No other Slavic shrine was at one time as famous as the one in Rugia (Ruyan). Thanks to her holiness and power, she brought European monarchs to their knees and conquered peoples...
Here was the focus of all faith, all the hope of the pagan Slavs. And not only the Slavs - the Danish king Svein and many others donated loot to the temple of Arkona, and in the temples, idols and rituals themselves, scientists see much in common with the religion of the Celts. Hoary antiquity sleeps on the banks of Rugen - it remembers the Druids destroyed by Caesar! Back in the 11th century, pilgrims from the distant, seemingly Christian Czech Republic, came to bow to its main shrine, the four-headed idol of Svyatovit. The Arkon temple became the main religious center of Slavic Pomerania. The temple had extensive estates that provided it with income; duties were collected in its favor from merchants trading in Arkona and from industrialists who caught herring off the island of Ruyan. A third of the spoils of war were brought to him, all the jewelry, gold, silver and pearls obtained in the war. Therefore, there were chests filled with jewelry in the temple.
For more than 350 years, Arkona was the center of Slavic resistance against the aggression of Judeo-Christian Germany-Denmark-Poland. It was thanks to her that the 4th Crusade, the largest in the history of the Middle Ages (three armies totaling 200,000) against the Slavs, was completely defeated (AND IT WAS NOT THE ONLY ONE!!!). There are many descriptions of how the 4th Crusade was defeated. The German knights were divided into 3 columns, which were joined by the Danish king, the pope's troops, French units from Brittany and others (well, as usual - all of Europe). I will not describe the entire company, but the fact is that the Temporarily elected military prince of all Slavic associations of Lyutichs, Obodritovs and others, one by one, defeated all 3 columns with very cunning maneuvers, and at that time the Arkona fleet defeated the Danish fleet supporting the invasion from the sea. There is literature on this topic, so it's worth searching.
Everyone remembers the 300 Spartans, but few people don’t know that we had our own 300 Slavic “Spartans”...
The sacred city of Arkona was in those distant times the forge of martial arts of the European North. The ancient history of the Polabian Slavs brings to us the memory that there was a special type of military service at temples. These temple warriors were originally called “knights”.
The phenomenon was unique, since there were no special troops at the temples of other peoples in Europe. The temple army was considered sacred by the Polabian Slavs. It consisted of young envoys from noble Slavic families. Moreover, these young men remained professional warriors for the rest of their lives.
Three hundred (!) knights - golden belts (dvij, twice-born), temple warriors of Arkona, kept all the surrounding tribes and peoples of the Baltic under their control. From some they took tribute with peace, and from others they collected it with the sword.
As in Arkon, under the continuations of other gods, in other tribal centers, there were also 300 knights, “recruited” from the best families of the Polabian tribes - after all, these were, in essence, the necessary guard troops of the sacred fortress cities. Therefore, in battles, for example, against the Germans, 300 knights on horses of the same color as the deity’s horse rode ahead of the Polabian troops against the Germans: for example, 300 knights of Svyatovit on white horses, 300 knights of Triglav on black horses.
On the origin of the word “knight”:
The word “knight” consists of the root “vit”, the pronoun “yaz” and the ending “b” (er), which could be pronounced with the sound “e” (esi). The word as a whole stands for “vit I am.”
The lands of the Polabian Slavs were famous for the temples of pagan gods, which were located (in addition to Arkona) in Radigoshche, Retra, Korbel and other cities. The gods were called by names ending in “vit” (“viti” in Sanskrit – light, the entire inhabited world). Moreover, their huge idols carved from wood were multi-headed: Svyatovit had 4 heads, Perevit - 5, Korevit - 5 faces (four under one skull, the fifth on the chest), Yarovit - 7. In German chronicles, the names of the gods are distorted in every possible way, but the Slavic ending “vit” was written everywhere correctly: the German wiht, wicht meant a certain person, a person and referred to supernatural forces: spirits, demons.
The word “knight” came from the Polabian gods - “Vits” - and nowhere else. The word was used by the Czechs, who were ethnically closest to the Polabian Slavs, and “vitezky” meant “victorious” to them. That is, “knight” means “I am God” (in the sense of being a guide). I will add that it is similarly believed that the Cossacks-characterniks communicate directly with the Rod itself during battle.
And by the way, if we remember the Cossacks, their custom of wearing a mustache and forelock, earlier we will see Svyatoslav the Brave (the Varangians of Rus', before baptism, shaved their heads and beards almost without exception, as reported by the Arabs and Byzantines. Their God Perun was depicted with a “silver mustache”, and in the miniatures of the Radziwill Chronicle - with a military forelock on his head.), and even earlier...
“The Slavs themselves, contrary to our usual image of the “ancient Slav” with shoulder-length hair and a spade-shaped beard, cut their hair and beards short, or even shaved. Noble warriors - Lyutichs!!! (according to Thietmar) - could, as a sign of high family and military dare to leave a tuft of unshaven hair on the top of the head, or on the front of the skull. The Arkonian idol of Svyatovit had shaved heads and beards “in accordance with popular custom,” according to Saxo Grammar, only the priests wore long hair and beards “contrary to custom.”
So, most likely, the legendary Cossacks-characterniks are bearers of the traditions and knowledge of the temple knights of Arkona...
« Past the island of Buyan,” which Pushkin colorfully described in his “The Tale of Tsar Saltan,” floated not only the notorious barrel with the hero of Alexander Sergeevich’s work, but also an armada of Danish kings who wanted to conquer the lands of the free Baltic Slavs.
It is precisely this connection between Fr. Buyan and Fr. Ruyan was carried out by historian Vilinbakhov, proving the identity of the names of the legendary island.
Ruyan with its capital Arkona was one of the last pagan fortresses of the most ancient and autochthonous Slavic civilization, its western wing - the lands of the Polabian-Obodritic Slavs.
In modern Germany, many Slavic sanctuaries have been reconstructed, and this is not surprising, because all of its territory beyond the Oder (the famous name Odra) and the Elbe (respectively Laba) until the Middle Ages was inhabited by numerous Slavic tribes, known under the names of Luticians, Wilts, Bodrichis, Pomeranians, Sorbian Serbs and many others. The Germans and other Germanic and Romance peoples called the Baltic Slavs Vendians. The Vends-Vends are often mentioned as the ancestors of the Slavs.
Over time, almost all of these tribes were assimilated by the powerful German-Catholic onslaught to the east - Germany. "Drang nach Osten". But the Sorbian Slavs have still retained their identity in Germany (their number is about 250,000 people.) .
This relict ethnic group remains to us in memory of the former Slavic hegemony in that region and the stubborn, long-term resistance of the Polabian Slavs to German colonization. Assimilation was bloody in nature; there was a powerful outflow of the Slavic population of these lands to the neighboring fraternal countries - Poland and the Czech Republic. But a particularly fierce struggle took place in the very north of the lands of the Polabian Slavs - on the island of Ruyan (modern German Rügen) near Cape Arkona.
On Cape Arkona there was a cult center of the same name for the Slavs of the Baltic space. It was dedicated to the Slavic deity Sventovit. This god was responsible for fertility and was central in the pantheon of deities of the inhabitants of Ruyan.
Danish chronograph from the 14th century. Saxo Grammaticus in his work “The Acts of the Danes” gave a detailed description of Arkona and the temple with the priest Svyatovit (Sventovit).
The idol of Svyatovit had four faces facing the cardinal directions, and held a horn of wine in its hand. Based on the level of wine in it, the clergyman determined the degree of harvest for the coming year.
