his contemporaries. Some of these clearly have a Christian (Catholic) provenance but others likely go back to pagan times and had been incorporated by the Church. Putting aside his attack, the list of such practices is quite interesting. For example, he mentions the custom of wearing bylica and jumping round fires on Saint John’s Day. I will try to translate the full text but for now here is the Polish version.

Nuż, gdy przyjdzie jakie inne święto ku czci żywota Pańskiego a spraw świętych jego ustanowione, to już więc tam na dzień Bożego Narodzenia, nie będzieli kto całą noc wrzeszczał, drzwi nie wybijał a kiełbas nie nazbiera, albo kto całą noc kostki nie grając, szczęścia nie szuka, już jakoby tego święta nigdy nie święcił. W niedzielę mięsopustną, kto zasię nie oszaleje na urząd, jako ma być, twarzy nie odmieni, maszkar, ubiorów ku djabłu podobnych sobie nie wymyśli, już jakoby nie uczynił chrześciańskiej powinności dosyć. W środopostną niedzielę, kto się nie wyspowiada, już w rozpaczy chodzić musi, bo go papież nie przeżegnał. W kwietnią niedzielę, kto bagniątka nie połknął a dębowego Chrystusa do miasta nie doprowadził, to już dusznego zbawienia nie otrzymał. W wielki piątek, jeśli kto boso nie chodził, Judaszowi z Piłatem nie łajał, albo jeśli twarz umył, już męki Pańskiej nie wspomniał. W sobotę wielką ognia i wody naświęcić, bydło tem kropić i wszystkie kąty w domu poczarować, to też rzecz pilna. W dzień wielkanocny, kto święconego nie je, a kiełbasy dla węża, chrzanu dla płech, jarząbka dla więzienia, już zły chrześcijanin. A iż w poniedziałek i z panią po uszy w błoto nie wpadnie a we wtorek kiczką w łeb nie weźmie aż oko wylezie, to już nie uczynił dosyć powinności swojej. W dzień Bożego wstąpienia, kto Jezusa lipowego powrozem do nieba wciągnie a djabła z góry zrzuci a potem z nim po ulicach biega, to wielkie odpusty a przysługi sobie ku Panu Bogu otrzyma. W dzień ś. Jana bylicą się opasać a całą noc około ognia skakać i toć też niemałe uczynki miłosierne.

“…So if there come a holiday that is established to honor the Lord’s Life and His holy matters, such as Christmas, it is as if one does not celebrate the day of the Lord’s birth if he does not [also] yell all night, [does not] break down doors, [does not] collect sausages or if he does not spend all night seeking [his] luck in dice playing. [It is as if] one who on Sexagesima Sunday does not party as if ordered [to do so], does not alter his appearance putting on frightful face paints or [does not] create devil-like costumes to wear, is not sufficiently fulfilling his Christian duty. [And] whosoever on Laetare Sunday does not go to confession, must walk in despair that the Pope has not forgiven him. Who on Palm Sunday did not swallow a pussy-willow and did not carry an oaken Christ to town, did not obtain salvation for his soul. On Good Friday, whosoever did not walk barefoot, did not chide Judas along with Pilate or who washed his face, [such a person] did not [properly] recall the Lord’s suffering [Passion]. It too is an urgent matter on Holy Saturday to consecrate fire and water, to sprinkle the same on cattle and all the corners of the dwelling to enchant [with the water]. On Easter Sunday whoever does not eat the consecrated [food] or does not save [hide] sausages for the snakes, horseradish for the flees or mountain-ash* for the prisoner, is thus a bad Christian. And whosoever on the [subsequent] Monday does not fall with his woman into mud and on Tuesday does not smack a head with a rod so [hard] that the eye should pop out, is not fulfilling his obligations. Who on the Feast of the Ascension pulls up a linden Jesus with a rope up into the heavens and who [also] pulls up the devil, drops him down and then runs around the streets with him, shall have obtained great indulgences for himself and shall have performed great services for the Lord. Who on Saint John’s day girds on artemisia** and skips around fire all night, that person has performed not inconsiderable works of mercy.”

* Sorbus.
** Mugwort or, in Polish, bylica.

