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.
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