Prussian religion
Prussian religion is the pre-Christian religion of the Prussians , as it is revealed by scientific research.
Research into the religion of the Prussians
The first useful and scientific treatise on the Prussian religion was provided by Max Töppen (1822–1893), who examined the history and pagan religion of the Prussians. He put together a rich material from a wide variety of sources, such as texts, laws and documents.
But only Wilhelm Mannhardt (1831-1880) examined and judged the sources critically. Since his work Leto-Preussische Götterlehre appeared posthumously in 1936, earlier research, such as that of Joseph Bender (1815-1893) and Hans Bertuleit, was based on an uncritical takeover of the old sources. Haralds Biezais (1909–1995) and Marija Gimbutas (1921–1994), who both adopt an original Baltic religion and consider the ancient Prussian religion to be closely related to the Latvian and Lithuanian religions , set new accents . To date there has been no monograph that deals with the presentation of the Prussian religion according to modern criteria.
swell
The source material on the Prussian religion is limited to a few reliable sources. These include the Christburg Peace Treaty of 1249, which was concluded between the Teutonic Order and the rebellious Prussians in Pomesanien, Ermland and Natangen. The conquered Prussians were recognized as equal partners, provided they renounced the pagan customs described in the document.
Peter von Dusburg , chronicler of the Teutonic Order, is also considered a reliable source who reported in more detail on Prussian paganism. In addition to these two certificates, there are also smaller writings and documents that can be considered reliable. On the other hand, the religious-historical evaluation of archeology for the Prussians was hardly carried out. In contrast to the Lithuanians and Latvians, Prussian religious research cannot rely on folkloric material.
Further important sources, which must be assessed with great caution, are the Prussian Chronicle by Simon Grunau , who uncritically reworked the existing material and built it up with a vivid imagination. The Sudauer Büchlein and related writings with the description of the holy goat and a list of gods should also be viewed critically.
religion
Belief in gods
Up to the Reformation only three Prussian god names have survived. The Christburg Peace Treaty mentions the fertility cult of the god Curche and a defensive text of the Teutonic Order, the Collacio episcopi warmiensis from 1418 names Patollos and Natrimpe. Peter von Dusburg does not name any gods at all, but only speaks of "their gods". Simon Grunau describes the cult of the three gods Patollos, Potrimpos and Perkunas in great detail, embellishing a historical fact in the most flowery fashion. It was not until the 16th century that a list of gods was created with a dozen names of gods, which is listed in several documents in a similar form. Some authors compare these deities with Roman deities.
Deities in the Sudauer Book
- Ockopirmus : first god of the sky and the stars, who was equated with Saturnus. ( apr . ucka-pirmas m. "very first")
- Suaixtix : God of light, who was equated with the Roman sun god Sol. (apr. swāigstan f. Instr.Sg. »Schein, Licht«; lit. žvaigždė »Star«)
- Look out : God of the sick and the healthy, equated with the ancient god of healing Aesculapius. (apr. auschautins Akk.Pl. »Debt«)
- Autrimpus : god of the sea, equated with the Roman Neptune.
- Potrimpos : god of rivers, who was equated with Castor.
- Bardoayts : god of ships, equated either with Pollux or with the Roman port god Portunus.
- Pergrubrius : a god who drives away winter and lets leaves and grass grow.
- Pilnitis : God of wealth, who fills the barns and was equated with the Roman goddess of grain, Ceres. (apr. pilnan adj. Akk.Sg. "whole"; lit. pilnas "full")
- Pērkons : God of thunder, lightning and rain, equated with the Roman Jupiter. (apr. percunis m. »thunder«)
- Peckols : God of hell and darkness, equated with Pluto. (. apr pickūls m "devil";. pyculs . m "hell" from Polish . piekło "hell")
- Pockols : flying ghosts or devils, equated with the Furiae .
- Pushkayts : Earth god under the holy elder bush. (lit. puškuoti »sprouts, germinate«; or to apr. peuse f., lit. pušis » pine «)
- Bar pieces : the little men .
- Markopole : Earth people.
Other deities
- Curche : God of fertility.
- Patollos : god of the dead, identical to Peckols.
- Natrimpe : possibly identical to Autrimpus.
Of these deities, only Curche, Parkuns, Patollos and Natrimpe / Potrimpos are recognized as genuine. With the other deities, opinions differ as to whether they are to be regarded as pseudo deities or as real deities. Alexander Brückner was of the opinion that the gods of the Sudauer booklet were deliberately invented, similar to how the historian Jan Długosz had constructed a pantheon based on Roman mythology.