[this last version comes from the 1883 Haase edition but with corrections]

Similarities

PublishedMay 10, 2019 Post authortorino

Some of these similarities may be a bit of a stretch but, some are curious.

Note that the image of a “church” can also be easily interpreted as the image of the rising Sun as here:

Further note on this…

The following is a pot that was found at Wyszogród in Mazovia. It is currently at the ethnographic Museum of the Vistula at Wyszogród (Muzeum Wisły w Wyszogrodzie). According to the work of Michał Auch in his MA thesis “The Problems and State of Research on Early Medieval Pottery from Gdańsk Pomerania” (Problematyka i stan badań nad naczyniami wczesnośredniowiecznymi z terenu Pomorza Gdańskiego) this is a Suavic pot dated to the 7th century. Here is Auch’s picture of the same:

What drew everyone’s attention was the figure of a rider on it. But the rider picture was not the only interesting thing about the pot. As you can see here, the pot also features rather interesting “runes”, specifically, including the interesting “double 2” seen on the various spearheads from Central European area (where each “2’s” connection to the other “2” varies). Here is the picture from the museum website (obviously they want you to focus on these etchings):

Now, we will come back to the question of whether there is actually a rider here (there is a horse for sure or, perhaps, there are horses) but for now focus on the etchings:

Clearly, particularly the middle one resembles the “2s” in the above pictures. It seems hard not to think that this something other than lightning symbols – whether the spearhead signs were also lightning symbols is another matter. It seems to me that this maybe a symbol of the lightning “fork” whose Greek name is, of course, πιρούνι.

Polish Christian Texts

PublishedApril 19, 2019 Post authortorino

Here are some cool late 15th century Polish prayers:

Lord’s Prayer
Hail Mary
Apostles’ Creed

So that is for Christian Easter. As regards Easter’s pre-Christian, pagan origins, see here.

Continuing With Runic Spears

Published Post authortorino

We’ve already discussed the interesting runic spears found at:

Rozwadów, Poland, and at
Soshychne, Ukraine

The other famous spear from the Central European region is the spear from Dahmsdorf-Müncheberg in Germany but close to the Polish border. In historic times this land lay firmly in the Suavic settlement area though the spear itself is dated to the first century. The modern settlement was in the Lubusz Land and was founded by monks (hence Müncheberg) brought in by the Piast duke Henry the Bearded (the grandson of Władysław II the Exile and the great-grandson of Bolesuav the Wrymouth). Henry and the Silesian “Piasts” got this land from the Piast family of Greater Poland. This was one of the few lands West of the Odra that the Piasts managed to retain for awhile in the face of Frankish and Saxon invasions (the Lubusz diocese is shown below; also with the location of Müncheberg).

Here is that spear:

Just a couple of observations. First, the runes on the spear are supposedly to be read:

ranja

This would be the case only if you read this right to left but if this, in fact, is the correct reading then an immediate question arises what that means. The Suavic verb ranić means “to wound” or “to injure.” Another explanation may tie this to the tribe of the Rani (whose tribal name, the Greater Poland Chronicle explains by reference to their alleged war cries of rana meaning “wound, wound!” Whether this is just a “folk etymology” is another matter. Curiously the Rani, although firmly attested as a Suavic/Wendish tribe by every medieval source contemporary to the wars that the neighboring tribes as well as Franks and Saxons led against the Rani is also attested much earlier in Getica. Rana was also the Suavic name for the island of Rügen and the tribal name may well be derived from the island’s name Rugiani> Ruiani> Rani. But, interestingly the Rügen name may itself be Suavic as in referering to “horn” or rog.

All of this suggests a rather interesting progression of the Rügen name:

Suavic > Teutonic > Suavic

Since the Rugians are mentioned already in ancient sources (Tacitus) this would suggest a Suavic presence first but then a subsequent and relatively early Teutonic invasion with a Suavic reconquista later on (or just some of the Teutonic Rugians having moved on south).

For more on that Rani topic see here. For even more fun reading go see volume 25 of the Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde (edited by Johannes Hoops).

With that said, the above reading is not necessarily convincing as it is not even clear whether the runes are correctly seen as r a n j a runes as opposed to being some other runes. This is quite separate from the question of which direction they should be read from.