"Svetovid", ill. from “Slavic and Russian Mythology” by A. S. Kaisarov, 1804
The central holiday in the solar pagan cycle was the day of the autumn equinox - it was in September that the Slavic New Year began and festivities with feasts and round dances were organized right in the sanctuary of Sventovit. The Ruyans prepared a large honey pie as tall as a man. The priest stood behind him and asked those gathered: “Can I be seen?” If it was clear, he wanted the pie to completely overshadow him next year.
On the territory of Arkona there was a warehouse of all the wealth obtained through peaceful and military means. The Ruyans gave the priest Sventovit about a third of the funds they obtained. His barns and bins contained jewelry and clothing, a lot of fabrics and other valuables. There were about 300 horses in the stable at the temple. One can even say that the priest was the central figure in the state of the rebellious island. It was he who planned the routes and tactics of military campaigns, including using the widely used fortune-telling practice.
S axon Grammaticus described a ritual associated with a white horse, which stepped through a symbolic gate made of three spears. If the horse stepped with its right foot, then the campaign will be successful; if it was with its left, then it is worth reconsidering the direction of the army’s movement. This horse was an untouchable figure; Only the priest himself could look after him, and even tearing out a hair from his mane was considered a grave offense.
Ilya Glazunov. Rugen Island. Priest The Ruyans were engaged not only in agriculture and cattle breeding, but were truly conquerors of the sea. They controlled a vast area of the Baltic Sea, waging constant wars with the Vikings. Some Danish provinces even paid tribute to the Slavs of Ruyan.
Perhaps the expansionist policy of the Baltic Slavs was partly related to their response to the famous German ideological paradigm of “drang nach Osten”. After all, attempts to colonize the lands of the Ruyans and convert them to Christianity took place almost throughout the entire duration of Slavic-Germanic contacts, starting from Frankish times.
There is an opinion that the Kiev prince Vladimir Svyatoslavovich “Red Sun” erected a pagan pantheon in Kyiv, on Podol, in 980 out of solidarity with the rebel Slavic relatives of Arkona.
Surrounded by aggressive neighbors, Arkona resisted for a long time, until in 1168 it was destroyed by the army of the Danish king Valdemar I, who defeated the Ruyan prince Jaromir.
Bishop Absalon destroys the idol of the god Svyatovit in Arkona in 1168 The stones of the Arkona sanctuary were used to build the Catholic Church in Altenkirchen in 1185. The stone with the image of the priest Sventovit is still kept there.
"Svantevita Stone" in the Altenkirchen church on the island of Rügen The greatest figure of the Reformation, Philip Melanchthon, wrote that after the fall of Arkona and its complete plunder by the Catholic colonialists, the majority of the Ruyan Slavs migrated to the east - to where the coast of the Gulf of Riga is now. He also etymologically connected the names of Riga and Ruyan. It is quite possible that the Ruyans found refuge among their related pagan Balts, the ancestors of modern Latvians. After all, it is known that the Baltic and Slavic tribes are the closest genetically, culturally and linguistically in comparison with other Indo-European peoples.
Lomonosov’s anti-Normanist doctrine is also associated with Arkona, in which the great Russian scientist postulated a version about the Ruyan Slavic roots of Rurik and his entourage. Mikhail Vasilyevich believed that the Varangians, called up by the Novgorodians in 862, came from Ruyan or other lands of the Baltic Slavs, and had nothing to do with the Germans.
Slavic legends about the legendary elder Gostomysl (ruler of Novgorod) tell of the calling of his grandchildren, led by Rurik. The daughter of the gray-haired leader Umila was married to one of the princes of the Baltic Slavs, and Rurik, thus, was a representative of the families of the Obodrites and Novgorod Slovenes, if we start from this legendary version. And this is quite plausible, since archaeologists have established the continuity of archaeological artifacts, types of buildings of the Slavs of Novgorod and the southern Baltic coast.
In addition to archaeologists, the idea of a single cultural space was expressed by an outstanding representative of Russian linguistics, Academician Zaliznyak, who in his works outlined a single Novgorod-Western Slavic language continuum.
The Slavic citadel of the Baltic - Arkona - reminds us of the great era of dominance of the developed spiritual culture of our ancestors.
Chalk cliffs of Cape Arkona on the island of Rügen (Ruyan), where the main sanctuary of the Baltic Slavs was located. Arkona today
Cape Arkona (German: Kap Arkona) is one of the most popular tourist sites in Rügen. Every year about 1 million people come to admire the location of the ancient sanctuary of Ruyan.
The place is very beautiful, picturesque. A high coast (45 m) of chalk and marl is located on the Wittow Peninsula in the north of the island of Rügen (next to the fishermen's village of Witt).
The main attractions of Arkona are two lighthouses, two military bunkers, a Slavic fortress and several tourist buildings (restaurants, souvenir shops). On the western side of the cape there is a ring-shaped shaft in which the temple of the Vendian god Svyatovit was located. Also near the ancient castle of Jaromarsburg, you can take a photo against the backdrop of a modern wooden carved statue depicting the four-faced Slavic deity Svetovid.
Arkona (Jaromarsburg)
Arkona is a city and religious center of the Baltic Slavic tribe of the Ruyans. The city of Arkona existed until the 12th century and was located on the cape of the same name on the island of Rügen (Germany).
Geographically, the city of Arkona is located on the cape of the same name (Arkona), on the island of Rügen, in its northern part. This territory has been controlled since ancient times by the Slavic tribe Ruyan, who were also called Polabian Slavs. Archaeological excavations indicate that there were about 14 settlements in the area of Cape Arkona.
The founding date of the city is unknown, but from medieval European chronicles (in particular, from the work of the “Acts of the Danes” by Saxo Grammaticus) we know that the city was destroyed by the Danes in the second half of the 12th century, during the reign of Prince Jaromar I. Following this event, the Ruyan tribe, according to modern historians, adopted Christianity, which is actually unlikely, if only in view of the fact that in other regions the original faith of the Slavs yielded to the new religion with great blood, and “religious wars” on the territory of Ancient Rus' were fought until the 14th-15th centuries.
The already mentioned Saxo Grammar wrote that the Danes destroyed the temple complex of Arkona, which in fact was a cross between a city, a temple and a fortress. In size, Arkona, the city of the Slavs, surpassed all cities known at that time. In the center was the sanctuary of Sventovit (Svetovit), an ancient Slavic god, patron of heavenly truth (many tribes, in particular the Ruyans themselves, revered him as the supreme god). The sanctuary was supposedly about 480 meters long (from north to south) and 270 meters wide (from east to west).
During archaeological excavations, which were carried out in 1921, 1930, and also in the period from 1969 to 1971, it was discovered that individual fragments of the temple complex were built in the 9th century, however, there is no information regarding the dating of most of the surviving structural elements. Judging by Saxo's "Acts of the Danes", Arkona was already considered an ancient city by the 12th century, which suggests that the fortified temple was built much earlier.
A detailed description of the temple of Svetovit, which was located in the very center of Arkona, can be found in the “Acts of the Danes”, and within the framework of this material there is no point in retelling this medieval text. Something else is important. This temple was probably the largest religious building in all of Europe, and its decoration could be the envy of the palaces of the most powerful emperors. For more than three and a half centuries, “noble knights”, Catholics and Orthodox Christians, tried to capture Arkona. Not a single “crusade” ended at the walls of this legendary city. And each time 300 warriors came out to meet the invaders, only 300 warriors on white horses and in bright red cloaks. There is a legend that they could not be defeated, for they were protected by Svetovit himself, the great god of eternal truth. Legends also say that “three hundred warriors of Arkona” traveled throughout all Slavic lands, protecting shrines from enemies. And wherever they appeared, foreign forces washed themselves with blood, and animal fear settled forever in the hearts of the survivors.
