•   Triglav
•   Svetovit

•   Triglav (Trihead, Trinity) - a new addition has been added by Igor Pirnovar

English:   http://sloveneti.tripod.com/veg/e/Ven/triglav_e.html
Slovene: http://sloveneti.tripod.com/veg/s/Ven/triglav_s.html


The Vends and the Slavs
The collapse of the Slav theory (ideology)
Triglav and Svetovit

Dr. Jožko Šavli, FAS, KdB, FSAI
Fellow of the Augustan Society
Knight de Bryan
Fellow of Sodality of the Ark International
    
A nation, in sense of the national model of the 19th century, is still today stamped with an identification mark of a linguistic group. But such conception is definitely not true. For example, English speaking Americans, English/French speaking Canadians or Spanish speaking Mexicans... or even the four languages speaking Swiss, etc., each one of them must be defined as a nation. And it was not any different in historic and in pre-historic times.

Such a question must also be connected with the origin of the so-called Slavs. They are only a linguistic "national" group, and certainly not an ethnical one. However, in sense of the 19th century conception, they were considered to be descendants of the "Ancient Slavs", like the Germans from the Ancient Germans. The ethnical group of "Ancient Slavs" was purely an academic construction. An easy demonstrable error, for they did never exist.

Despite the fact, that the existence of the Slavs was only a matter of ideology and "national" pride, the pan-Slav movement needed a "historical" clue to confront the German nationalism. The latter propagated that the "Slavs" are inferior people from an historical point of view, and that only German expansionism into Slav territories could bring them social and cultural progress. Among the Slavs this propaganda triggered off the wide spread motto "Long live the Slavs" (ein Hoch den Slaven), an invention that provided a so-called common original homeland for the "Ancient Slavs". And this homeland could only be found in the territory of the greatest Slav nation, in Russia. So, the "Ancient Slavs" were collocated in the area behind the Carpathians. But this had never been proven! Nevertheless, such an idea about Slavs was introduced into scholastic systems and spread world-wide.

Regardless of all this, the very truth concerning the Slavs is the very contrary. Historical records from the Roman period show, that only the Sarmatians are known in the area behind the Carpathians. North of them the Finnic groups were spread. These people were still nomads and hunters. In the territory of the Oder River and the Vistula Basins, the Roman records already quote the settlement of the Venethi (Vends).  Surprisingly, at one-time the Lusatian Culture was spread in this area (1500 - 1100 BC), which was the cradle of the ancient Vends or Veneti (Wenden).

Tacitus (ca. 56 - 117 AD) in his description of north-eastern Europe, he makes mentioning of Germans, Venethi, Peucini or Bastarni, Sarmati and Fenni. He is describing the Sarmati as nomads, and the Fenni as gatherers and hunters. The Peucini could only have been the Balts, although he presents them as a mixed group, which is very probable an error on part of his informers.

Further, Tacitus comments: Venethi... nam quidquid  inter Peucinos Fennosque silvarum ac montium erigitur latrociniis pererrant; hi tamen inter Germanos potius referuntur, quia et domos figunt et scuta gestant et peditum usu ac pernicitate gaudent... (Germania, 46). Translation: Vends... they are making raids through the woodland and mountain areas which arises between the countries of the Peucini and that of the Fenni, and they (Vends) are rather to compare with the Germans, for they got stable dwellings, they handle the swords and have a skilled and rapid infantry...

Therefore I suppose, it must have been during the early Roman era, when a part of the Venethi (Vends) migrated towards East. They kept their original name Slovieni (Sloveni, Slovenci, Slovinci), and settled in the area of the present-day Sankt Petersburg (Pskov, Novgorod). Nestor is still recording them at the beginning of the 12th century. I infer from these and other facts, that the Venedic agriculture together with their language very quickly spread among the autochthon groups of nomads, gatherers and hunters there. In this way the so-called Eastern Slavs were born. Their social structure became that of the Vends, and they were organised in village communities. Their ethnical feature, however, remained for the most part in its originality. For example, they continued to worship the (Finnic) birch-tree. The rivers conserved Finnic names like Moskva, Oka, Kama etc. In their mythology, the highest God was Perun, who is identical with Perkunas, God of the Balts, and so on. In short, in an independent science study the distinction between the groups of Vends and Slavs (Eastern Slavs) clearly comes to the surface now.


