The West Slavic Baltic tribes (Vendians), settled between the Elbe (Laba), Oder (Odra) and the Vistula, reached high development by the 9th-10th centuries AD, having built the sacred city of Arkona temples on the Rane (Rügen) island, which served for all 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 the Babylonian Chaldeans) and not a single serious military-political issue was resolved by other Slavic tribes without advice with wounds.
The wounds (ruans) owned the runic writing of the Vendian tradition, the graphics of which differed markedly from the known older and younger runes (probably the term wounds itself came from the Slavic wound, that is, carve runes on wooden tablets). The construction of the city of temples and the rise of the pagan culture of the Vendian ethnos was a response measure of the Slavic priestly elite for the ideological rallying of the Baltic Slavs against the intensified expansion of first Frankish, and then German and Danish aggressors, who under the banner of Christianization carried out systematic genocide of the Slavic population and expulsion from the occupied territories. By the XIII-XIV 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 ethnos ceased to exist.
Let us give information from Western chroniclers (Adam of Bremen, Otgon of Bamberg, Titmar of Merseburg) about the paganism of the Baltic Slavs.
Arkona was built on the high rocky coast of the island of Rügen and was inaccessible from the Baltic Sea. There were many temples of all the tribal Slavic gods in the city. 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 bobbed hair and shaved beards. The four heads, apparently, symbolized the power of God over the four cardinal points (like 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 different metals and filled with wine every year, the left hand was bent in an arc and rested against the side. The horn symbolized the power of God over productivity and fertility,that is, as a god of life 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). The sacred banner of Svyatovit, called stanitsa, stood in the temple. This village of wounds was honored as Svyatovit himself and carrying it in front of them in 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).
Resettlement of the Western Slavs by the end of the 1st millennium AD A. Belov's map. Above - plan of the sacred city of Arkona, reconstruction of the temple of Svyatovit.
After harvesting the bread, many people flocked to Arkona and a lot of wine was brought for the sacrifices and the feast. Apparently this happened in September, in Slavic - Ruyen, hence the second name of the island Ruyan. On the eve of the holiday, the priest Svyatovit with a broom in his hands entered the inner sanctuary and, holding his breath, so as not to defile the deity, cleanly swept the floor. The broom and sweeping symbolically mean the end of the time cycle, in this case the annual one, because the next day fortune-telling is carried out by pie, similar to the East Slavic Christmas carol.
This means that the priests of paradise used the September style of time reckoning (the year began with the autumn equinox). The next day, in the presence of all the people, the priest took out the horn of wine from the hands of the idol of Svyatovit and, having carefully examined it, predicted: whether or not there will be a harvest for the next year. Having poured out the old wine at the feet of the idol, the priest filled the horn with new wine and drained it in one breath, asking all kinds of blessings for himself and the people. Then he again poured the horn with new wine and placed it in the hand of the image. After that, they brought the idol a cake of sweet pastry taller than a human being. The priest hid behind a pie and asked the people if they could see him. When they answered that only the cake was visible, the priest asked God that they could make the same cake 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 an abundance of fruit as a reward, victory at sea and on land. Then everyone drank and ate to the bone, for abstinence was taken as an offense to the deity.
Arkona was also visited for divination. The sacred horse Svyatovit, white with a long mane and tail, which had never been trimmed, was kept at the temple.
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Only the priest of Svyatovit could feed and mount this horse, on which, according to the belief of the wounds, Svyatovit himself fought against his enemies. It was through this horse that they wondered before the start of the war. The ministers stuck three pairs of spears in front of the temple at a certain distance from each other, to each pair a third spear was tied across. The priest, having uttered a solemn prayer, led the horse by the bridle from the entrance of the temple and led 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 first stepped with his left foot, then the campaign was canceled. Three pairs of copies possibly symbolically reflected the will of the gods of heaven, earth and underground (3 kingdoms according to Russian fairy tales) during divination.
