The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 02 of 12)

by James George Frazer

[1202]. J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, 4th ed., i. 142 sq.; L. Leger, La Mythologie slave (Paris, 1901), pp. 54-76.

[1203]. L. Leger, op. cit. pp. 57 sq., translating Guagnini’s Sarmatiae Europaeae descriptio (1578). The passage is quoted in the original by Chr. Hartknoch (Alt- und neues Preussen, Frankfort and Leipsic, 1684, p. 132), who rightly assigns the work to Strykowski, not Guagnini. See W. Mannhardt, in Magazin herausgegeben von der Lettisch-Literarischen Gesellschaft, xiv. (1868) pp. 105 sq.

[1204]. Procopius, De bello Gothico, iii. 14 (vol. ii. p. 357, ed. J. Haury).

[1205]. Matthias Michov, “De Sarmatia Asiana atque Europea,” in Simon Grynaeus’s Novus Orbis regionum ac insularum veteribus incognitarum (Paris, 1532), p. 457; id., in J. Pistorius’s Polonicae historiae corpus (Bâle, 1582), i. 144; Martin Cromer, De origine et rebus gestis Polonorum (Bâle, 1568), p. 241; J. Maeletius (Menecius, Ian Malecki), “De sacrificiis et idolatria veterum Borussorum, Livonum, aliarumque vicinarum gentium,” Scriptores rerum Livonicarum, ii. (Riga and Leipsic, 1848) p. 390; id., in Mitteilungen der Litterarischen Gesellschaft Masovia, Heft 8 (Lötzen, 1902), p. 187; Chr. Hartknoch, Alt- und neues Preussen (Frankfort and Leipsic, 1684), pp. 131 sqq.; S. Rostowski, quoted by A. Brückner, Archiv für slavische Philologie, ix. (1886) pp. 32, 35; M. Töppen, Geschichte der preussischen Historiographie (Berlin, 1853), p. 190 (“Perkunos ist in allen andern Ueberlieferungen so gross und hehr, wie nur immer der griechische und römische Donnergott, und kein anderer der Götter darf sich ihm gleich stellen. Er ist der Hauptgott, wie nach andern Berichten in Preussen, so auch in Litthauen und Livland”); Schleicher, “Lituanica,” Sitzungsberichte der philosoph.-histor. Classe d. kais. Akademie d. Wissen. (Vienna), xi. (1853 pub. 1854) p. 96; H. Usener, Götternamen (Bonn, 1896), p. 97.

[1206]. M. Praetorius, Deliciae Prussicae (Berlin, 1871), pp. 19 sq.; S. Rostowski, op. cit. pp. 34, 35. On the sacred oaks of the Lithuanians see Chr. Hartknoch, op. cit. pp. 117 sqq.; Tettau und Temme, Volkssagen Ostpreussens, Litthauens und Westpreussens, pp. 19-22, 35-38.

