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Author Topic: Sources On Slavic and Baltic Paganism  (Read 5585 times)

Riothamus12

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Sources On Slavic and Baltic Paganism
« on: June 06, 2016, 04:24:26 pm »
As one who has a fair deal of Slavic heritage (Czech, Polish, and Ukrainian to be precise) , I've been seeking a proper source on the religion of the ancient Slavic peoples. I'm not merely seeking information on the Deities themselves or their worship, I'm looking for something about the broader theology. I feel as if I have developed a certain understanding of the theology of my Celtic and Nordic ancestors, but it seems sources that offer the insights I seek are hard to come by. It seems finding a decent source in English is nearly impossible. Most of what I've been able to discern is mostly based on cultural similarities to other Indo-Europeans. I'm mostly looking for web sources as I don't have a lot of money at the moment, but book recommendations would be appreciated.

Similarly, I've been looking for information specifically on Lithuanian paganism, its theology, and its Deities, yet it seems many of the same dilemmas I've encountered in researching my Magyar and Slavic ancestors seem to follow me. Considering that the Lithuanians held out longer than most before Christianizing, I have a certain fascination with the traditions associated therewith.
https://inthespiritofconversation.wordpress.com/
I started a blog. Feel free to peruse. It's still in it's early stages and I have to write more, so do bare with me if it's all a little basic so far.

Geckomamasita

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Re: Sources On Slavic and Baltic Paganism
« Reply #1 on: June 06, 2016, 05:42:43 pm »
Quote from: Riothamus12;192339
As one who has a fair deal of Slavic heritage (Czech, Polish, and Ukrainian to be precise) , I've been seeking a proper source on the religion of the ancient Slavic peoples. I'm not merely seeking information on the Deities themselves or their worship, I'm looking for something about the broader theology. I feel as if I have developed a certain understanding of the theology of my Celtic and Nordic ancestors, but it seems sources that offer the insights I seek are hard to come by. It seems finding a decent source in English is nearly impossible. Most of what I've been able to discern is mostly based on cultural similarities to other Indo-Europeans. I'm mostly looking for web sources as I don't have a lot of money at the moment, but book recommendations would be appreciated.

Similarly, I've been looking for information specifically on Lithuanian paganism, its theology, and its Deities, yet it seems many of the same dilemmas I've encountered in researching my Magyar and Slavic ancestors seem to follow me. Considering that the Lithuanians held out longer than most before Christianizing, I have a certain fascination with the traditions associated therewith.

 
I'll definitely be following this thread. I am looking for similar sources too, but I've become a bit discouraged with the lack of information out there and the number of papers that have biases that I do not agree with.

I was recommended this pdf which has some basic info: http://www.romuva.lt/new/uploads/Literat%C5%ABra/Baltic%20religion%20EN%20www.pdf

I was also recommended the book Baltic Traditional Witchcraft by Radomir Ristic, which may or may not fit with what you are looking for. I bought it but its at the bottom of my stack of books I'm getting through :)

You can always do some Google Scholar searches to get papers or books written on more specific topics. It's a good practice to do a search on the authors of those because Google does cover a wide range of source material, some of which may not be credible or have affiliations that are not necessarily credible.

Lana288

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Re: Sources On Slavic and Baltic Paganism
« Reply #2 on: June 06, 2016, 07:56:25 pm »
Quote from: Riothamus12;192339
As one who has a fair deal of Slavic heritage (Czech, Polish, and Ukrainian to be precise) , I've been seeking a proper source on the religion of the ancient Slavic peoples. I'm not merely seeking information on the Deities themselves or their worship, I'm looking for something about the broader theology. I feel as if I have developed a certain understanding of the theology of my Celtic and Nordic ancestors, but it seems sources that offer the insights I seek are hard to come by. It seems finding a decent source in English is nearly impossible. Most of what I've been able to discern is mostly based on cultural similarities to other Indo-Europeans. I'm mostly looking for web sources as I don't have a lot of money at the moment, but book recommendations would be appreciated.

Similarly, I've been looking for information specifically on Lithuanian paganism, its theology, and its Deities, yet it seems many of the same dilemmas I've encountered in researching my Magyar and Slavic ancestors seem to follow me. Considering that the Lithuanians held out longer than most before Christianizing, I have a certain fascination with the traditions associated therewith.

I can't speak for Slavic mythology, but I have a lot of experience with researching Baltic paganism. "On Gods and Men", by Algirdas J. Greimas is a good resource on Lithuanian Mythology, and discusses the theology quite a bit. I first got it through an inter-library loan, so if that's an option for you, I'd try and look into it.

