⸙ Easteuropa | History, Folklore & Nature 𖠰

A Cervus nippon after a maple leaf on the Kremenez Mountains, region of Tarnopol (Ukrainian Galicia). Did you know? 🌟he Russian word оlenь (from the Proto-Slavic *eleňь — 'deer' 🦌) and *Elhaz (ᛉ) are cognates. Both ultimately derive from the common Proto-Indo-European root *h₁el-(h₁)en-, meaning 'deer / elk'. @easterneuropa

A Gonipterus specimen from Galicia (Iberia). Non-native to Europe. On the two Galicias 🌟he name of the Iberian Galicia derives from the Latin word Gallaecia, which the Romans used to describe the territory of an ancient supposedly Celtic-speaking tribe known as the Gallaecians, who lived north of the Douro River. In western Ruthenia, the homonymous region of Galicia is found. The latter's name is derived from the medieval city of Galitz, the first capital of the historical Galician principality. The most common local tradition links the name to the Ukrainian word halka (derived from the Proto-Slavic *galъka), which means 'female crow' (or jackdaw). This is reflected in the crow depicted on the historical coat of arms of the city. Some curious toponyms are found in the Iberian Galicia, such as Beariz (historically documented as Viarici in 1034, and Veariz in 1220). The Basque city of Biarritz, which shares the same linguistical root of Beariz, is found as well. In Pomerania, on Rugia, a hill named Waritz occurs. Other interesting names appear in Vasconia, such as the settlements of Gorozin (historically documented as Grocin), Eslava (from the Spanish word for 'Slavic'), and Liedena (historically documented as Ledena; countless Slavic place names with the prefix Leden- are found, deriving from the Slavic word for 'icy', or 'ice-cold'). @easterneuropa

A brown bear (Ursus arctos) skull illustrated in the «Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary» (1890—1907). On the Sacred Bear of Jaroslaw 🍎 🌟ccording to a late tradition, first recorded in the eighteenth century, the city of Jaroslau was founded in 1010 upon the site of a sanctuary dedicated to the god Wolos, known as the Bear's Corner, whose priests were said to have maintained a sacred ursid. According to the legend, Jaroslaw the Wise, Grand Prince of Kiew, slew the bear and dispersed the heathen priests, thereby establishing the city. In the legend, memories of Slavic heathenry — most notably the oath sworn before the god Wolosъ — are intertwined with the local customs of the Wolga Finnic peoples, including sacrifices performed in the sacred grove. Within the legend, it is impossible to distinguish the Slavic elements from the Finnic ones, especially since the beliefs of these neighbouring peoples shared many similarities. Indeed, among the Slavic peoples, the cult of the cattle god was closely associated with the cult of the bear, for the beast was both a menace to the livestock and a symbol of fertility. It is certain that bears held a significant ritual and symbolic role among the ancient populations of the region. Evidence of bear-related practices and symbolism has been recorded among the bearers of the Wolossow and Fatianow cultures, as well as among the medieval inhabitants of the area, demonstrated by the predominance of bear-tooth pendants and bear claws amid the archaeological finds. @easterneuropa

An elk at the Imperial Route, Bober National Park (Lower Silesia), Poland. On the Mysterious Elk Gods 🦌 [Tacitus, Ger., 43]

Among these last is shown a grove of immemorial sanctity. A priest in female attire has the charge of it, but the deities are described in the Roman language as Castor and Pollux. Such, indeed, are the attributes of the divinity, the name being Alcis. They have no images, or, indeed, any vestige of foreign superstition, but it is as brothers and as youths that the deities are venerated.