Secondly, regarding the symbols, i am, again, reminded of the often downplayed passage in Caesar’s Gallic War (Book 6, chapter 21):

“The Germans differ much from these [Gallic] usages, for they have neither Druids [like the Gauls] to preside over sacred offices, nor do they pay great regard to sacrifices. They rank in the number of the gods those alone whom they behold, and by whose instrumentality they are obviously benefited, namely, the sun, fire, and the moon; they have not heard of the other deities even by report.”

My guess is that the above symbols correspond quite nicely to that description and what remains to be determined is which is which.

Incidentally, this is the Torcello (Venice) spear found in a local museum in 1883 and which has been suspected of being a fake (based on the Dahmsdorf-Müncheberg lance).

Seehausen Horns Aplenty

PublishedApril 12, 2019 Post authortorino

An interesting figurine was found by a certain Mr. Günter Wagener at Seehausen (county of Börde) just west of Magdeburg. I’ve had a picture or two of it before but think it’s interesting to see again.

Labeled, for obvious reasons, as the Trinkhornmann von Seehausen this is what it looks like:

The obvious item here is the potential cornucopia, the horn of plenty. A horn in Suavic mythology appears in a number of places:

Svantevit description in Saxo
Zbruch idol
Altenkirchen stone

More recently, another find is the “mini-horn” from Groß Strömkendorf (in county Nordwestmecklenburg).

Yearly Yearning For Yarn

PublishedApril 8, 2019 Post authortorino

An interesting question is why is the spindle and distaff (kądziel) associated with the Sun? In fact, why is the treatment of the flax seed associated with the Sun? The prayers for healthy flax growth are known from various summer solstice (and not only) rituals throughout Europe.

Aside from the obvious agricultural connection with the Sun needing to shine upon the growing linseed (hence linen), the act of making textiles first involved the production of yarn.

Now close your eyes a bit and look at the Sun (or any light) and it should become obvious that Sun rays looks very much like lines of yarn.

Nowy Targ – courtesy of a local ethno museum

Of course, the word “yarn” also has an interesting etymology which may have something to do with “year”.

Jaszer

PublishedMarch 31, 2019 Post authortorino

The river Omulew starts in Masuria at the lake of the same way and then winds its way all the way to the Narew at Ostrołęka, Poland. In 1911 someone found an ornamental mace which found itself into the collection of a certain Russian gentleman. He left Poland after World War I along with the withdrawing Russian administration but before he did a Polish archeology enthusiast managed to examine this mace. Here it is.

Note the striking similarity to Rybakov’s Jaszers.

Finally, and this is a topic for another time, we can ask why “pagan” in Russian is called a yazichnik (язычник) and paganism yazichestvo (Язы́чество). Similar words exist in other Suavic countries – Язи́чництво in Ukrainian, for example. These words may refer to “tongues”, to “nations” or to the Iazyges. They may provide hints as to the formation of the Suavs out of the Suevi, Veneti and, perhaps via Pannonia, the Sarmatian Iazyges. Or they may just hint at common roots. Whether this implicates the Balts as well is another matter since, where they lived, various lizards were worshipped as house Deities. A question may also be asked whether the slaying of the Krakow dragon by Krak and his crew is a reflection of some Norse (an earlier version of Hrólfr Kraki?) or even earlier Vandal (Crocus?) confrontation with the local dragon cult – a cult that may reach back to the Norse’ own Aesir and the Greeks’ or Mycenaeans Iasion and Jason who seem to have the same roots as Sky Gods with an agricultural connotation. The Dacian dragons (note that, curiously, may Slavic hydronims appear in Romania, a place where the Slavic presence has, by most accounts, been relatively brief) also come to mind of course.

Symbols

Published Post authortorino

Rosettes, starlike-squares, “swastikas” and “Stars of David” were all very popular, possibly religious, patterns of embroidery found in all of Europe at the dusk of antiquity. Some of these in in Central Europe can be seen here. Others from northwestern Europe here. They appear in spears (here) as well as money (here). They have been variously attributed (and various times and places) to Sarmatians, Suavs, Germanics or Huns.

And here is another example of a hexapetal star or hexagram, similar to the symbol later referred to as the Star of David and found in 1911 in Jakuszowice, Poland in a grave attributed to a culture “having contacts with the Huns” – whatever that may mean.