But, as mentioned above, Arkona still fell. The Danish king Waldemar I sent 15,000 of his best soldiers to capture the city. 300 knights of Arkona died in that battle, but not one of Voldemar’s warriors returned home. Moreover, the Danes, having lost the lion's share of their forces, did not dare to move further into the territories controlled by the Ruyan tribe. However, in this case we are talking about a legend. If we turn to the information left to us by medieval European chroniclers, then everything in that distant year, 1168, turned out somewhat differently. Under the command of Waldemar I (including the allied troops of Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony) there were more than 30,000 people. On May 9, 1168, he landed on the island of Rügen near the city of Arkona. 2,500 warriors, the regular army of Arkona, came out to meet him. Chroniclers write that almost all the Slavic warriors fell in the first battle, but Voldemar also lost more than a third of his personnel in just one day. Only civilians and 200 guards who served directly in the Svetovit temple remained in the city. The siege of Arkona lasted until June 12, and after one of the walls of the fortress ( Arkona was almost entirely wooden) was set on fire by the invaders, the Danes managed to break into the city. It is believed that the wall was not put out in time because after a month of the siege, water ran out in Arkona.
After the city was taken, Voldemar's troops approached the main temple, the sanctuary of Sventovit, which was defended by the chief priest and 200 knights. Chroniclers write that the battle for the sanctuary lasted more than two weeks. After the capture of Arkona, Voldemar was left with just under 15,000 soldiers, which was clearly not enough to further advance deeper into the island. Then the Danish king offered peace to Jaromar I, the Ruyan prince.
It is difficult to say what is true in this story and what is pure fiction. How does the legend about the fall of the city of Arkona compare with historical facts? It’s hard to say, especially if you remember that history is always written by the winners. But even if the “winners” honestly told us that less than 3,000 Slavic warriors managed to “halve” the thirty-thousand-strong Danish army, then the beautiful legend about the “three hundred warriors of Arkona” does not look so fabulous, does it?
Unfortunately, at the moment the truth is unknown to us. It is also unknown where all the wealth of the temple went. Some, of course, were looted, but, for example, the three-meter idol of Sventovit, which according to legend represented the highest value of Arkona (Saxo Grammaticus writes that it was made of gold, platinum and other noble materials), disappeared without a trace. There is a legend according to which the Danes tried to snatch a magnificently crafted blade from the hands of an idol, after which they fell dead. Subsequently, the idol was simply thrown into the sea, because Voldemar’s soldiers decided that “he was cursed.” Probably, Sventovit’s blade was made of meteorite steel, as Saxon Grammaticus alludes to.
In fact, what is important is that the memory of Arkon, the city of the Slavs, is alive. The legend of three hundred invincible warriors is also alive. This means that the ancient culture of our Ancestors is not doomed at all, because we remember. We remember, despite the fact that “history is written by the victors.”
2.10.2012 05:39
The West Slavic Baltic tribes (Vendas), settled between the Elbe (Laba), Oder (Odra) and the Vistula, reached high development by the 9th-10th centuries AD, having built on the island of Rahne (Rügen) the sacred city of Arkona temples, which served for all the Baltic Slavs the role of the Slavic Mecca and the Delphic Oracle. The Slavic tribe of the Rans formed a priestly caste in their midst (like the Indian Brahmins or Babylonian Chaldeans) and not a single serious military-political issue was resolved by other Slavic tribes without consulting the Rans.
The wounds (ruans) owned the runic writing of the Vendian tradition, the graphics of which were noticeably different from the known senior and junior runes (probably the term rani itself came from the Slavic wound, that is, to cut runes on wooden tablets). The construction of the city of temples and the rise of the pagan culture of the Vendian ethnic group was a response measure of the Slavic priestly elite for the ideological unity of the Baltic Slavs against the intensified expansion of first the Frankish, and then the German and Danish aggressors, who, under the banner of Christianization, carried out a systematic genocide of the Slavic population and their expulsion from the occupied territories. By the 13th-14th centuries, under the intense onslaught of Danish and German crusaders, the Slavic principalities of Paradise, Mecklenburg, Brandenburg and others fell, and the Baltic Slavic Vendian ethnic group ceased to exist.
Let us present information from Western chroniclers (Adam of Bremen, Otgon of Bamberg, Thietmar of Merseburg) about the paganism of the Baltic Slavs.
Arkona was built on the high rocky shore of the island of Rügen and was inaccessible from the Baltic Sea. The city contained many temples of all tribal Slavic gods. The main god of Arkona was Svyatovit, whose idol was installed in a special temple. The idol was huge, taller than a man, with four heads on four separate necks with cropped hair and shaved beards. The four heads apparently symbolized the god's power over the four cardinal directions (as in the four winds) and the four seasons of time, that is, the cosmic god of space-time (similar to the Roman Janus). In his right hand, the idol held a horn lined with various metals and annually filled with wine; his left hand was bent in an arc and rested on his side. The horn symbolized the god's power over productivity and fertility, that is, as the god of vital and plant power. Near the idol there were a bridle, a saddle and a huge battle sword and shield (symbols of the god of war). In the temple stood the sacred banner of Svyatovit, called the village. This village of wounds was revered as Svyatovit himself and, carrying it in front of them on a campaign or battle, they considered themselves under the protection of their god (the battle banner can also be attributed as a symbol of the god of war).
After the grain harvest, many people flocked to Arkona and brought a lot of wine for sacrifices and feasts. Apparently this happened in September, in Slavic - Ruen, hence the second name of the island Ruyan. On the eve of the holiday, the priest of Svyatovit, with a broom in his hands, entered the inner sanctuary and, holding his breath so as not to desecrate the deity, swept the floor clean. The broom and sweeping symbolically signify the end of a time cycle, in this case an annual one, for the next day fortune-telling is carried out by pie, similar to the East Slavic Christmas carol.
This means that the heavenly priests used the September style of calculating time (the year began with the autumn equinox). The next day, in the presence of all the people, the priest took the horn of wine from the hands of the idol Svyatovit and, having carefully examined it, predicted whether or not there would be a harvest for the next year. Having poured the old wine at the feet of the idol, the priest filled the horn with new wine and drained it with one spirit, asking for all sorts of benefits for himself and the people. Then he again filled the horn with new wine and put it into the hand of the idol. After this, they brought the idol a pie made of sweet dough taller than a man. The priest hid behind the pie and asked the people if he was visible. When they answered that only a pie was visible, the priest asked God that they could make the same pie the next year. In conclusion, in the name of Svyatovit, the priest blessed the people, ordered them to continue to honor the Arkonian god, promising as a reward an abundance of fruits, victory at sea and on land. Then everyone drank and ate to their fullest, for abstinence was taken as an offense to the deity.
Arkona was also visited for fortune telling. The sacred horse Svyatovit was kept at the temple, white in color with a long mane and tail that were never trimmed.