In this passage, Tacitus describes the veneration of two gods, whom he calls the Alcis, among the Naharvalians (Naharvali follows a typical Balto-Slavic morphological formation, comparable to hydronyms such as the Narew River, and the toponym Narwa). He identifies the Naharvalians as a subgroup of the Lugians (the presence of the element lug- in the name is immediately apparent), whom he seems to locate in Silesia. The source of Tacitus' information about the Alcis remains unclear. Since the Naharvalians lived far from the Rhineland, Tacitus must have learned of these deities through a secondary source. Earlier scholarship identified the sacred grove with the Mount Slensia, in Central Silesia. Ancient traces of cultic practices have indeed been found on the mountain, but they date to the Bronze Age, or to the early Iron Age. The Alcis are generally regarded in the scholarly tradition as a reflex of the Divine Twins. In the Balto-Slavic realm, several comparable deities are found, such as the Lithuanian Aschwieniai (a direct cognate of the Vedic Aschwins), identical to the Lettish Diewa Deli ('Sons of Diews'); on Rugia, the deities Porewit (a less common reading of the deity's name is Borowit, possibly connected with the Slavic element bor-, 'forest') and Porenut, who are understood to have been twin deities. @easterneuropa

Flowering great mullein (Verbascum thapsus; Polish: 'Dziewanna drobnokwiatowa') in the Botanical Garden of the University of Wratislaw. On Ta(n)fana & Dewana [Tacitus, Ger., I. 51]

Caesar divided his eager legions into four wedges, in order to spread a wider devastation; he laid waste a space of fifty miles with fire and sword. Neither sex nor age brought pity: sacred and profane alike, and the temple most renowned among those tribes, which they called Tanfana, were rased to the ground.

[J. Dlugoss, Annals, Book I]

And since the Lechitic state happened to be founded in an area containing vast forests and groves, that the ancient people believed to be inhabited by Diana, and that Diana claimed power over them, Ceres, on the other hand, was considered the mother and goddess of the harvests the country needed, [therefore] these two goddesses: Diana, in their language called Dziewanna [Dewana], and Ceres, called Marzanna, enjoyed a special cult and devotion.

@easterneuropa

Etymology: the Latin word ūrus is a direct borrowing from the Proto-Teutonic *ūruz (ᚢ), ultimately derived from the PIE root *ūsr- / *(H)us-r-(en-) ('aurochs, wild bull'). In Latin, the noun taurus ('bull') is also cognate with the Balto-Slavic terms for the aurochs. @paleoitalia

Flammulina velutipes growing in the Elk Island National Park, region of Moscow. On the Rhenish Moscow 🌟fter tracing the many forms of Krakau, and especially the peculiar Rhenish Cracow, another striking name has appeared on our maps: the Moscow of the Rhineland. Let us first examine the etymology of Moscow itself (Russian: Moskwa). The most linguistically grounded and widely accepted explanation connects the name with the Proto-Balto-Slavic root mŭsg- / musg-, ultimately related to the Proto-Indo-European *meu- / *meugʰ- ('wet, damp') 🍎. In this interpretation, Moskwa may have originally referred to a wetland, marsh, or waterlogged place. Its Indo-European cognates include the Russian musga ('pool, puddle'), the Lithuanian masgoti and the Lettish masgāt ('to wash'), the Sanskrit májjati ('to sink, drown'), the Latin mergō ('to dip, immerse'), and the Transmurian müsga ('marsh, swamp'). The Old Russian form of the name is reconstructed as *Москы, later appearing in the medieval sources in forms such as Moskowĭ and Moskwi, from which the modern name Moskwa developed. We find several toponyms (list below) that share the same root of Moscow throughout the Slavic world. However, a Moscow-related toponym west of the Rhine is quite surprising — we are talking about the municipality of Müsch (first documented in 975 as Muska), in the Rhineland-Palatinate. The toponyms of Müschenbach (first mentioned as Muskinbach in 1348), Muschenheim, Müschede, and Muscheid, are likewise found across the lands of the Rhine; Muschwitz occurs in Eastphalia. Some of the toponyms and hydronyms connected with the ancient Musk- / Mosg- / Mosk- root, associated with the name of Moscow, are catalogued below:

