Liuba (mythology)

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Memorial stone of Liuba in the Lübben city grove

Liuba ( Old Slavic "love" or "the lover") is the name of the Sorbian ( Wendish ) goddess of spring, love and fertility. It is the Slavic equivalent of the Nordic goddess Freya or Ostara .

Name forms

Lioba , Luba , Ljuba or Lupa is the name of the Slavic goddess of dawn, moon and spring.

Position, attributes

The goddess cannot be found in mythological reference works, but is mentioned in a few sources in the 18th and 19th centuries. The goddess Liuba, also known as Freya in the north , is the mistress of dawn , the moon and spring. She is the protective goddess of all lovers. It commands spring, fertility and growth. She taught the wise women how to brew potions and sends prophetic dreams. It can be assumed that the pagan goddess Liuba occupied a very important place in the beliefs of the peoples within the regional Slavic mythology . This can be recognized, among other things, by the fact that the Catholic Church declared a historically authentic person named Lioba von Tauberbischofsheim a saint after her death in the 9th century .

swell

It was probably important to the Sorbian- Slavic peoples not to reveal their culture, songs and legends to the German rulers and occupiers of the time . The Görlitz historian Karl Gottlob von Anton wrote about this for the first time in 1783. Liuba was mentioned in the translation of songs and legends of the Wends (Sorbs) in 1841 by Leopold Haupt and the historian Ewald Müller in 1893.

Place names

The close roots of the Liuba faith with the Spreewald region and the Slavic - Sorbian settlement at that time have been documented in many place names and have been preserved to this day. Examples are: Lübben (Lubin), Lübbenau (Lubnjow), Berlin-Lübars (Liubas Ort), Groß Lübbenau (Grosin Lubin) or Lübnitz (Lubenitz).

Legend of Liuba

A transmitted Wendish (Sorbian) legend from the region around Lübben is the only clear indication of the importance and belief of the people in the goddess Liuba: “... once a young Wenden princess in the grove is said to have turned to the goddess. She was in love with the son of a prince from a rival tribe. Her father forbade her to love the young man. One day the princess's sweetheart went into battle. When, on the night of the farewell, a white woman with flowing hair, the Lament , appeared to her in a dream , she interpreted this as a omen of the imminent death of her lover. She therefore implored the goddess Liuba, the protector of all lovers and goddess of spring, to reunite her with her fiancé and protect him. She offered her a precious diadem and a necklace that the young prince had given her. On the way home, the princess sank with her carriage and her entire entourage in the baseless morass that existed in many places in the Spreewald at that time . At the same hour on the battlefield far away , her loved one was hit in the heart by a poisoned arrow. So the goddess had reunited both in death and ultimately complied with the wish of the princess ... "

History / places of worship

Oak Lubans

In the grove of the city Lubben, a primitive remaining lowland forest with dozens of impressive book , alder and oak trees , there is a memorial stone in honor of the goddess Liuba. This was commissioned by the then magistrate of the city in 1854 and set up at a former Wendish cult and sacrificial site , the Lubans oak. In 1907 the city arranged to move the stone within the Lübbener Hain and to set up a new location near the bank of the river Berste . It is there to this day. The memorial stone bears no other inscription apart from the word "Liuba".

literature

  • Marga Morgenstern: A romantic hike through the Spreewald. Heimat-Verlag Lübben, ISBN 3-929600-06-4 , p. 13.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Old Slavic love on vornames.ch
  2. ^ Rudolf Lehmann :  Haupt, Joachim Thomas Leopold. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , p. 100 ( digitized version ).
  3. ↑ Ewald Müller , Biographies on Sorbian Folklore on serbski-institut.de
  4. ↑ a b Lübbener Hain on luebben.de