Only the priest of Svyatovit could feed and mount this horse, on which, according to the beliefs of the wounds, Svyatovit himself fought against his enemies. They used this horse to tell fortunes before the start of the war. The servants stuck three pairs of spears in front of the temple at a certain distance from each other, and a third spear was tied across each pair. The priest, having said a solemn prayer, led the horse by the bridle from the vestibule of the temple and led it to the crossed spears. If a horse stepped through all the spears first with its right foot, and then with its left, this was considered a happy omen. If the horse stepped with its left foot first, then the trip was canceled. Three pairs of copies possibly symbolically reflected the will of the heavenly, earthly and underground gods (the 3 kingdoms according to Russian fairy tales) during fortune telling.
Thus, the main symbol-oracle of the Arkona cult was the heroic war horse Svyatovit of the white color - “Yar Horse”, from which the name of the sacred city “Ar-kona” possibly came from, that is, the Ardent Horse or the city of the Ardent Horse.
In addition to the functions of an oracle-soothsayer, Svyatovit’s horse also served as a biological indicator of the state of the vital force phase at a given time. If the horse was lathered, with tangled and disheveled hair, then the phase of vitality was considered negative (depressive) and the planned trip was cancelled. If the horse was in excellent physical condition (passionary), then the planned campaign was blessed.
Unfortunately, literary sources do not give an unambiguous answer to the method of this fortune-telling: according to some, the horse is in the temple all night before fortune-telling, according to others, the priest (or Svyatovit himself) rides on it all night.
The Arkon temple became the main sanctuary of the Slavic Pomerania, the center of Slavic paganism. According to the general belief of the Baltic Slavs, the Arkonian god gave the most famous victories, the most accurate prophecies. Therefore, Slavs from all sides of Pomerania flocked here for sacrifices and for fortune telling. From everywhere gifts were delivered to him according to vows, not only from individuals, but also from entire tribes. Each tribe sent him an annual tribute for sacrifices. The temple had extensive estates that provided it with income; duties were collected in its favor from merchants who traded in Arkona and from industrialists who caught herring off the island of Rügen. A third of the spoils of war were brought to him, all the jewelry, gold, silver and pearls obtained in the war. Therefore, there were chests filled with jewelry in the temple. At the temple there was a permanent squad of 300 knights on white war horses, equipped with heavy knightly weapons. This squad took part in campaigns, confiscating a third of the spoils for the benefit of the temple.
The phenomenon of the Arkona temple is reminiscent of the Delphic oracle among the Greeks. The analogy goes further: just as foreigners sent gifts to Delphi and turned for predictions, so the rulers of neighboring peoples sent gifts to the Arkonian temple. For example, the Danish king Sven donated a golden cup to the temple.
The reverence that the tribes of the Baltic Slavs had for the Arkona shrine was involuntarily transferred to the wounds who stood so close to this shrine.
Adam of Bremen wrote that the Baltic Slavs had a law: in common affairs, do not decide or undertake anything contrary to the opinion of the paradise people, to such an extent they were afraid of wounds for their connection with the gods.
Sanctuaries similar to Arkonsky also existed in Shchetin, where the idol of Triglav stood, in Volegoshch, where the idol of Yarovit stood, and in other cities. The sanctuary of Triglav was located on the highest of the three hills on which the city of Shchetin was located. The walls of the sanctuary, inside and out, were covered with colorful carvings depicting people and animals. The three-headed statue of the god was decorated with gold. The priests claimed that the three heads were a symbol of God's power over the three kingdoms - heaven, earth and hell. In the temple were stored weapons obtained in wars, and the tenth of the spoils taken in battles at sea and on land prescribed by law. Gold and silver bowls were also kept there, which were taken out only on holidays, from which nobles and noble people drank and told fortunes, gilded horns and decorated with expensive stones, swords, knives and various religious objects.
In Shchetin there was also a holy horse dedicated to Triglav. No one could sit on it. One of the priests looked after him. With the help of this horse, fortune telling was performed before campaigns, for which they stuck spears into the ground and forced the horse to step over them.
The third center of paganism among the Baltic Slavs was the city of Radigoshch in the land of the Ratars. According to the description of Thietmar of Merseburg, the city lay among a large forest on the shores of Lake Dolensko. This forest was considered sacred and inviolable. Inside the city, where three gates led, there was only one wooden sanctuary, the walls of which were decorated on the outside with the horns of animals, and on the inside with carvings depicting gods and goddesses. In the sanctuary there were formidable statues of gods, dressed in helmets and armor, and the first place among them was occupied by the idol of Svarozhich, revered by all Slavs.
The temple of Ruevit or Yarovit in Volegoshcha (the city of the god Veles) in Pomerania was also a prominent sanctuary. The meaning of this god is clearly defined by the words that, according to the story of the life of Saint Otgon of Bamberg, were pronounced on behalf of God by his priest: “I am your god, I am the one who clothes the fields with bread and the forests with leaves, fields and gardens with fruits. The fruits of the living and everything that serves to benefit man are in my power.”
Ruevit was depicted with seven faces on one head, seven sheathed swords were tied to his belt, and he held the eighth in his right hand.
The image, functions and name of Ruevit indicate that he was the calendar god of counting the biorhythms of the life force both by the days of the week and by seven-day segments, starting with the autumnal equinox (Ruen). Each day of the week, according to the ideas of the ancients, has its own emotional and physiological coloring and characteristics (its own sword and its own face). The counting of the biorhythms of vitality begins from the moment of birth of a person, according to the female count from left to right in seven-day weeks and ends with death - a sword in the right hand and a skull (symbols of death).
In the East Slavic tradition, such functions are performed by Veles, the god of the underground (chthonic) life force.
A shield was dedicated to the idol of Ruevit, which no one dared to touch and which was taken out of the temple only during the war, and the people either walked away or fell prostrate to the ground. Removing the shield from the temple (equivalent to opening the temple gates) conventionally meant the opening of the earth and the emission of beneficial vital forces from it, facilitating victory over enemies (the shield is a conventional symbol of the earth).
The idol of Ruevit, together with the idols of Porevit and Porenut, stood in the princely residence of the Rans of Karentia. According to the life of Saint Otgon, the same god, under the name Yarovit (Gerovit), was honored by the Gavolians, celebrating a special holiday in his honor. According to Thietmar of Merseburg, the Baltic Slavs had many temples and gods, equal to the number of their volosts.
In 1166, the Danish king Valdemar with his army and auxiliary detachments of the Bodritic and Pomeranian princes (his vassals) finally conquered the island of Rügen, which was a stronghold of Slavic paganism and sea robberies. All pagan temples and shrines were destroyed.
During the conquest of the East Slavic lands by the Baltic knights, the West Slavic Arkonian cult of Svyatovit received a new name - the cult of Perun or, in common parlance, Belobog. The princely squad, as the main bearer of the druzhina-princely cult of Perun, received the caste name rus (rus - blond, light, white - after the color of the caste god of war Perun-Belobog, who was also the cosmic god of the daylight hours). The lands controlled by the princely squad, which collected rent or tribute from the population of these lands, were called Russian Land. And the princely warriors were called Rusyns.
For the East Slavic tribes who lived in a tribal system, engaged in agriculture, cattle breeding, fishing, hunting, fur and honey production, the main peasant caste god was Veles (Chernobog) - the patron of agricultural work, cattle breeding and fertility, and there was a separate caste of magicians-priests of Veles.
Belobog (Perun) was familiar to the Eastern Slavs, but in comparison with Veles he performed secondary functions as the giver of thunderstorms and rain, for which he was prayed for in dry times.