Thus, the main symbol-oracle of the Arkonian cult was the war heroic horse of Svyatovit of the white suit - "yar horse", from which the name of the sacred city "Ar-kona", that is, the ardent horse or the city of the ardent horse, probably originated.
In addition to the functions of an oracle-diviner, Svyatovit's horse also played the role of a biological indicator of the state of the life force phase at a given time. If the horse was lathered, with tangled and disheveled hair, then the life force phase was considered negative (depressive) and the planned campaign was canceled. If the horse was in excellent physical condition (passionate), then the planned campaign was blessed.
Unfortunately, literary sources do not give an unambiguous answer on the method of this fortune-telling: according to some, the horse is in the temple all night before the fortune-telling, according to others, the priest (or Svyatovit himself) rides on it all night.
The Arkon temple became the main sanctuary of Slavic Pomorie, the focus of Slavic paganism. According to the general conviction of the Baltic Slavs, the Arkonian god gave the most famous victories, the most accurate divinations. Therefore, for sacrifices and for fortune telling, Slavs flocked here from all sides of Pomorie. From everywhere, gifts were delivered to him according to the vows of not only private individuals, but also entire tribes. Each tribe sent him an annual sacrifice tribute. The temple had vast estates that gave him income, in favor of him taxes were collected from merchants who traded in Arkona, from industrialists who fished herring off the island of Rügen. A third of the war booty was brought to him, all the jewels, gold, silver and pearls obtained in the war. Therefore, there were chests filled with jewels 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 participated in campaigns, withdrawing a third of the loot in favor of the temple.
The phenomenon of the Arkonian 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 Arkonian shrine was involuntarily transferred to the wounds that stood so close to this shrine.
Adam Bremensky wrote that the Baltic Slavs have a law: in general affairs, nothing to decide and not to undertake contrary to the opinion of the paradise people, to such an extent they were afraid of wounds for their connection with the gods.
Shrines similar to those of Arkon also existed in Shchetin, where the idol of Triglav stood, in Volegoshche, where the idol of Yarovit stood, and in other cities. The Triglav sanctuary was located on the highest of the three hills on which the city of Szhetin was located. The walls of the sanctuary were covered inside and outside with colored carvings depicting people and animals. The three-headed statue of the god was removed with gold. The priests argued that the three chapters are a symbol of the power of God over the three kingdoms - heaven, earth and hell. In the temple were laid up weapons obtained in wars, and a tenth of the spoils prescribed by law, taken in battles at sea and on land. There were also kept gold and silver bowls, which were taken out only on holidays, from which nobles and noble people drank and divined, horns gilded and decorated with expensive stones, swords, knives and various objects of worship.
There was also a holy horse dedicated to Triglav in Shchetin. Nobody 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 Radigoszcz in the land of the ratars. According to the description of Titmar of Merseburg, the city lay among a large forest on the shore of Lake Dolen. 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 the gods, dressed in helmets and shells, and the first place among them was occupied by the idol of Svarozhich, revered by all Slavs.
The temple of Ruevita or Yarovita in Volegoshche (the city of the god Veles) in Pomorie was also a prominent sanctuary. The meaning of this god is clearly determined by the words that, according to the story of the life of Saint Otgon Bambergs, pronounced on behalf of God by his priest: “I am your god, I am the one who dresses the fields with bread and forests with leaves, fruits of the fields and gardens. The fruits of the living and everything that serves the benefit of man is 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 life force both in days of the week and in seven-day segments, starting from the day of the autumn equinox (Ryuen). According to the ancients, every day of the week has its own emotional and physiological coloring and characteristics (its own sword and its own face). The countdown of the biorhythms of life force begins from the moment a person is born, according to a woman's account from left to right in seven-day weeks and ends with death - a sword in his right hand and a skull (symbols of death).
In the East Slavic tradition, such functions are performed by Veles, the god of underground (chthonic) life force.