Lower mythology
The Barstucke and Markopole are goblins or meerkats who are in the wake of Pushkayts. The Cawx , glossed over with "devil" in Prussian word lists, was like the Lithuanian Caucasus a kind of goblin. The Pockols belonged to the retinue of the god of the dead Peckols and are likely to have been a kind of spirits of the dead.
Worship of nature
According to Peter von Dusburg, the Prussians especially revered the natural elements and animals:
“Because they did not know God, therefore, in their error, they worshiped every creature as divine, namely the sun, moon and stars, thunder, birds, even four-legged animals, even the toad. They also had forests, fields and bodies of water, which they held so sacred that they didn’t even dare to cut wood, cultivate fields or fish in them. "
While the first part of the worship of nature represents a general topos of medieval descriptions of pagan religions and therefore only partially corresponds to reality, the cult of the holy places among the Prussians can also be attested otherwise. Adam von Bremen reports in his church history (IV, 8; around 1080) that the Samlanders ( Sembi vel Pruzzi ) denied Christians access to groves and springs because they would otherwise be contaminated. Thomas von Chantimpré reports in Bonum universale de apibus that the Prussians did not dare to prune their sacred forests and only entered them for sacrifice. Prussian hand-held festivals also attest to numerous holy forests, holy fields and holy groves.
According to Simon Grunau, a snake was kept in honor of the god Potrimpos, who was offered milk in a vessel covered with sheaves. Similarly, the grass snake played a special role in other Baltic religions.
priesthood
Peter von Dusburg tells of a central sanctuary in Romowe , where a priest named Criwe lived, whom the Prussians venerated as their Pope. His power extended to the Lithuanians and Livonians, and even his messenger, who carried a staff as a sign, was paid homage. In addition, the Criwe guarded the eternal fire. The historian Johannes Voigt (1786–1863) pointed out that the village mayor in Lithuania sent a crook called kriwule around to invite people to the village assembly. Voigt said that this staff was named after the Criwe. However, the connections are controversially discussed in modern research. It is also believed that the Criwe had only local power and that several - if any - central sanctuaries existed among the Prussians.
Victim
The sources hardly report on the cult activities of the Prussians. It is said that they used lots to question the gods before an important matter. After a victory they delivered part of the spoils of war to the Criwe, which he sacrificed to the gods by burning.
Peter von Dusburg and other sources sporadically mention human sacrifice. These are Christian prisoners of war who were selected by lot. To date, no human sacrifices have been proven archaeologically, but the evidence, apart from the usual exaggerations, has a real core to be recognized.
Goat sanctification
The goat sanctification is first mentioned in the early 16th century and is said to have been a specialty of the Sudauer. Various sources after 1525 describe the Waidlen , as the ritual is called, quite precisely. First the priest gives a moral sermon, then the goat is sanctified. The participants come before the priest and make their confession. The goat is then slaughtered and the participants are sprinkled with blood. Then the priest ( Waideler , Wourschkaiti, Kirweide) pulls the participants by the hair or hits them in the face, thereby paying off their guilt. Finally, the party ends with a drink and dinner party. Simon Grunau claims to have attended such a goat sanctuary, but this has been refuted. Many details show direct parallels to the description of the scapegoat in the Old Testament ( Leviticus 16: 1–28).
A Sudauer was convicted for the first time in 1531 for sanctifying a sow, in 1546 as many as 40 Prussians were convicted of goat sanctification, and in the Duchy of Prussia hunting was put in direct connection with the persecution of witches .
Before the Reformation, the Wayde was a political village assembly in Pomesania that was tolerated by the Teutonic Order. These gatherings were combined with drinking and eating, and apparently an animal was slaughtered. Since in the spirit of the Reformation all festivities were already considered "unchristian", these festivals were suddenly forbidden and condemned as "pagan". The slaughter of the animals on the fairground was overinterpreted as a "pagan sacrifice", with the buck fitting particularly well into the late medieval image of pagans. Thus, the goat sanctification as a peculiarity of the pre-Christian religion of the Prussians is no longer applicable and must be viewed as a misinterpretation of the Reformation.
Cult of the dead
Although the cult of the dead says little about the religion of a people and burial customs can change, yes, different forms can exist side by side at the same time, the sources describe a vague idea about survival after death. The Christburg Treaty reports that Tulissonen and Ligaschonen, a kind of priest, sing praises of the deceased at the funeral and then, looking up at the sky, announce that they “see the deceased presently flying through the middle of the sky on his horse, adorned with shimmering weapons, carrying a sparrowhawk in hand and entering another temporal life with a large retinue. «The Tulissones vel Ligaschones were probably less of a priests of the dead, but more of a kind of singer. Since they were able to see the dead ride in heaven, a reference to shamanism cannot be ruled out.