Unlike the Baltic Slavs, who were engaged in sea robbery (the island of Rügen) and raids on their neighbors, which is why they received the chronicle name Varangians-Rus, the Eastern Slavs, due to their peasant way of life, had less need for the god of war.
During the conquest of the East Slavic lands by the Baltic Slavic princes, the caste-retinue god of war Perun-Belobog was proclaimed dominant, and the peasant Veles-Chernobog secondary, which was recorded in the texts of the treaties between the Russian princes and the Greeks: “And Olek swore by his law Perun as the idol and Hair of the Horse God."
Previously, before the organization of the druzhina-princely system in the East Slavic lands, both of these gods - Belobog and Chernobog - seemed to be equal as the god of Day (good) and the god of Night (evil). Perhaps Cherno the god-Veles, due to his functions as the god of fertility and vitality, was revered higher among the peasants.
We observe the same thing in the Christian era: the peasant Nikola the Pleasant (Veles’s deputy) is revered higher than Ilya the Prophet (Perun the Thunderer’s deputy).
In connection with the above, we will try to clarify the origin of the term “White Rus'”, primarily associated with the emergence of the Principality of Polotsk and the advancement of the Arkonian cult of Svyatovit into its territory. In the Russian chronicle under the year 980 there is an entry: “Be Bo Rogovolod came from overseas and took power in Polotsk. And others went with him to Tur, and you in Turov, from whom the nickname Turovtsi was worthless.”
The conquest of Slavic lands by German knights under Henry I and Otgon I (919-973) dates back to approximately the same period. The Polabian and Baltic Slavic lands were divided into 18 German margraviates with ecclesiastical subordination to the Bishop of Magdeburg. N.M. Karamzin mentions consanguineous ties between the Pomor and Polotsk princes. The very names and nicknames of the Polotsk prince Rogovolod and his daughter Rogneda indicate a possible connection with the Arkonian cult of Svyatovit (holding a fertility horn in his hand).
Thus, it can be assumed that the emergence of the term “White Rus'” is associated with the displacement of the Slavic Pomeranian princes by the Germans from the Baltic Pomerania, who brought the Arkonian cult to Polotsk during its conquest in 980.
An important argument in favor of the proposed hypothesis is the discovery of the Zbruch idol of Svyatovit on the territory of the Ternopil region.
The promotion of the Arkon cult to the East Slavic lands can be traced through a number of characters and plots of East Slavic folklore:
A white heroic war horse in epics and fairy tales, bringing good luck and victory to its owner and at the same time possessing the properties of an oracle-soothsayer;
The heroic “treasure sword” mentioned in fairy tales;
A magic bridle (of Svyatovit’s horse), which has the properties of retaining evil spirits;
A horseshoe (a conventional symbol of Svyatovit’s horse), nailed to the doors “for luck” and to scare away evil spirits;
The character of a white horse (sometimes a horse's head on a stick) in the Christmas ritual of Kolyada;
Yuletide fortune-telling by rural girls about their upcoming marriage by means of a white horse stepping over the shafts;
An image of a carved horse's head on the roof of a dwelling, a ridge.
In Russian epics, the allegorical language of symbols shows the transfer of power to the Russian Perun (Ilya Muromets) from the Arkonian Svyatovit (Svyatogor), as well as from the Pomeranian Triglav (three cups of green wine).
In conclusion, we will draw the main conclusion that the origins of Russian pagan pre-Christian culture go back to the Arkon sanctuary of the island of Rügen, which in all Russian conspiracies is called the island of Buyan.
www.perunica.ru
The fate of Arkona - the ancient shrine of the Slavs.
Arkona... Fortress city... Holy symbol of protection and support of the Slavs. No other Slavic shrine was so well described in the open press as the one in Rugia, an island on the Baltic Sea. And this is thanks to her holiness and power. An ancient shrine that brought European monarchs to their knees and conquered nations. And it’s all the more painful to learn about her last tragic days...
Summer 6632 from S.M.Z.H.
1123-1124 AD The prince of the Obodrites, Henry, asked for help from Emperor Lothair to go to war against Rugia and avenge the death of his son, killed by the Ruyans. The Ruyans, seeing the advantage of the enemy, sent their priest to negotiate. The price of the peace treaty was high - 4,400 ransom marks. The Ruyans did not have that kind of money, as Helmold writes, and the tribute is paid by the shrine in Arkona from the treasury of Svetovit.
Prince Henry felt deceived when weighing the silver, but part of the money had already been paid. And the war flared up again, but the Ruyans won.
Summer 6636 from S.M.Z.H.
1128 AD Despite military assistance from Rugia, Szczecin was Christianized.
Summer 6644 from S.M.Z.H.
1136 AD King Eric went on a crusade against the Slavs, unleashing a great war. Rugia was completely ruined. Eric captured Arkona, cutting off the defenders' access to drinking water. The Ruyans hid the holy statue of Svetovit when hope for help faded, and the besieging crusader troops cut off the fortified access to water from the city. Seeking salvation for their people, they feignedly succumbed to the king’s demands to convert to Christianity and accepted “voluntary-forced” baptism - they washed their bodies and quenched their thirst in a nearby pond. When the Danes left, they left a priest in the fortress to supervise the instillation of the new faith.
But as soon as Eric’s soldiers boarded the ships and sailed to Denmark, the priest was thrown out of the gates of Arkona... The Ruyans could again freely honor their native God Svetovit.
Summer 6655 from S.M.Z.H.
1147 AD The Ruyans saved the pagan prince of the encouragers, Niklot, by sending their fleet to help him during the next crusade against the Slavs. But the strength was no longer the same. A small island in the Baltic Sea was surrounded not only by stormy waves, but also by hostile states, dominated by a Judeo-Christian ideology alien to the Slavs.
Summer 6668 from S.M.Z.H.
In 1160 AD. Prince of Rugia Tetyslav began negotiations with Waldemar I the Great, the ruler of Denmark, as well as with Absalon, the bishop of Roskilde. As a result, a peace treaty was concluded with Denmark, and in 1162 the Ruyans even supported the Danes during the siege of Vologoscha. Bishop Absalon soon took part in the council of Ruyans, where he expressed the idea of adopting Christianity by the inhabitants of Rugia. The prince of Rugia supported this proposal, since it was in his own interests, because the power of the prince was greatly limited by the priests of Svetovit, and Christianization would forever eliminate the priestly class from the political game (similar “wise” thoughts came to the princes of the Eastern Slavs during the Christianization of X- XII centuries, and even now some modern “Slavic warriors” are not far from Tetyslav’s way of thinking). The prince of Ruyan betrayed the priests and the people, who in 1166 remained the only Slavic tribe in the Baltic that freely adhered to the Motherland.
Summer 6676 from S.M.Z.H.
On May 19, 1168, the Danes, led by King Valdemar I and Bishop Absalon, landed on Rugia. Together with them, the troops of the Saxon Duke Henry the Lion landed, led by the princes Casimir and Boguslav, the Bodrite prince Pribyslav and Berno, the Bishop of Mecklenburg.
So, the king attacked Rugia with a large number of warriors and besieged the city of Arkona, flooding the suburb with rivers of blood. It was not easy to take the city: the height of the walls with a rampart reached 27.15 meters and stone machines could not overcome them. There was still hope for a long siege and that the defenders would not have enough drinking water. The besieged, confident in their strength, covered the tower above the gate with banners and eagles. Between them was the Stanitsa - the military banner of the Ruyans, which the latter revered as the banner of all Gods.
