The Prussian mythology was a

polytheistic Polytheism is the belief in multiple deities, which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religious sects and rituals. Polytheism is a type of theism. Within theism, it contrasts with monotheism, the ...

religion of the

Old Prussians Old Prussians, Baltic Prussians or simply Prussians ( Old Prussian: ''prūsai''; german: Pruzzen or ''Prußen''; la, Pruteni; lv, prūši; lt, prūsai; pl, Prusowie; csb, Prësowié) were an indigenous tribe among the Baltic peoples that ...

, indigenous peoples of

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

before the

Prussian Crusade The Prussian Crusade was a series of 13th-century campaigns of Roman Catholic crusaders, primarily led by the Teutonic Knights, to Christianize under duress the pagan Old Prussians. Invited after earlier unsuccessful expeditions against the Pr ...

waged by the

Teutonic Knights The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians o ...

. It was closely related to other Baltic faiths, the Lithuanian and Latvian mythologies. Its myths and legends did not survive as Prussians became Germanized and their culture extinct in the early 18th century. Fragmentary information on gods and rituals can be found in various medieval chronicles, but most of them are unreliable. No sources document pagan religion before the forced

Christianization Christianization ( or Christianisation) is to make Christian; to imbue with Christian principles; to become Christian. It can apply to the conversion of an individual, a practice, a place or a whole society. It began in the Roman Empire, conti ...

in the 13th century. Most of what is known about Prussian religion is obtained from dubious 16th-century sources (''

Sudovian Book The so-called ''Sudovian Book'' (german: Sudauer Büchlein, lt, Sūduvių knygelė) was an anonymous work about the customs, religion, and daily life of the Old Prussians from Sambia. The manuscript was written in German in the 16th century. The ...

'' and Simon Grunau).

Historical background and sources

The

Teutonic Order The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on ...

, a crusading military order, began the

in the 1220s. Their goal was to conquer and convert pagan Prussians to Christianity. The Knights built log and stone fortresses, which proved to be impregnable to the Prussians. Despite five

Prussian uprisings The Prussian uprisings were two major and three smaller uprisings by the Old Prussians, one of the Baltic tribes, against the Teutonic Knights that took place in the 13th century during the Prussian Crusade. The crusading military order, sup ...

, the conquest of Prussia was complete by the 1280s. German, Lithuanian, Latvian, and Polish colonists repopulated the decimated region. It is estimated that by around year 1400 the Prussians numbered 100,000 and comprised about half of the total population in Prussia. The Prussians were subject to

Germanization Germanisation, or Germanization, is the spread of the German language, people and culture. It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nationalism went hand in hand. In ling ...

and assimilation and eventually became extinct sometime after the 16th century. The Knights regarded paganism as evil, worthy of complete eradication and not study. Therefore they showed no interest in local customs and produced no detailed accounts of Prussian mythology. Bits and pieces of reliable but accidental and fragmentary mentions of gods and traditions can be found in official Teutonic documents and chronicles, such as the 1248

Treaty of Christburg The Treaty of Christburg (modern Dzierzgoń in Poland) was a peace treaty signed on 2 February 1249 between the pagan Prussian clans, represented by a papal legate, and the Teutonic Knights. It is often cited as the end of the First Prussian Upri ...

, Chronicle of

Peter von Dusburg Peter of Dusburg (german: Peter von Dusburg; la, Petrus de Dusburg; died after 1326), also known as Peter of Duisburg, was a Priest-Brother and chronicler of the Teutonic Knights. He is known for writing the ''Chronicon terrae Prussiae'', which des ...

, or correspondence with the Pope. Affected by the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and ...

, the former Catholic stronghold the

Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights The State of the Teutonic Order (german: Staat des Deutschen Ordens, ; la, Civitas Ordinis Theutonici; lt, Vokiečių ordino valstybė; pl, Państwo zakonu krzyżackiego), also called () or (), was a medieval Crusader state, located in Cen ...

was transformed into the Lutheran

Duchy of Prussia The Duchy of Prussia (german: Herzogtum Preußen, pl, Księstwo Pruskie, lt, Prūsijos kunigaikštystė) or Ducal Prussia (german: Herzogliches Preußen, link=no; pl, Prusy Książęce, link=no) was a duchy in the region of Prussia establish ...

in 1525. Religious disputes brought new interest in the pagan Prussian religion. Right about that time two fundamental studies of Prussian culture were produced: the ''

'' and Chronicle of Simon Grunau. There is considerable academic debate on the authorship, dating, and reliability of the ''Sudovian Book''. Most modern Lithuanian scholars follow Wilhelm Mannhardt and treat it as a reliable and independent source, which was used to prepare ''Constitutiones Synodales'', a book of ceremonies prepared by a church synod and published in 1530. Another school of thought claims that it was the opposite: the ''Sudovian Book'' was a distorted copy of ''Synodales'', which in turn was prepared based on Grunau, and that they all should be rejected as "invention" and "forgery". Simon Grunau (died ca. 1530) is much-criticized for using dubious and falsified sources and often augmenting facts with his own imagination. Modern scholars often dismiss the chronicle as a work of fiction, though Lithuanian researchers tend to be more careful and attempt to find its redeeming qualities. The work is responsible for the introduction and popularization of several major legends: 6th-century King

Widewuto Widewuto (also ''Viduutus'', ''Vidvutus'', ''Witowudi'', ''Waidewut'', ''Vaidevutis'') was a legendary king of the pagan Prussians who ruled along with his elder brother, the high priest (''Kriwe-Kriwajto'') Bruteno in the 6th century AD. They are ...