A reconstruction of the settlement and citadel of the 7th/8th century AD, the fundaments of which were unearthed in Tornow, Kreis Calau (Lusatia). The very ancient division of the field of the individual farms and families, which is here evident, was characteristic for the Vendic village (vas) and its social and economical system. At that time the basis of the German social structure was the Clan (Sippe), and that of the Southern Slavs the Zadruga (great family) which continued to exist until 20th century.

But the original Vendic territory also experienced immigrations, namely those of the Celts. On the European continent the Celts spoke a language very close to that of the Vends, although they were ethnical seen a diverse people. Their social organisation was the clan (Sippe, in German), and their tree of life was the oak. The Celtic groups, because of their very similar language, disintegrated with the Vendic people in no time. Their influence can be seen only in some particularities, for example: Bohemia got its name from the Celtic people of Boji (pronounce: boyi). In the area of Salzburg, Vienna, Bratislava, Prague, and also in southern Poland, archaeologists discovered many typical Celtic tombs. Another example is the oak tree, which can be found in Polish traditions. The non-palatalised sound k of the Celtic languages appears in Polish, whereas the Vendic tongue had this sound already palatalised in c (ts), for example: kwiet - cvet (blossom). And so on.

In a short article like this one, I cannot render many examples of the above exposed extensive problem. In comparing the differences between the Vends (Western Slavs) and the Slavs (Eastern Slavs), I only wish to present two typical figures from Vendic mythology: God Triglav (the three-headed) and God Svetovit (the world-showing). Those and other deities do not appear in the mythology of Eastern Slavs (meaning Russians) and of Southern Slavs (Illyrians, Thracians), even though scientists are presenting to us a unique Slav mythology.  Among the latter, the word Triglav was only used to describe a mountain range. - Further on, nationalistic German research workers like Schneeweiss (1935), Wienecke (1940), Kirfel (1948) and others, refused to accept that the Vends and Slavs made contributions to any higher cult and ascribed them as demonology only.

With respect to the subject "Slavs are competing for their so-called national pride", lots of propaganda about national romanticism, scientific and ideological falsifications were published, and they are still in circulation. They are not exactly lies, but half-truth and half-lie disguised with academic titles given by their authors. Therefore it is not easy to filter the truth from lies.  I wish to stress the point that a (common) mythology shared by all "Slavs" did not exist. This applies also to the fact, that the Slavs were never descendants of the (none existing)  "Ancient Slavs" who at one-time should have lived and danced behind the Carpathians.
  
Triglav

At the beginning of the 12th century AD the Vendic people in Brandenburg and Pomerania were still of pagan belief. At that time, their biggest centre was Štetin (Stettin, Szcsecin) which is set on the mouth of the Oder River at the Baltic Sea. It is also today an important port, which belonged to Germany before WW2, but today it is Polish.

We have the records from the chroniclers Ebbo (ca. 1155) and Monacus Prieflingensis (ca. 1160), who under the same title  "Vita Ottonis episcopi bambergensis" report that in Štetin there was to be found, at that time, four pagan temples, and that the most important of them was dedicated to the god Triglav.  His temple was high on a hill. Its walls were adorned inside and outside with human and animal shapes, painted with indelible colours. In the temple was kept a treasure of gold and argent cups, musical instruments, and decorated horns destined for libations.

The God Triglav simulacrum had three golden heads. A veil covered his eyes and mouth. The priests said that if he did not see and speak, he nearly would simulate to ignore the human sins. The three heads represented his three dominations: heaven, earth, and underworld. His temple was encircled by a sacred hurst and grassland, in which a black horse pastured. The horse was used for presages. This happened in such a manner: the horse was led through nine lances, fixed in the soil; if he did not touch one, the presage was favourable, and vice versa.

In 1127, Bishop Otto of Bamberg, the apostle of Pomerania, let destroy the Triglav simulacrum, and one of the heads was sent to the Pope in Rome. But another similar statue, situated on the nearby isle of Wollin, was saved, because the Vendic priests were hiding it.
The three-faced sink unearthed at the Magdalensberg (Šentlenska gora) in Carinthia, Roman period. It is very probable that it referred to the worshipping of the three-headed deity of Triglav.