Peter von Dusburg also reports that the Prussians believed in the "resurrection", but not in the Christian sense. The Criwe would also be able to "describe the deceased's elevator, his clothes, weapons, horses and servants" and that the deceased would leave a notch in the door beam of his house as a sign with his lance or other device.
Various sources show that the dead were cremated in their clothes, along with weapons, tools, jewelry, horses and service personnel. In contrast, burial was rare. While the following into the dead has not yet been proven archaeologically, the horse burial has been attested since the 1st century AD. Initially, the horses were buried lying next to the human grave, from the 5th century under it. However, the horses were not cremated, whereas from the 5th century onwards humans were usually buried in a shallow pit after cremation without an urn.
Christianization
The Prussians were the first to be subjugated by the Baltic peoples and thus also the earliest to be Christianized. They were Germanized by the 16th century at the latest and then ceased to exist as a separate ethnic group.
Supported by the Polish prince Boleslaw I , the first missionaries reached the Prussians around the turn of the millennium. In the process, Adalbert von Prag and Brun von Querfurt suffered martyrdom, whereby the Christian saints' lives do not provide any reliable information about Prussian paganism.
It was not until the 12th century that the Cistercians began to strive for a stronger missionary work for the Prussians. One of their monks, Christian from the Kolbatz monastery in Pomerania, was ordained the first bishop of the Prussians in 1215. With the help of crusaders, he managed to secure Christianity in Prussia. With the subjection of all Prussian tribes to the Teutonic Order , paganism was finally ousted. Later evidence of alleged paganism among the Prussians, especially from the 16th century, can be found in political disputes with the controversial Teutonic Order and in the rigorous religious policy of the Reformation, which simply declared old Catholic festivals with folkloric elements to be pagan.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Alexander Brückner: Eastern European names of gods . In: Journal for comparative language research in the field of Indo-European languages , Volume 50, 1922, pp. 161–197
- ^ Johannes Voigt: History of Prussia . Königsberg 1827, p. 602
- ↑ Michael Brauer: The discovery of 'paganism' in Prussia . Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-05-005078-2 , pp. 242-256
- ↑ Michael Brauer: The discovery of 'paganism' in Prussia . Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-05-005078-2 , p. 250
- ↑ Michael Brauer: The discovery of 'paganism' in Prussia . Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-05-005078-2
- ^ Christian Krollmann: The religious system of the old Prussians . In: Old Prussian research. Volume 4, 1927, pp. 5-19
- ↑ Endre Bojtár: Foreword to the Past. A Cultural History of the Baltic People . Budapest 1999, ISBN 963-9116-42-4
- ↑ Jan Jaskanis: Human Burials with Horses in Prussia and Sudovia in the First Millennium of Our Era . In: Acta Balto-slavica , Volume 4, 1966; Pp. 29-65.
- ↑ Haralds Biezais: Baltic Religion ; Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1975, ISBN 3-17-001157-X ; P. 316
- ↑ Michael Brauer: The discovery of 'paganism' in Prussia ; Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-05-005078-2
literature
- Max Töppen: History of Paganism in Prussia ; in: New Prussian Provincial Papers . Vol. 1, 1846, pp. 297-316, 339-353.
- Joseph Bender: On old Prussian mythology and moral history ; in: Old Prussian monthly . Vol. 2, 1865, pp. 577-603; 694-717; Vol. 4, 1867, pp. 1-27, 97-135.
- Hans Bertuleit: The religious system of the old Prussians with Lithuanian-Latvian parallels ; in: Meeting reports of the ancient society Prussia , Issue 25, Königsberg 1924, pp. 9–113.
- Wilhelm Mannhardt: Letto-Prussian doctrine of gods . Latvian Literary Society, Riga 1936. Reprint Harro v. Hirschheydt, Hannover-Döhren 1971.
- Jonas Balys, Haralds Biezais : Baltic mythology. In: Hans Wilhelm Haussig , Jonas Balys (Hrsg.): Gods and Myths in Old Europe (= Dictionary of Mythology . Department 1: The ancient civilized peoples. Volume 2). Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1973, ISBN 3-12-909820-8 .
- Michael Brauer: The discovery of 'paganism' in Prussia . Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-05-005078-2