On June 12, 1168, during another attack, the tower and gates were set on fire, and the small amount of water did not allow the fire to be extinguished. Some residents, being in a hopeless situation, threw themselves into the flames, not wanting to be slaves. And the king ordered the chair to be taken out to the viewing area and sat down in it to watch what was happening. The city fell to Veileth on the 23rd, Summer 6676 from the Creation of the World in the Star Temple.
The Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus (1140-1208) wrote the 16-volume chronicle “The Acts of the Danes” (Gesta Danorum), which describes the history of Denmark from ancient times to the 12th century, as well as the history of some other northern countries, including Western -Slavic. In particular, this book describes Arkona (or as the Germans now call it - Jaromarsburg), the capital of the Slavic tribe Ruyan (Rans) on the island of Ruyan (now Rügen), the size of the Slavic population of which at the time of its conquest in the 12th century, according to Western sources, was at least 70,000 people
Arkona is a temple city, the center of the faith of the Western Slavs. And not only them. The Danish king Svein (960-1014) donated booty to the temple of Arkona. Back in the 11th century, pilgrims from the already two centuries-old Christian Czech Republic came to venerate its main shrine, the four-headed idol of Svyatovit. The Arkona Temple became the main religious center of Slavic Pomerania in the 9th-12th centuries. He had vast lands that gave him income; duties were collected in his favor from merchants who traded in Arkona and from industrialists who caught herring off the island of Ruyan. A third of the spoils of war were brought to him, all the jewelry, gold, silver and pearls obtained in the war. Therefore, there were chests filled with jewelry in the temple.
Here is what Sakon Grammatik writes: “The city of Arkona lies on the top of a high rock; from the north, east and south it is protected by natural protection... on the western side it is protected by a high embankment of 50 cubits... In the middle of the city lies an open square on which rises a wooden temple, beautifully crafted, but revered not so much for the splendor of its architecture as for the greatness of the god to whom An idol was erected here. The entire outer side of the building shone with skillfully made bas-reliefs of various figures, but ugly and crudely painted.
There was only one entrance to the interior of the temple, surrounded by a double fence... In the temple itself there was a large idol, exceeding human height, (Sventovita) with four heads, on the same number of necks, of which two came out of the chest and two - to the ridge, but so , that of both front and both rear heads, one looked to the right and the other to the left. The hair and beard were cut short, and in this, it seemed, the artist was in conformity with the custom of the Ruyans.
In his right hand, the idol held a horn made of various metals, which was usually filled with wine every year from the hands of the priest to tell fortunes about the fertility of the next year; the left hand was likened to a bow. The outer clothing went down to the ankle boots, which were made of various types of trees and were so skillfully connected to the knees that only upon careful examination could the fugues be distinguished. The legs stood level with the ground, their foundation was made under the floor.
In a short distance the bridle and saddle of the idol with other accessories were visible. What struck the observer most of all was the huge sword, the scabbard, the black of which, in addition to beautiful carved forms, was distinguished by silver trim... In addition, this god also had temples in many other places, controlled by priests of lesser importance. In addition, he had with him a horse, completely white, from which it was considered impiety to pull out a hair from its mane or tail...
Only the priest had the right to feed and saddle this horse: the divine animal could not be insulted by frequent use. The Ruyans believed that Svantevit rode out on this horse to battle the enemies of his sanctuary and his land. And proof of this was allegedly the fact that he was often found the next morning in his stall covered with sweat and dirt, as if he had traveled a long way.
Predictions were also taken from the horse. When a military campaign was about to take place, the servants of the Svantevita temple stuck six spears crosswise into the ground in front of the sanctuary, after which they brought the sacred horse to them. If he stepped over the spears with his right hoof, this was considered a good omen for the outcome of military operations. If at least once he raised his left hoof first, then the trip to foreign lands was canceled. In the same way, a sea voyage was canceled if the white horse of Sventovit did not go with the right foot through the spears, and even decisions on trade transactions depended on the predictions of the oracle... Sventovit was symbolized by various signs, in particular, carved eagles and banners, the main one of which was called Stanitsa... The power of this small piece of canvas was stronger than the princely power..."
Every year, sacrifices were made in the sanctuary city. They took place in late summer, after the harvest. To find out how this important festival for the Western Slavs took place, let us again turn to the testimony of Saxo Grammar:
“Every year after the harvest, a mixed crowd from all over the island in front of the temple of the god, sacrificing cattle, celebrated a solemn feast, called sacred. Its priest, contrary to paternal custom, was distinguished by a long beard and hair, on the eve of the day when the sacred ceremony was to take place, the small sanctuary - wherever he was allowed to enter - usually carefully cleaned it with a broom, making sure that there was no human breath in the room. Whenever it was necessary to inhale or exhale, he went to the exit, so that the presence of God would not be defiled by the breath of a mortal.
The next day, when the people stood at the entrance, he, taking a vessel from the statue, carefully observed whether the level of the poured liquid had dropped, and then expected a crop failure next year. Noticing this, he ordered those present to store the fruits for the future. If he did not foresee any decrease in normal fertility, he predicted the coming time of abundance of fields. After such a prophecy, he ordered that this year’s harvest be either more thrifty or more generously spent. Having poured old wine at the feet of the idol, like a libation, he poured the empty vessel again: as if drinking to his health, he revered the statue, both himself and the fatherland, good luck to the townspeople in multiplying victories with solemn words. Having finished this, he brought the horn to his lips, drank it extremely quickly in one gulp and, filled with wine again, inserted it again into the right hand of the statue.
Having made a pie with honey wine of a round shape, the size of which was almost equal to human height, he proceeded to the sacrifice. Having placed him between himself and the people, the priest, according to custom, asked if the Ruyans could see him. When they answered that they saw it, they wished that in a year they would not be able to see it. With this kind of prayer he asked not for his own or the people’s fate, but for an increase in the future harvest...
Every year a coin is due to the idol from each husband and each woman as a fee for veneration. He is also given a third of the spoils of war, since they were acquired with his help. This god also has in his service 300 selected horses and the same number of horsemen, all the booty of which, acquired by war or robbery, is under the supervision of a priest, who, with the proceeds for these things, orders the casting of various sacred objects and temple decorations, which he keeps in locked rooms, where, in addition to a lot of money, there were also collected a lot of purple clothes that had worn out from time to time ... "
Arkona was guarded by specially trained temple warriors, recruited from young men of noble Slavic families, who remained professional warriors throughout their lives. There were 300 of them for each temple city, so in battles ahead of the Polabian troops were 300 knights on horses of the same color as the deity’s horse: for example, 300 Svyatovit warriors on white horses, 300 Triglav warriors on black horses. In addition to protecting the sacred cities, their duties also included collecting tribute from the surrounding Baltic tribes and peoples.
In addition to Arkona, there was another large city of religious significance on Ruyan. It was called Korenitsa. In the 12th century, the residence of the ruler of Ruyan was located there. It was a huge fortress city, surrounded by impenetrable bogs and swamps, built up with three-story wooden buildings.
However, it is reliably known that with the exception of the residence of the ruler, Korenitsa was not a residential town, like Arkona. People came there either to worship the gods or during times of war, using the city as a refuge. This was the tradition among the Ruyans. We will also find information about the city in Saxo Grammaticus, when he describes the actions of the Danish invaders who stormed Korenica in 1168:
“The distinguishing feature of this city were three buildings of outstanding temples, noticeable by the brilliance of excellent craftsmanship. The dignity of the local gods enjoyed almost the same reverence as among the Arkonians the authority of a public deity...