, the temple of Romuva, the pagan trinity ( Peckols, Potrimpo, and

Perkūnas Perkūnas ( lt, Perkūnas, lv, Pērkons, Old Prussian: ''Perkūns'', ''Perkunos'', Yotvingian: ''Parkuns'', Latgalian: ''Pārkiuņs'') was the common Baltic god of thunder, and the second most important deity in the Baltic pantheon after Di ...

), the pagan high priest (''

Kriwe-Kriwajto ''Kriwe Kriwaito'' ( lv, krīvu krīvs, lt, krivių krivaitis) or simply ''Kriwe'' ( lv, krīvs, lt, krivis) was the chief priest in the Baltic mythology. Known primarily from the dubious 16th-century writings of Simon Grunau, the concept of '' ...

''), and female ''waidelinns'' (similar to Roman vestales). Various later authors simply copied information from Grunau and the ''Sudovian Book'' adding no or very little new information.

Prussian pantheon

Early lists

Prussian gods (Peckols, Perkunas, Potrimpo)

The 1249

mentioned Curche, an idol worshiped during harvest festivals. Scholars were unable to positively determine its gender, function, or etymology. Various suggested functions include god of food (Simon Grunau), smithing god (similar to Slavic

Svarog Svarog is a Slavic god of fire and blacksmithing, who was once interpreted as a sky god on the basis of an etymology rejected by modern scholarship. He is mentioned in only one source, the ''Primary Chronicle'', which is problematic in interpret ...

and Greek

Hephaestus Hephaestus (; eight spellings; grc-gre, Ἥφαιστος, Hḗphaistos) is the Greek god of blacksmiths, metalworking, carpenters, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metallurgy, fire (compare, however, with Hestia), and volcanoes.Walter B ...

), god creator (derived from related Lithuanian word ''kurti'' – to create), god of harvest and grain, evil spirit, god of fire. Some even doubted whether it was a god at all and suggested that it was a name given to a

corn dolly Corn dollies or corn mothers are a form of straw work made as part of harvest customs of Europe before mechanization. Before Christianisation, in traditional pagan European culture it was believed that the spirit of the corn (in American Englis ...

. Another reliable source is a 1418 memorandum (''Collato Episcopi Varmiensis'') written by

Bishop of Warmia This is a list of Bishops and Prince-Bishops of the Diocese of Warmia ( pl, link=no, Diecezja warmińska, la, link=no, Dioecesis Varmiensis, german: link=no, Bistum Ermland), which was elevated to the Archdiocese of Warmia in 1992. The Bisho ...

to Pope Martin V. The letter reminded the Pope about the Teutonic achievements in Christianizing Prussians, who no longer worshiped ''Patollu'' and ''Natrimpe''. Most scholars interpret this as two different gods, but ''patollu'' could also be an adjective (evil, hellish) to describe ''Natrimpe''. Based on later works, ''patollu'' is usually identified as Peckols, angry god of the

underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underwor ...

, and ''Natrimpe'' as Potrimpo, god of seas or grain. In addition to the trinity of Peckols, Potrimpo, and

, Grunau mentioned three minor gods: Wurschayto or Borszkayto and Szwaybrotto were personifications of Widewuto and Bruteno, and Curcho was god of food (borrowed from the

''Sudovian Book'' and ''Constitutiones Synodales''

''Constitutiones'' lists ten Prussian deities and also provides their classical Roman equivalents. Note that none of these are goddesses and furthermore that Curche is missing from the list. This list is closely mirrored in the ''Sudovian Book''.

Suaixtix

Suaixtix (alternate spelling: ''Suaixtis'', ''Swaystix'', ''Schwaytestix'', ''Swaikticks'', ''Sweigtigx'', ''Szweigsdukks'') is described as a "god of light" (''Gott des Lichts'') in historical sources, or a god of stars. His name has been proposed to be cognate to the word for star in

Slavic languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the ...

, reconstructed as ''*zvězda''. He also appears to be connected to words for star in Baltic languages: Lith ''žvaigždė'' and

Latv LATV (; originally pronounced on-air as from 2007 to 2014 and, since 2014, serving as a backronym for its on-air slogan, "Latino Alternative Television") is an American bilingual broadcast television network, digital publisher and media company ...

''zvaigzne''. The deity's name seems to contain a

Prussian Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

stem ''-swaigst-'', present in ''swaigst-an'' (perhaps related to German ''Schein'', "light") and verb ''er-schwaigstinai'' ("(it) illuminates"). On the other hand, Roman Zaroff, still aligned with the interpretation as god of light, postulates that he might have been a solar deity, based on ethnographical and folkloric data of the other Baltic languages.Zaroff, Roman.
Some aspects of pre-Christian Baltic religion
. In: ''New researches on the religion and mythology of the Pagan Slavs''. Edited by Patrice Lajoye. Paris: Lingva, 2019. pp. 195-196.

Footnotes

References

Bibliography

* Ivanov, V. V.
The Baltic god of light and the Balto-Slavic word for star
. In: ''Res Balticae'', Nr. 02, 1996. pp. 135-149. * Mikhailov, N.
Das “gemischte” slawisch-baltische Pantheon von Christian Knauthe
. In: ''Res Balticae'' Nr. 01, 1995. pp. 115-139. * Zaroff, Roman.
Some aspects of pre-Christian Baltic religion
. In: ''New researches on the religion and mythology of the Pagan Slavs''. Edited by Patrice Lajoye. Paris: Lingva, 2019. pp. 183-219.