The Encyclopedia Brittanica  also has great articles on many of the main deities and concepts in Baltic paganism and differentiates between Latvian and Lithuanian mythology (which is helpful because, in truth, there's a ton of overlap between them).

Wikipedia is also a decent resource. I normally wouldn't recommend it, but since information is so hard to come by already, I utilize it a lot myself.

If you choose to really dig into it, keep in mind that not all of the scholars that have researched Lithuanian mythology are reputable sources. (I'm looking at you, Narbutt.) There's a lot of false information out there, which makes researching even more difficult than it already is.

There's also a resource page in the Baltic/Slavic SIG for online resources that I've found super helpful in the past.

Ultimately, it's important to keep in mind that whatever you come up with isn't going to be perfect and there are going to be a lot of gaps. (And honestly, some days, it feels like there's more gap than information.) How/whether you fill them is going to be completely up to you.
« Last Edit: June 06, 2016, 07:57:05 pm by Lana288 »

Riothamus12

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Re: Sources On Slavic and Baltic Paganism
« Reply #3 on: June 07, 2016, 05:19:14 pm »
Quote from: Ian288;192345
I can't speak for Slavic mythology, but I have a lot of experience with researching Baltic paganism. "On Gods and Men", by Algirdas J. Greimas is a good resource on Lithuanian Mythology, and discusses the theology quite a bit. I first got it through an inter-library loan, so if that's an option for you, I'd try and look into it.

The Encyclopedia Brittanica  also has great articles on many of the main deities and concepts in Baltic paganism and differentiates between Latvian and Lithuanian mythology (which is helpful because, in truth, there's a ton of overlap between them).

Wikipedia is also a decent resource. I normally wouldn't recommend it, but since information is so hard to come by already, I utilize it a lot myself.

If you choose to really dig into it, keep in mind that not all of the scholars that have researched Lithuanian mythology are reputable sources. (I'm looking at you, Narbutt.) There's a lot of false information out there, which makes researching even more difficult than it already is.

There's also a resource page in the Baltic/Slavic SIG for online resources that I've found super helpful in the past.

Ultimately, it's important to keep in mind that whatever you come up with isn't going to be perfect and there are going to be a lot of gaps. (And honestly, some days, it feels like there's more gap than information.) How/whether you fill them is going to be completely up to you.

 
On a similar note, I'm particularly interested in the ethical dimension of these traditions. I'm not expecting a formal list of tenets from centuries ago, but I want something that gives me a clearer idea about what they saw as right and wrong.
https://inthespiritofconversation.wordpress.com/
I started a blog. Feel free to peruse. It's still in it's early stages and I have to write more, so do bare with me if it's all a little basic so far.

savveir

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Re: Sources On Slavic and Baltic Paganism
« Reply #4 on: June 09, 2016, 06:01:40 pm »
Quote from: Ian288;192345

There's also a resource page in the Baltic/Slavic SIG for online resources that I've found super helpful in the past.


 
I was just about to post about that link :)
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savveir

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Re: Sources On Slavic and Baltic Paganism
« Reply #5 on: June 09, 2016, 06:19:31 pm »
Quote from: Riothamus12;192339
snip

  Lamus Dworski has some good info, it is Polish based though. That said they do list their sources, but they mostly in Polish as they're translating the info for an English speaking audience.

Encyclopedia of Russian and Slavic Myth and Legend is also good for some general info and it's referenced.

Of Gods and Holidays: Batlic Heritage may be useful to you, however I have only read snippets I've found online as the book is incredibly expensive.

It is fairly difficult to find sources on Baltic & Slavic cosmology, particularly sources in English. I'll keep looking around to see if I can find anything else that might help :)
"I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it."
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Geckomamasita

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Re: Sources On Slavic and Baltic Paganism
« Reply #6 on: June 10, 2016, 04:15:59 pm »
Quote from: savvy;192465


Encyclopedia of Russian and Slavic Myth and Legend is also good for some general info and it's referenced.