A shield was dedicated to the idol of Ruevita, to which no one dared to touch and which was taken out of the temple only during the war, and the people either left or fell prostrate to the ground. The removal of the shield from the temple (tantamount to the opening of the temple gate) conventionally meant the opening of the earth and the emission of fertile vital forces by it, contributing to the victory over enemies (the shield is a conventional symbol of the earth).
The idol of Ruevita, together with the idols of Porevita and Porenut, stood in the princely residence of Karentia's Rani. According to the news of the life of Saint Otgon, the same god under the name of Yarovit (Gerovit) was honored by the Gavolians, celebrating a special holiday in honor of him. According to Titmar 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 invigorating and Pomor princes (their vassals) finally conquered the island of Rügen, which was a stronghold of Slavic paganism and sea robberies. All pagan temples and shrines were destroyed.
The West Slavic Arkonian cult of Svyatovit, during the conquest of the East Slavic lands by the Baltic knights, received a new name - the cult of Perun or, in the common people, Belobog. The princely squad, as the main bearer of the druzhina-princely cult of Perun, received the caste name rus (rus - light brown, light, white - after the color of the caste god of war Perun-Belobog, who was also the cosmic god of the light part of the day). The lands controlled by the princely squad, collecting rent or tribute from the population of these lands, were called the 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, hunting, obtaining furs and honey, the main peasant caste god was Veles (Chernobog) - the patron saint of agricultural work, cattle breeding and fertility, and there was a separate caste of magi-priests.
Belobog (Perun) was familiar to the Eastern Slavs, but in comparison with Veles, he performed secondary functions as a giver of thunder and rain, 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 neighbors, which is why they received the chronicle name Varangians-Rus, the Eastern Slavs, due to their peasant way of life, were less in need of the god of war.
When the Baltic Slavic princes conquered the East Slavic lands, the caste-squad god of war Perun-Belobog was proclaimed dominant, and the peasant Veles-Chernobog was of secondary importance, which was recorded in the texts of treaties between the Russian princes and the Greeks: god."
Before, 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 God-Veles was revered higher in the peasant environment for his functions as a god of fertility and vitality.
We observe the same thing in the Christian era: the peasant Nikola-Ugodnik (deputy Veles) is revered higher than Ilya the Prophet (deputy of Perun the Thunderer).
In connection with the above, we will try to clarify the origin of the term "Belaya Rus", primarily associated with the emergence of the Polotsk principality and the advancement of the Arkonian cult of Svyatovit into its territory. In the Russian chronicle under the year 980 there is an entry: “Bebo Rogovolod came to death and to have power in Polotsts. And if you are with him, you’re going to be Tur, and you’re in Turov, and you’re nicknamed Turovtsi”.
Approximately to the same period, the conquest of the Slavic lands by the German knights under Henry I and Otgon I (919-973) belongs. The Polabian and Baltic Slavic lands were divided into 18 German margraves with ecclesiastical subordination to the Bishop of Magdeburg. NM Karamzin mentions the consanguineous relations 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 the fertility horn in his hand).
Thus, it can be assumed that the emergence of the term "White Russia" is associated with the displacement of the Slavic Pomor 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 in the Ternopil region.
The advancement of the Arkonian cult to the East Slavic lands can be traced in a number of characters and plots of East Slavic folklore:
- a war heroic horse of white suit in epics and fairy tales, bringing luck and victory to its owner and at the same time possessing the properties of an oracle-diviner;
- the heroic "sword-kladenets" mentioned in fairy tales;
- a magic bridle (horse Svyatovit), which has the properties of keeping evil spirits;
- a horseshoe (a conventional symbol of the horse Svyatovit), nailed to the door "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 rite of Kolyada;
- Christmas-time fortune-telling of rural girls about the forthcoming 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 horse.
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 Pomor Triglav (three cups of green wine).
In conclusion, we draw the main conclusion that the origins of the Russian pagan pre-Christian culture go back to the Arkonian sanctuary of the island of Rügen, which in all Russian conspiracies is called the island of Buyan.