– Muskau — a town in Upper Lusatia; first mentioned as Muschowe and Muzcowe. Another Muskau is found as a district of Osterholz-Scharmbeck (Eastphalia). – Moskwa — a village in the Lodsch Voivodeship of Poland. The Moskawa River occurs as a tributary of the Warthe. – Maska River — a right tributary of the Beresina. – Moskowitz — a municipality in the Slowakian region of Sillina and a village in the region of Plowdiw. A settlement named Muskowitz is found in northern Dalmatia. – Maskowitz — an ancient medieval settlement in the region of Witebsk. – Moskanitz — a Slowenian settlement in Styria. – Mosgawa — a village in the Holy Cross Voivodeship of Poland. Five villages named Mosgowo occur in Masuria, in the Nisch Valley of Serbia, in the Morava Valley, in Southern Transdanubia, and in the Russian region of Twer. – Mosgowina — a village in Pomerania. – Mosgow — two villages in the Ukrainian region of Sumy. Called Moskowe in Ukrainian. – Musga — a village in the region of Wologda, in Moesia, and in Eastern Macedonia (today called Coudounia).

@easterneuropa

J. Luiken, «Invasion of the Tatars in Poland», 1666; published in J. L. Gottfried's «Historical Chronicle» (1698). On the Slavic Genocide | Part II While the conquest of the Slavic lands by Teutonic princes and military orders profoundly reshaped Central Europe, the Slavic peoples also endured centuries of raids and enslavement from other directions. Between 1441 and 1774, the Crimean Chanate and the Nogai Horde conducted repeated slave raids across the territories primarily controlled by Russia and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Concentrated in Eastern Europe, but at times extending into the Caucasus and parts of Central Europe, these incursions were often supported by the Ottoman Empire. Hundreds of thousands of European men, women, and children, were captured and transported to the markets of Crimea and the Ottoman Empire, where they were bought and sold as part of the Crimean and Ottoman slave trades. The largest captures of slaves occurred in the Dnieper, Podolia, Wolhynia, and Galicia regions, with more than a million people taken between 1500 and 1644. The Polish historian B. Baranowski, estimated that the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (modern-day Poland, Lithuania, Lettland, Eastland, the Ukraine, and White Russia) lost an average of 20,000 people yearly and as many as one million people from 1474 to 1694. In his On the Customs of the Tatars, Lithuanians, and Muscovians (c. 1550), Michalo Lituanus wrote:

Among these unfortunates [Slavic slaves] there are many strong ones; if they [Tatars] have not castrated them yet, they cut off their ears and nostrils, burn their cheeks and foreheads with burning iron, and force them to work with their chains and shackles during the daylight, and sit in the prisons during the night; they are sustained by the meager food consisting of dead animals' meat, rotten, and full of worms. (...) The youngest women are kept for wanton pleasures.

The pagan Slavic tribes of Central and Eastern Europe were targeted for slavery by several actors in the frequent military expeditions and raids alongside their lands. During the military campaigns of Charlemagne and his successor in the ninth century, the pagan Slavs were captured and sold by the Christian Franks along the Danube-Elbe rivers. By the mid-tenth century, Prague had become a main center of slave trade to Muslim Iberia via France: the armies of the Dukes of Bohemia also captured Slavic heathens, in expeditions to the later Polish lands, in order to supply the slave market, which brought to them considerable profit. The slave trade between the Wikings and the Muslims in Central Asia is known to have functioned from at least between 786 and 1009. The people taken captive during the Wiking raids across Europe were sold to Islamic Spain via the Dublin slave trade, or transported to Hedeby or Brännö in Scandinavia, and from there, via the Wolga trade route, to present-day Russia, where slaves and furs were sold to Muslim merchants in exchange for Arab silver and silk. The slaves included pagan Slavic, Finnic, and Baltic Europeans, as well as Christian Europeans. In Islamic Spain, the European Slavic slaves were considered as exotic display objects with their light hair, skin and eye colours. Female slaves were used for either domestic, or sexual slavery as concubines, while the male slaves were either used for military slavery, or as eunuchs; the latter category of male slaves were subjected to castration. The nature of the market meant that most of the Slavic slaves would have been prepubescent children when enslaved. @easterneuropa