It is “guesstidated” to the early 5th century.

Now in a Krakow Museum

Because of issues with local Russian authorities no academic studies of these grave goods were done till after World War One with the first mention by Józef Andrzej Franciszek Żurowski in the Archeological News (Wiadomości Archeologiczne). Note that the triangles do not intersect, as in a Star/Shield of David, but rather one triangle overlays the other which also allowed the maker to include a small circle on the inside.

In the same treasure pile were also found ornaments of a quasi-hexapetal rosette design.

Velchanos

PublishedMarch 29, 2019 Post authortorino

Velchanos, has been called by Arthur Cook a Cretan god of nature and the nether world. Gérard Capdeville thinks Velchanos was a Cretan/Minoan “youthful deity, “master of fire” and “companion” of the Great Goddess. He connects Velchanos with the Etruscan Velchans. It is from the Etruscans that the Romans may have gotten their Vulcanus, that is Vulcan – which is also a version of the Greek Hephaistos who, of course, is much later identified by the notes to Malalas’ Chronicle manuscript with the Suavic Svarog. The Etruscan Velchans (aka Sethians) gets to own an axe as well as have a forge and be a “fire” deity. The Pillar of the Boatmen has both Esus an Vulcanus on it but it is Esus who is chopping down tree branches with what appears to be an axe.

So what’s the point of all of this?

Well, it is just possible that the God of Rebirth later split into that Spring Deity (obviously connected with fire) as well as into a more explicitly “Fire” God aka the “Smith” (much like the Thunder God seems to have been given “birth” from an aspect of the Sky God – on that, see here) who retained his role as a teacher of humanity via transformations into figures such as Prometheus.

But let’s put that aside,

What is interesting is the Polish name of Easter – Wielkanoc. Literally, it means “Great Night”. The explanation is seemingly trivial in that, of course, it is the night before Easter Sunday which is the day of Jesus’ resurrection.

Is it possible that the Suavs got the name of Wielkanoc from the earlier celebrations of the rebirth of the Minoan Deity, “master of fire” and consort of the Earth itself? This, of course, brings up stories of Gisanke and Demeter or, in the Greek world of Iasion and Demeter.

Perhaps, even more provocatively, we can ask what is the etymology of the Minoan name?

Johannisfeuer and the Like

PublishedMarch 18, 2019 Post authortorino

An interesting Suavic, though more generally, European, custom involves jumping over fires typically done on June 23rd.

Oskar Kolberg in “Lud” his ethnographic super treatise on Polish folk customs mentions this custom several times.

For example, he cites to a description of this custom from the town of Bilcz near Sandomierz brought to Kolberg’s attention by Jan Kanty Gregorowicz via his “Village Pictures” (Obrazki Wiejskie) volume 4 (in Kolberg’s Lud volume 1 – dealing with the region of Sandomierskie that is the region about Sandomierz) . Therein, we hear of two teams of village women who spent the entire day preparing for the sobótka (that is the “Sabbath”) on the night of the 23rd. Then, sat the evening approached, they headed out into the fields where they tried to set up a fire, interestingly, with leaves of Artemisia (bylica). They started dancing around their fires while holding hands with their respective “teammates”. Then a lot of the villagers showed up including the landowner and the local officials. The women would make garlands for one another, different types of which were given out to different participants (with specific reasons for why each got that particular wreath, some being more desirable than others). Some of the young men that in the meantime had gathered began to jump over fires. More dances followed as well as more jumping by the young gents. Then, inevitably, the women and men were paired up – interestingly, through songs, that is their names were matched up in the songs by the singing groups somehow. More dancing followed. Then some drinking until daybreak. Interestingly, the name that keeps coming up is the Green (think rebirth of nature) or White (think the Sun) John. The entire enterprise has an erotic as well as solar connotation, of course, not the least given the dancing around the fire which probably symbolized the Reborn Sun.

Kolberg (Lud, volume 10) reports the same for part of the Great Duchy of Poznan, specifically near Pleszew, Konin and in the forest parts of Kujavia.

Similar Saint John’s Eve festivities took place all over Poland. In Kolberg’s description of the customs of Mazovia (Lud, volume 24) the theme of fires and garlands or wreaths comes up again.