The largest temple stood inside the courtyard, but instead of walls it had purple curtains, and the roof rested only on columns. The servants [of the church], having broken the fence of the courtyard, took hold of the inner curtains of the temple. When they too were removed, the statue carved from oak, called Rugevit, became visible in its ugliness from all sides. The swallows, which had built nests under his lips, covered his chest with droppings. Worthy god, whose image is so ugly defaced by birds! Additionally, his head had seven humanoid faces, all of which were covered by a single skull.
The master depicted the same number of swords in sheaths hanging from his side. The eighth, naked [sword], [god] held in his hand; inserted into the fist, it was nailed very tightly with an iron nail, so that it could not be removed without cutting it, as its cut showed. Its width was greater than human height, and its height was such that [Bishop] Absalon, standing on his tiptoes, could barely reach his chin with his hatchet...
This god was revered, just like Mars, at the head of the forces of war. There was nothing funny in this statue, which caused disgust with the rough features of the ugly carving... Having completed its destruction, a detachment of [the bishop's] companions zealously moved towards the statue of Porevit, which was revered in the nearest temple. He was depicted with five heads, but unarmed. Having cut it down, they entered the temple of Porenut. This statue represented four faces, and had a fifth on his chest and touched his forehead with his left hand and his chin with his right hand. With the help of his servants, [the bishop] struck her down with blows from an axe...”
Let us note a few words about the “ugliness of the statue.” It is clear that Saxo Grammaticus was a Christian and therefore everything that was not Christian was ugly to him. However, there were other Christian authors who spoke of the faith of the Slavs with none of the arrogant disgust that plagues most servants of the “all-good” Jehovah. Bishop Otgon of Bamberg, who twice visited the country of the Slavic Pomeranians (in 1124 and 1127) with the aim of converting them to Christianity, was amazed at the splendor of the Slavic churches.
Thus, he describes a building in the city of Shchetin (Szczecin), which “... being the most important, stood out for its decoration and amazing skill; it had sculptural decorations both outside and inside. The images of people, birds and animals were done so naturally that they seemed to live and breathe. And what should be noted as the most rare: the colors of these images, located outside the building, did not darken or were washed away by either rain or snow - the skill of the artists made them that way. Here they bring, according to the long-standing custom of their ancestors, a tenth of the plundered wealth determined by law... Gold and silver vessels and bowls were also kept there... they also kept huge horns of wild bulls, framed in gold and precious stones, in honor of the gods and for the sake of their decoration... suitable for drinking, as well as horns, which were blown, daggers, knives, various precious utensils, rare and beautiful in appearance ... "
Like the temple in Korenitsa, the temple of Sventovid in Arkona was destroyed and robbed. This happened on June 15, 1169 according to Christian chronology, when Waldemar I, king of Denmark, captured Arkona. The statue of Sventovid himself, along with other shrines, was torn, cut and burned with the direct participation of Bishop Abesalon, as reported by Saxo Grammaticus.
By the way, Saxo Grammaticus was in the service of King Valdemar II of Denmark, whose father, Valdemar I, was the great-grandson of the Grand Duke of Kyiv Vladimir Monomakh, after whom he was named. The mother of the latter was the Kyiv princess Ingeborga Mstislavna. Unfortunately, the Slavic blood flowing in the veins of both Valdemars did not prevent them, poisoned by Christianity, from exterminating and conquering the Slavs, destroying their cities and temples. Unfortunately, the Slavic Christian princes Casimir and Boguslav and the Obodrite prince Pribyslav also came out against Arkona, on the side of the Danes.
It was not easy to take the city: the height of the walls with a rampart reached 27 meters, and stone-throwing machines could not overcome them. There was still hope for a long siege and that the defenders would not have enough drinking water. The besieged, confident in their strength, covered the tower above the gate with banners and eagles. Between them was the “Stanitsa” - the military banner of the Ruyans, which the latter revered as the banner of all gods. On June 12, 1168, during another attack, the tower and gates were set on fire; the small amount of water did not allow the fire to be extinguished. Arkona was doomed... Some residents, seeing their doom, threw themselves into the flames, not wanting to be slaves. The king ordered the chair to be taken out and sat down in it to watch what was happening. The Holy City - the last stronghold of the Slavs in the Baltic - fell.
Now nothing prevented the ousting of the Slavs from their ancestral lands and the gradual erasure of the very memory of them. The last woman on Ruyan who spoke Slavic, or rather Wendish, died in 1402. Her last name was Gulitsyna.
As the conqueror and overthrower of pagan idols, the Christian Church used cult objects sacred to the Slavs, embedding them in its buildings. Thus, a stone is built into one of the walls of the church in the village of Altenkirchen on the Wittow Peninsula, which the locals call the Svantevitbild Stone.
On a rectangular stone 1.15 m high, there is an image of a bearded man, dressed in long clothes and holding a vessel in the form of a horn. This gave archaeologists reason to see in the image on the stone the idol of Svantevit or his priest, who was the only one who could touch the horn of Svantevit and predict the future from its contents.
The village of Alt Jabel in Jabelheide also houses a stone known to locals as the "Slavic Sacrificial Cup". This small cup-shaped stone is embedded in the wall of the old Michaeliskirche church to the right of the entrance. There is an ancient legend associated with him, which is still told in Alt Yabel:
“Once upon a time, when Christians were building the first shrines in the land of Jabelheide, a sacrificial bowl fell into the Eldena monastery. The blood of sacrificed people and animals was collected in this cup. It was during these years that the first church was built in the heart of Jabelheide, and on the occasion of its consecration in 1256, the entire Slavic population of the area was convened. In order to prove the power of the Christian religion and overthrow the old gods, the priest, Brother Lienhard, split the cup with a heavy hammer right on the altar, in front of those present. In memory of the event, half of the sacrificial cup was immediately embedded in the ring wall of the church. With this symbolic action, Brother Lienhard hoped to break the reluctance of the Slavs to accept Christianity. The other half was sent to the Eldena monastery in memory of this day and placed on a prayer chair...
That night the priest could not fall asleep for a long time because of some rustling sound. It was midnight when he heard someone's footsteps and angry speech. Illuminated by the moon, a man with a beard in ancient attire entered his chambers. He raised his hand and asked: “Why did you disturb the peace of my tomb and disturb my eternal sleep? You plundered my tomb, took what was donated to me and ordered it to be transferred to your home. Therefore, from now on your house has become my home. For I am older than you and owned this land before you. You Saxons came to the land of my fathers as barbarians and robbers... Are you saying that you are a servant? And I am a free person. My name is Boleslav. My coat of arms is the golden crown of the Slavs on a blue field. All my life, we Slavs have been the masters here.”
So spoke the spirit of the Slav, and then quietly disappeared. The priest left the parish back to Saxony and took with him a fragment of the sacrificial cup. (From the book by Yu. V. Ivanova-Buchatskaya “Symbols of Northern Germany. Slavic-Germanic synthesis between the Elbe and Oder rivers”).
Currently, on the island of Rügen there is the Museum of the Slavic Arkona, in which practically nothing remains of its former splendor and power - only the four-faced wooden Sentovid, which was carved by Polish pagans in the 90s of the last century and brought to the island, sadly looks at the empty green spaces...
