Prussian mythology

Historical background and sources

The Teutonic Order, a crusading military order, began the Prussian Crusade 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 conquest of Prussia was complete by the 1280s. German, Lithuanian, Latvian, and Polish colonists repopulated the decimated region. It is estimated that by around the year 1400 the (Old) Prussians numbered 100,000 and comprised only about half the total population of Prussia. The Prussians were subject to Germanization and assimilation and eventually became extinct sometime after the 16th century. The Knights regarded paganism as evil and therefore unworthy of study, deserving, in their eyes, only complete eradication. For this reason they showed no interest in local customs and produced no detailed accounts of Prussian mythology. Reliable, (but, alas, accidental and fragmentary) references to gods and traditions can be found in official Teutonic documents and chronicles, such as the 1248 Treaty of Christburg, the Chronicle of Peter von Dusburg, and correspondence with the Pope.

Affected by the Protestant Reformation, the former Catholic stronghold the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights was transformed into the Lutheran Duchy of Prussia in 1525. Religious disputes kindled a new interest in the pagan Prussian religion, two fundamental studies of Prussian culture being produced at that time, namely the Sudovian Book 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 in treating 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. However, another school of thought holds that it is, in fact, nothing of the kind, the Sudovian Book being claimed to be a distorted copy of Synodales, which in turn was based on Grunau - and consequently that all three sources should be rejected as mere "invention" and "forgery".

Simon Grunau (died ca. 1530) is much criticised for his use of dubious and falsified sources and frequent eking-out of whatever meagre data he may have possessed with the products of 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 in it redeeming qualities. The work is responsible for the introduction and popularization of several major legends: 6th-century King Widewuto, the temple of Romuva, the pagan trinity (Peckols, Potrimpo, and Perkūnas), the pagan high priest (Kriwe-Kriwajto), 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.