Here we have young men setting fires on the shores of the Vistula and young women placing the wreaths on the water with little fires on them and sending them down river.

Once again bylica is involved (see here and here); in this case, the bylica is tossed onto the straw roofs of those dwellings home to single women – where the Artemisia gets stuck on the straw, the occupant will get married that year.

As an aside another interesting custom mentioned here has to do with the fern flower (kwiat paproci or in Lithuanian, paparčio žiedas) which, apparently blooms on the Eve of Saint John’s Eve.

What is interesting is that these Polish customs also appear in other parts of Europe. James George Frazer‘s “The Golden Bough” once again points the way. Interestingly, he cites similar dances coming from the area known as the Lechrain (around the River Lech) – here it was pairs who would jump over the fire. Given that the area was formerly inhabited by the Vindelici and given the “Lechitic” origin of the Poles according to their myths, this is particularly interesting. Here is that description that caught Frazer’s attention tom “Aus dem Lechrain” by Karl von Leoprechting.

Another author cited by Frazer is Wilhelm Mannhardt. Curiously, Mannhardt was well aware not just of Leoprechting’s work but also of Kolberg’s description of the Bielcz custom when he wrote his Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstämme (“The Tree Worship Among the Germans and Their Neighboring Tribes”). If you are interested in “tree worship” among the Suavs you can look up gaj (meaning tree grove) or gaik (meaning a small tree grove or a small, decorated tree) or maik (play on “May”) which may also have an etymological connection to Gaia.

Also, curiously, Mannhardt points out that the same custom was already observed by Byzantines in the 12th century citing Theodore Balsamon and as his explanation for how this “northern European” custom made its way to the Eastern Empire specifically suggests that it may have been the Suavs “or other” peoples who brought it there! (More likely this goes to the cult of Iasion and Demeter – aka Gisanke and Demeter? – in which Zeus also got involved )

What did Balsamon write? This canon lawyer was a writer of a number of works including commentaries on the Ecumenical Council of 692 (also known as the Council in Trullo or the Quinisext Council) whose Canon 65 read as follows:

“The fires which are lighted on the new moons by some before their shops and houses, upon which (according to a certain ancient custom) they are wont foolishly and crazily to leap, we order henceforth to cease. Therefore, whosoever shall do such a thing, if he be a cleric, let him be deposed; but if he be a layman, let him be cut off. For it is written in the Fourth Book of the Kings ‘And Manasses built an altar to the whole host of heaven, in the two courts of the Lord, and made his sons to pass through the fire, he used lots and augurs and divinations by birds and made ventriloquists [or pythons ] and multiplied diviners, that he might do evil before the Lord and provoke him to anger.'”

Balsamon (who, by the way, elsewhere also wrote on specifically Suavic customs) was commenting on this custom some half a millennium later and yet was able to provide a lot of details suggesting that the custom continued in his time (translation is Robert Browning’s):

“On the evening of June 23 men and women gathered on the seashore and in certain houses and dressed a first-born girl in bridal garments. After drinking together and leaping and dancing and shooting in Bacchic fashion, they put sea water in a narrow-mouthed bronze vessel, together with objects belonging to each of them; and as if the girl had obtained from Satan the power to foretell the future, they called out questions about this or that good or undesirable thing. And the girl picked out objects at random from those that had been put in the vessel and displayed them. The foolish owners took them and were told what was to happen to them, be it lucky or unlucky. On the next day they went with the girl to the seashore with drums dancing, and took great quantities of sea water and sprinkled their houses with it. Not only were these rites celebrated by the cleverer – – but throughout the night they lit fires of dry grass and jumped over them, seeking omens of good or bad fortune and other matters by daemonic methods. And the ways by which they went in and out, and the rooms in which the magic rites were celebrated, and the surrounding ground, they decorated with gold-embroidered cloths and silk tissues. And they crowned them with leaves of trees to honour and welcome, so it seems, that Satan whom they had made their familiar.”

Here is an interesting description of similar festivals in Bretagne (former Venetic territory) from volume 10 of Frazer’s “The Golden Bough” (third edition).

For another version of the same festival, this time in Bohemia (Jan of Holešov) see here.