A. Gorski, «Missing in action. 1946», 1962. Currently held at the Kiew National Museum of Russian Art. @easterneuropa

W. Kossak, «The Missionary Work of the Teutonic Order – Manhunting», 1909. On the Slavic Genocide | Part I Until the twelfth century, much of what is now Germany was inhabited by Slavic and Baltic tribes. Among them were the Obodrites, the Weletians, the Ranians, the Hevellians, the Milzenians, and the Sorbs (also, earlier uncertain tribes such as the Lugians, the Semnones, and the Warinians). Among the Baltic peoples of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea were the Prussians, the Sudovians, the Curonians, the Semigallians, and the Selonians. Their centres included strongholds such as Stargrad (Oldenburg), Radigast (Rethra), Arkona, Wollin, Branibor (Brandenburg), and numerous other hillforts, rural communities, and tribal centers that served as places of abode, trade, and worship. From the twelfth century onward, these lands became the scene of expanding Teuton and Danish power, missionary campaigns, and military conquest. The arrival of the said forces brought the destruction of the native political structures, the burning of settlements, forced baptisms, the enslavement of captives, and the gradual displacement of the indigenous Balto-Slavic populations. The ancient centres of worship were abandoned or destroyed, the local elites were replaced, and the old tribal order was progressively dismantled. The medieval concept of Drang nach Osten ('expansion toward the East') influenced later nationalist ideas and was taken up by the Nazi ideology, which used it to justify policies of conquest, forced displacement, and war crimes against the Slavic populations in Eastern and Central Europe that took place before and during World War II. While the medieval assimilation largely concluded between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, the cultural absorbing and persecution of the Sorbs in the region of Lusatia — the last remaining Slavic-speaking group in Germany to this day — continued into the twentieth century through forced conversions, cultural suppression, and linguistic reprisal. Today, the amount of Baltic and Slavic ancestry in Germany can show up to 50%, with smaller percentages in the western regions. The Slavic heritage is reflected in the toponyms as well, which constitute a vast localised majority of place names — often exceeding 60% in specific areas. Approximately 13% to 15% of the German population carries surnames of Slavic origin. @easterneuropa

Bielefeld — Lippe–Ravensberg boundary stone, at the edge of the Teutoburg Forest. The presence of toponyms such as Biele-feld, Kamen, Polle, Cracau, and countless others, in the supposedly "non-Slavic" region of the Rhine and Westphalia, is merely coincidental. @easterneuropa

A Leccinum griseum growing near Wedau (historically documented as 'Weidau'), a district of Duisburg, in North-Rhine Westphalia. Another perhaps more well-known cognate is the connection between the Sanskrit Weda ('knowledge') and the Slavic wěda / wěděti ('knowledge' / 'to know'). Both ultimately descend from the PIE root *weyd- ('to see, to know'). @easterneuropa

A close up view of the Rosette Nebula. The red colour comes from the hydrogen. Did you know? Agni (Sanskrit) and ogonь (Russian) are direct linguistic cognates — they both descend from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₁n‌gʷnís (meaning 'fire'). The instrumental case form of ogonь in Russian is огнём / ognëm (pronounced ag-njom), meaning 'by fire'. @easterneuropa

A squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) in the region of Leningrad. In Russian, the animal's name is 'белка / belka', from the Proto-Slavic '*bělъka', pointing to its white torso. The Squirrel in the Slavic culture 🍎 In the Slavic folk omens, the squirrel displays a clear connection with fire symbolism. This association is partly motivated by the reddish colouration of its fur, which is often perceived and described in relation to fire. According to the East Slavic and Polish beliefs, the squirrels appearing near human dwellings, running through gardens, climbing onto the roofs of houses, entering towns, or appearing in large numbers in forests, most often foretell a fire or a war, and more rarely other disasters, such as a crop failure, pestilence, and similar calamities. The negative perception of the squirrel is also present in other omens and beliefs. To a significant extent, this is explained by the fact that it is regarded as an unclean animal. In addition to its associations with brownies and mermaids, the squirrel also reveals other connections with the realm of impure forces. According to the beliefs of the Silesian Poles, a water spirit may appear in the form of a squirrel diving down from a tree. In a Lusatian legend, squirrels, together with hares and ravens, appear as helpers of a witch. The perception of the squirrel as an unclean animal contributed greatly to the belief that its meat was unsuitable for consumption. Among the Russians, encountering a squirrel on the road was considered a bad omen. On the other hand, in the Lublin region, the Poles considered it a fortunate sign when a squirrel jumped onto the road before a traveler; however, if it crossed the road, it was believed to bring misfortune in one's affairs. As usual in Slavic toponymy, the squirrel gave its name to several place names, such as different Russian and Central European settlements named Belki / Belkow / Belkowitz. In Eastphalia, Belkau (documented as Belkowe, Belckow, and Belkou) is found as part of the village of Schernikau. (Source: A. Gura, Animal's symbolism in the Slavic folk tradition, Moscow, 1997) @easterneuropa

Oak (Quercus) branches in the Orël Polesia National Park, region of Orël. In the Old Russian folk epics, the forests of Briansk were said to be the dwelling place of Nightingale the Robber — later defeated and captured by Ilia of Murom — whose nest stood upon nine oaks. From there, he guarded the road, slaying all who attempted to pass by with his deadly whistle. In the region of Orël, lies a village bearing the name Nine Oaks (Девять Дубов), situated on the very edge of the Briansk forests. @easterneuropa

A grasshopper in the Mid-River Regional Landscape Park, region of Tschernigow, Ukrainian Polesia. Special Awards: Best Wildlife Photos of the Northern Hemisphere. @easterneuropa

I. B. Rakowiecki, in A. Sokołowski's «The Illustrated Post-Partition History of the Polish Nation» (1904).

The Ruthenian (i.e., Ukrainian) language has retained a somewhat larger amount of expressions connected to paganism than our [Polish] language. A swearing Ruthenian says, "Boh mene ubij" ('May God kill me') [according to Rakowiecki, this expression had to do with deities such as Perunъ].

(I. B. Rakowiecki, Russian Truth / Prawda Ruska, I. 76, Warsaw, 1820) @easterneuropa

The Cuckoo Stone in the Königshain Hills (Upper Sorbian: 'Limas'), near Görlitz; 1780 engraving by Carl A. von Schachmann. An artificial viewing hole forms the eye; around the winter solstice, the midday sun appears in the eye on several consecutive days. Numerous archaeological finds, attesting to human presence in the Königshain Hills since the Stone Age, lend support to the hypothesis that the site once served as a former cult site. The Sun Sanctuaries of Upper Lusatia In 1885, Alfred Moschkau, like Preusker before him, drew a conceptual arc from the "rock altars" of the Upper Lusatian Highlands, through the megaliths of northern Germany and Scandinavia, to Stonehenge in England. In 1830, the physician Johann G. Bönisch, associated the "rock altars" of Upper Lusatia not only with the Sun, but with the Moon as well. A report dating from 1614 comes from the pastor Martin Niger. At the time, he lived in Wischnow (Weigsdorf), then part of Upper Lusatia. During his morning walks, he would occasionally encounter an old woman coming from the direction of the Heidenstein rock formation (Bohemian: Pohanské kameny; literally 'Heathen Stones'). One day, he found her kneeling beside the rock and praying. When he questioned her about it, she told him that her grandmother, as well as other inhabitants of the surrounding area, had prayed there at sunrise and sunset, because there had once been a "temple of God" at that place. @easterneuropa

The Devil's Pulpit ('Teufelskanzel') of Rachlow; drawing by Karl Benjamin Preusker, 1841. At the summit of the Czorneboh, researchers found that the rock formations Ente ('Duck') and Teufelskanzel ('Devil's Pulpit') are suitable for calendar-based solar observations, and that the placement of the calendar viewing holes may have been influenced by human activity. These rock formations are regarded as part of the so-called sun sanctuaries of Upper Lusatia. @easterneuropa