[1207]. M. Praetorius, l.c.; S. Grunau, Preussische Chronik, ed. M. Perlbach, i. (Leipsic, 1876) p. 78 (ii. tract. cap. v. § 2). The chronicler, Simon Grunau, lived as an itinerant Dominican friar at the beginning of the sixteenth century in the part of Prussia which had been ceded to Poland. He brought his history, composed in somewhat rustic German, down to 1529. His familiar intercourse with the lowest classes of the people enabled him to learn much as to their old heathen customs and superstitions; but his good faith has been doubted or denied. In particular, his description of the images of the three gods in the great oak at Romove has been regarded with suspicion or denounced as a figment. See Chr. Hartknoch, op. cit. pp. 127 sqq.; M. Toeppen, op. cit. pp. 122 sqq., 190 sqq.; M. Perlbach’s preface to his edition of Grunau; H. Usener, Götternamen, p. 83. But his account of the sanctity of the oak, and of the perpetual sacred fire of oak-wood, may be accepted, since it is confirmed by other authorities. Thus, according to Malecki, a perpetual fire was kept up by a priest in honour of Perkunas (Pargnus) on the top of a mountain, which stood beside the river Neuuassa (Niewiaza, a tributary of the Niemen). See Malecki (Maeletius, Menecius), op. cit., Scriptores rerum Livonicarum, ii. 391; id., Mitteilungen der Litterarischen Gesellschaft Masovia, Heft 8 (Lötzen, 1902), p. 187. Again, the Jesuit S. Rostowski says that the Lithuanians maintained a perpetual sacred fire in honour of Perkunas in the woods (quoted by A. Brückner, Archiv für slavische Philologie, ix. (1886) p. 33). Malecki and Rostowski do not mention that the fire was kindled with oak-wood, but this is expressly stated by M. Praetorius, and is, besides, intrinsically probable, since the oak was sacred to Perkunas. Moreover, the early historian, Peter of Dusburg, who dedicated his chronicle of Prussia to the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights in 1326, informs us that the high-priest of the nation, whom the Prussians revered as a pope, kept up a perpetual fire at Romow, which is doubtless the same with the Romowo or Romewo of Grunau (Preussische Chronik, pp. 80, 81, compare p. 62, ed. M. Perlbach). See P. de Dusburg, Chronicon Prussiae, ed. Chr. Hartknoch (Frankfort and Leipsic, 1679), p. 79. Martin Cromer says that the Lithuanians “worshipped fire as a god, and kept it perpetually burning in the more frequented places and towns” (De origine et rebus gestis Polonorum, Bâle, 1568, p. 241). Romow or Romowo is more commonly known as Romove. Its site is very uncertain. See Chr. Hartknoch, Alt- und neues Preussen, pp. 122 sqq. Grunau’s account of Romove and its sacred oak, with the images of the three gods in it and the fire of oak-wood burning before it, is substantially repeated by Alex. Guagnini. See J. Pistorius, Polonicae historiae corpus (Bâle, 1582), i. 52; Respublica sive status regni Poloniae, Lituaniae, Prussiae, Livoniae, etc. (Leyden, 1627), pp. 321 sq. I do not know whether the chronicler, Simon Grunau, is the same with Simon Grynaeus, editor of the Novus Orbis regionum ac insularum veteribus incognitarum, which was published at Paris in 1532.

[1208]. S. Rostowski, op. cit. p. 35.

[1209]. D. Fabricius, “De cultu, religione et moribus incolarum Livoniae,” Scriptores rerum Livonicarum, ii. 441. Malecki (Maeletius) also says that Perkunas was prayed to for rain. See Mitteilungen der Litterarischen Gesellschaft Masovia, Heft 8 (Lötzen, 1902), p. 201.

[1210]. According to Prof. H. Hirt, the name Perkunas means “the oak-god,” being derived from the same root querq, which appears in the Latin quercus “oak,” the Hercynian forest, the Norse god and goddess Fjörygn, and the Indian Parjanya, the Vedic god of thunder and rain. See H. Hirt, “Die Urheimat der Indogermanen,” Indogermanische Forschungen, i. (1892) pp. 479 sqq.; id., Die Indogermanen (Strasburg, 1905-1907), ii. 507; P. Kretschmer, Einleitung in die Geschichte der griechischen Sprache, pp. 81 sq. The identity of the names Perkunas and Parjanya had been maintained long before by G. Bühler, though he did not connect the words with quercus. See his article, “On the Hindu god Parjanya,” Transactions of the (London) Philological Society, 1859, pp. 154-168. As to Parjanya, see below, pp. [368] sq.

[1211]. Fr. Kreutzwald und H. Neus, Mythische und magische Lieder der Ehsten (St. Petersburg, 1854), pp. 16, 26, 27, 56, 57, 104; F. J. Wiedemann, Aus dem inneren und äusseren Leben der Ehsten, pp. 427, 438. Sometimes, however, a special thunder-god Kou, Koo, Piker or Pikne is distinguished from Taara (Tar). See F. J. Wiedemann, op. cit. p. 427; Kreutzwald und Neus, op. cit. pp. 12 sq.