Back in history of Carantania (Slovenia), the worshipping of Triglav had already been testified during the Roman period, when the province of Noricum still flourished in this territory. On the one-time sacred mountain called today Magdalensberg (Šentlenska gora) in today's Carinthia, a three-faced sink had been unearthed, and a three-faced beaker was found in the nearby field of Svatne (Zollfeld). Because the Christianization of Slovenians dates back to the 8th century AD, only very few traces of worshipping former pagan deities have been preserved.

Mt. Triglav (2864 m) in Slovenia.  It is called "three-headed" but it does not have three heads (summits). The name refers to the deity of the universe, which was first represented by a great mountain.

However, the highest mountain in today's Slovenia, Mt.Triglav (1864 m), was very probable named after the one-time three-headed god as described above by the chroniclers Ebbo (ca. 1155) and Monacus Prieflingensis. This mountain does definitely not have three peaks (heads); therefore its name is certainly not a geographical, but only a mythological one. Such a statement was made already in A. T. Linhart's historical book (1791), in which he ascribed to Triglav three dominions: the atmosphere, the earth and the water.
  
Svetovit

The Svetovit temple in Arcona on the island of Rügen or Rujana, in the Baltic Sea (reconstruction). The temple was destroyed by the Danish king Valdemar, in 1168 AD.

On the vast island called Rujana in the Baltic Sea, today Rügen, there used to be on the site of Arcona a temple consecrated to god Svetovit (Svantevit, Sventovit). The chronicler Saxo Grammaticus described him in his "Gesta Danorum"  (ca. 1190/1216) as a god of four heads. He was four-faced, as one can see on his other idols, preserved until today. The chronicler substantiated many facts, which reflect the role of this deity in the creed of the Vendic people in Rujana. In short, his relation to the people is as follows:

The simulacrum of god Svetovit kept in his right hand a horn and in his left an arch. Once a year, after the crop, a holiday was celebrated in his honour. Whereas the people were waiting before the temple, the priest took from the simulacra the horn, which each year was filled to the top with wine. When a drop of wine was lost, a bad crop was predicted for the next year. Therefore, the priest ordered his people to conserve any disposable grain. If the horn seemed to remain full, a good crop was announced...

The attributes of the god were a saddle, a bit and a magic sword. The temple of Arcona was built of wood and it was painted variously. Two fences encircled it. A white horse was dedicated to him, who could have been mounted or led to pasture by the temple priest only. The horse was also used for presages. When the people wanted to know the oracle concerning the next war, pales in three rows and in equal interwalls were set up before the temple. Then, after the prayers, the horse was led through the rows. If it began to step forward with the right foot, the prediction was propicious. When it only one-time made a step with the left foot, the prediction was inauspicious....

The Svetovit statue of Husiatyn (Zbrucs) close to Krakow in Poland as it was put once before the sconce. He was a fourheaded god. Each head faced a different direction. Svetovit's four heads were believed to oversee the universe from all directions, so that he would not miss anything.

The temple of Svetovit in Arcona was destroyed by the Danish king Valdemar, in 1168 AD.  But the worshipping of this god was spread into the much larger Vendic territory of that time. Proof of this is his magnificent statue found in Husiatyn (Zbrucs) near Krakow.


A wooden figure in miniature that represents Sventovit with four faces, 9th century, Poland

In the Roman period, the Greek writer Strabon (68 - 20 BC) reported that at the outspring of the Timava River east of Aquileia, there was the temple of Diomed at that time, and that the Vends (Veneti) of that area sacrificed a white horse to him each year. It is very possible that Diomed was only the Greek interpretation of Svetovit. The Adriatic Vends called him Belin (bel - white, clear).

The symbolic colours of the sacred horses are very probably designed to demonstrate Triglav as the god of the universe and Svetovit as the god of the light and sun. They might have become the later mentioned Belobog and Cernobog (the white and the black god) of Lusatia. The "black" remained for the unknown universe, the "white" for the concrete life on earth.

The god Svarog/Svarozic is a unique deity, who is to be found among the Vends and also among the Slavs (Eastern Slavs). Only Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg († 1018) mentioned him. In relation to his chronic, this god was worshipped in the town of Rethre or Riedegost, in the country of Redari (Mecklemburg-Strelitz). Several research workers insist that he did not pertain to the original phanthom of the Vends (Western Slavs). The well-known philologist Jagic (Vienna, 19th/20th century) considered him a result of very intensive commercial relations with Eastern Europe in that period.