The island of Rügen is located on the southern coast of the Baltic (Varangian) Sea. Rügen has been inhabited since approximately 4000 BC. In the 7th century, a powerful Slavic tribe - Ruyans (Rugieris) or Rugi (Rugii), having founded here on the coast of Pomerania, Slavic principality, which became a political and commercial center (Ralwick harbor) of the Varangian Sea on the trade route from Gotland, and a well-fortified religious center on Cape Arkona.
Slavic coastal settlements, located in large numbers on all river trade routes, were of great importance in trade on the Baltic (Varangian) Sea. Many Scandinavian merchants lived permanently in some of the large market centers of the Western Slavs.
Nowadays, large areas of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea belong to Germany, and it stores many Slavic place names - Rostock, Lubeck, Schwerin (Zwerin), Leipzig (Lipsk), Berlin - (“den” - lair of the bear). .
“An island lies on the sea,
There is a city on the island..."
A.S. Pushkin.
An ancient Russian legend about the wondrous island has been preserved: “There on the sea-Okiyan, on the island of Buyan, the white-key stone Alatyr lies... The ancient ancestral tree, vast and powerful, stands, pierces the seven heavens, Iriy props up.”“Iriy is Paradise in the seventh heaven, and alatyr is amber!
On the island of Ruyan, on a high 40-meter cape facing east, archaeologists discovered the temple city-state of the Russians - Arkona - Yarkon - an ardent horse - the sunny white horse of Svyatovit.
Arkona - lies on the top of the high white coast of the island of Rügen, and is washed on three sides by the waters of the Baltic Sea. The ancient settlement-sanctuary of Arkona now occupies an area of 90 meters from east to west, and 160 meters from north to south, although archaeologists suggest that the size of the sanctuary was three times larger.
On the northern slope of the mountain in the Arkona sanctuary there is Holy spring and there is a path leading to it.
“The other island is located opposite Viltsev (Lyutich). They own it wound, the bravest Slavic tribe. ...Rane, others call ruans, are cruel tribes that live in the heart of the sea and are beyond measure devoted to idolatry. They take precedence among all Slavic peoples, have a king and a famous sanctuary. Therefore, thanks to the special veneration of this sanctuary, they enjoy the greatest respect and, putting a yoke on many, they themselves do not experience anyone’s yoke, being inaccessible, because their places are difficult to get to.”- Adam of Bremen, “Acts of the Bishops of the Hamburg Church” (“Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum”)
Archaeological excavations of the Arkona sanctuary were carried out in 1921, 1930, 1969 -1971. In the vicinity of the Arkona settlement there are 14 settlements and a large burial mound resembling burial mounds of northwestern Rus'.
According to archeology, the Rans (Ruyans) had extensive trade ties with Scandinavia and the Baltic states, and also waged wars with their neighbors, defending their territory. Trade in Arkona was carried out from the 8th century to the 10th century.
Archaeologists have discovered two main settlements on the island of Rügen:
(1) The harbor at Ralswick on the island of Rügen was a trading center from the 8th to the 10th centuries. Archaeologists found in the harbor
twenty (20) houses,
with adjacent sections of the Baltic Sea coast, and convenient piers for merchant ships. The inhabitants, Scandinavians and Slavs, were engaged in various crafts and traded with foreign merchants. Outside the city limits on a hill, more than 400 mounds were found, the burial places of the Scandinavians and Slavs were similar.
(2) The Arkona Sanctuary is a pagan temple and fortress of Rugov (Rugieris). The Arkon sanctuary was located on the top of a cape, protected from the sea by a steep cliff, and from the land by a double semi-ring of embankments and ditches with water. The sanctuary was guarded by 300 Rug warriors. In the center of the Arkon sanctuary there was an ancient temple, surrounded by a log palisade with a large gate. Only the high priest of the god Svyatovit could enter the temple. .
Encyclopedic Dictionary of F. A. Brockhaus and I. A. Efron, S.-Pb., Brockhaus-Efron, 1890-1907. “Rugii are a numerous and powerful people, lived in northern Germany, along the seashore, between Oder and Vistula. During the Migration of Nations The Rugians joined the Goths and moved to the region along the middle Danube.
In 1325 The last prince of Ruyan, Wislaw III, died, and the island of Rügen was conquered by the Duke of Pomerania. In 1405, the last inhabitant of the island of Rügen died. spoke Slavic — .
Worship of the pagan god Svyatovit among the people was so strong that the new Christian religion was forced to reckon with it. That is why Christian churches were built on ancient pagan temples, and stones with images of pagan gods were built into the walls of Christian churches. The names of pagan gods were turned into Christian shrines, so the temple pagan Svyatovit was turned into Church of St. Vitus on the island of Rügen.
In the era of the struggle against paganism and planting Christianity in Britain famous bishop with a strange Slavic name Svitun Winchester (St. Swithun of Winchester), died July 2 862 years and buried near the walls of the building Winchester Cathedral.
Testament of St. Swithun (Old English: Swīþhūn = Svidun ) was completed a hundred years later, when Winchester Cathedral was finally completed and July 15, 971 monks moved the remains of St Swithun inside the magnificent new Winchester Cathedral, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Saint Swithun.
According to legend, heavy rain fell during the reburial ceremony of St. Swithun of Winchester, and thereafter heavy rains also fell on each anniversary of the bishop's death. In Britain St. Swithuna Winchester is revered " patron of the weather" - this indicates the connection of the Christian bishop with the ancient pagan traditions, which he took upon himself to attract pagans to the Christian temple. According to ancient folk wisdom, if it rains on St. Swithun’s Day, it will rain for forty days.
The symbols of St. Swithun are apples from trees planted by the bishop. In England they say you shouldn't eat apples before St. Swithun's Day.
In 1005 Bishop Elfeach of Winchester Cathedral(Ælfheah, Anglo-Saxon: "elf-high"; ook Alfegus, Alfege) was elected as the new Archbishop of Canterbury. Leaving from Winchester Cathedral, Bishop Elfeach (c. 953 - April 19, 1012) took with him to Canterbury the holy relic of the cathedral - head of St. Swithun, who died in 863. Bishop Elfeach was killed by Vikings in 1012 u. In the late Saxon period Swithun was credited with strength, healing warriors wounded in battle, cripples and restoring sight to the blind.
Before 1316 Swithun's head was kept in Canterbury, after which traces of the relic are lost. But at the end of the 14th century Swithun's head appears in Normandy in the Cathedral of Evreux, who began to celebrate the feast of St. Swithuna
IN Norway in 1125 The parish Roman Catholic Church of St. Svithun was built near St. Svithun (Norwegian: Sankt Svithun kirke) in Stavanger(Stavanger) and the relics of the saint were kept Swithuna(old English: Swīþhūn = Svidun ) from Winchester. Interesting similarity of names Swīþhūn = Svidun and « Sviðurr ok Sviðrir er ek het at Sökkmímis" - "Svidur and Svidrir I was at Sökkmimir", " Viðurr at vigum" - " Vidur in battles" ("WEDUN"); — from the List in the Elder Edda in one chapter of “The Speech of Grimnir.” Proto-Germanic: * - “vodanaz” or *Wōđinaz - “water naz”; Danish: Woen (WAR), Woden (WODEN); Anglo Saxon: Woensdag = Wednesday, WAR-DAY (Danish: Woen)
Exactly under the banner of Svyatovit wars participated in all battles, God Svyatovit led them into battle, as One god of war , to whom human sacrifices were made of defeated enemies and Christians. A warrior could win favor in battle Odin throwing his spear at your enemies shouting: “One owns all!” (Old Norwegian: Óðinn á yðr alla ).