 
The link says that has been deleted :( But I found an active link:
http://www.bridgetorussian.com/files/Encyclopedia_Russian___Slavic_Myth_Legend.pdf

savveir

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Re: Sources On Slavic and Baltic Paganism
« Reply #7 on: June 10, 2016, 07:06:28 pm »
Quote from: Geckomamasita;192503
The link says that has been deleted :( But I found an active link:
http://www.bridgetorussian.com/files/Encyclopedia_Russian___Slavic_Myth_Legend.pdf

 
Thanks, that's what I get for not double checking the links in my bookmarks :P
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Eevee

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Re: Sources On Slavic and Baltic Paganism
« Reply #8 on: October 05, 2016, 11:36:41 am »
Quote from: Riothamus12;192339
As one who has a fair deal of Slavic heritage (Czech, Polish, and Ukrainian to be precise) , I've been seeking a proper source on the religion of the ancient Slavic peoples


To my understanding, Slavic heathenism is a lot less straightforward as opposed to Norse heathenism for example. East Europe is huge and different parts of it have been influenced by different tribes and varying invasions, thus making the subject of pre-Christian beliefs tricky. While I found sources only mentioning the gods Veles and Parom, I found other sources referring to types of shamanism and animal magic.

I'm interested if anyone has any books/credible sources they recommend.
Naboo: This is black magic. This is hardcore. Don\'t mess with the occult.
Vince Noir: I thought it was good for you.
Naboo: What?
Vince Noir: Well, you know, good for your digestive system.
Naboo: That\'s Yakult!

savveir

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Re: Sources On Slavic and Baltic Paganism
« Reply #9 on: November 15, 2016, 04:29:34 am »
Quote from: Eevee;197111
To my understanding, Slavic heathenism is a lot less straightforward as opposed to Norse heathenism for example. East Europe is huge and different parts of it have been influenced by different tribes and varying invasions, thus making the subject of pre-Christian beliefs tricky. While I found sources only mentioning the gods Veles and Parom, I found other sources referring to types of shamanism and animal magic.

I'm interested if anyone has any books/credible sources they recommend.

 
Might want to check out this page. Are you after anything specifically?
I am hoping to have some time over the new year to update the resources on that page.
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Eevee

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Re: Sources On Slavic and Baltic Paganism
« Reply #10 on: November 16, 2016, 04:50:40 am »
Quote from: savvy;199089
Might want to check out this page. Are you after anything specifically?
I am hoping to have some time over the new year to update the resources on that page.

 
Thanks savvy. I did actually stumble on the sources discussion on the Slavic SIG forum, I did a lot of reading there :)
Naboo: This is black magic. This is hardcore. Don\'t mess with the occult.
Vince Noir: I thought it was good for you.
Naboo: What?
Vince Noir: Well, you know, good for your digestive system.
Naboo: That\'s Yakult!

Eevee

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Re: Sources On Slavic and Baltic Paganism
« Reply #11 on: November 16, 2016, 04:51:11 am »
Quote from: Eevee;199122
Thanks savvy. I did actually stumble on the sources discussion on the Slavic SIG forum, I did a lot of reading there :)


Oh. That's what you linked me... hahaha thanks dude :P
Naboo: This is black magic. This is hardcore. Don\'t mess with the occult.
Vince Noir: I thought it was good for you.
Naboo: What?
Vince Noir: Well, you know, good for your digestive system.
Naboo: That\'s Yakult!

PurpleTulip

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Re: Sources On Slavic and Baltic Paganism
« Reply #12 on: March 02, 2017, 06:27:05 am »
Quote from: Riothamus12;192339
As one who has a fair deal of Slavic heritage (Czech, Polish, and Ukrainian to be precise) , I've been seeking a proper source on the religion of the ancient Slavic peoples. I'm not merely seeking information on the Deities themselves or their worship, I'm looking for something about the broader theology. I feel as if I have developed a certain understanding of the theology of my Celtic and Nordic ancestors, but it seems sources that offer the insights I seek are hard to come by. It seems finding a decent source in English is nearly impossible. Most of what I've been able to discern is mostly based on cultural similarities to other Indo-Europeans. I'm mostly looking for web sources as I don't have a lot of money at the moment, but book recommendations would be appreciated.

Similarly, I've been looking for information specifically on Lithuanian paganism, its theology, and its Deities, yet it seems many of the same dilemmas I've encountered in researching my Magyar and Slavic ancestors seem to follow me. Considering that the Lithuanians held out longer than most before Christianizing, I have a certain fascination with the traditions associated therewith.

 
You're in luck my father is Slavic and we're Polish and he knows a lot about Polish history long before it was Christianised. We sometime have conversations on Slavic Demons and stuff so I know a bit about his religion as well. I can ask him if he knows any websites in English unless your pc would automatically translate it?

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