XIII WEST SLA V P AGANISM *) For some decades, a sharply critical attitude has been making steady and triumphant progress among students of the mythology and religion of the ancient Slavs, for instance in the works of Brückner and Man­ sikka 1). It has found its most trenchant expression in E. Wienecke's book, Untersuchungen zur Religion der Westslawen (Leipzig 1940), in which the whole literary tradition is subjected to a radical criticism, limited indeed to the Baltic Slavs, yet affecting our knowledge of all Slavic paganism. This work will be especially examined he re in relation to a point of great importance, namely the conception of deities and their representation in art among the West Slavs. Wienecke's criticism starts 'from an unexceptionable position, namely that mediaeval culture, especially in the monasteries, was dominated by the study of the Vulgate. Through their constant familiarity with the Biblical text, the monks were incapable of expressing themselves, especially in religious matters, otherwise than in the language of the Old Testament. This critical principle had already been applied by others, as Mansikka, to the (old Russian) sources for the paganism of the East Slavs, and particularly to the Chronicle of Nestor 2). Wienecke applies it far more rigorously and systematically to the (Latin) sources for the paganism of the West Slavs, denying that there ever existed among them (or for that matter among the Russians) any images of deities, and explaning the many positive testimonies of our authors by what he calls interpretatio ecclesiastica, meaning there- *) The original of this essay appeared in S.M.S.R. xix-xx (1943-46) under the title Osservazioni sul paganesimo degli Slavi occidentali. I) AL. BRücKNER, La mitologia slava (first pub. in Polish, Cracow 1918), Bologna 1923. BRÜCKNER is also the author of the chapter Slaven und Litauer in CHANTEPIE DE LA SAUSSAYE, Lehrbuch der Religionsgeschichte, ed. 4, vol. ii, Tübingen 1925, pp. 506-39. V. J. MANSIKKA, Die Religion der Ostslaven i: Quellen (F.F. Communications 43), Helsinki 1922. 2) MANSIKKA, op. cit. 39 foll. WEST SLAV PAGANISM by the general tendency of the mediaeval monks to understand pagan­ ism, whether Slav or not, on the lines of Hebrew idolatry, and there­ fore as a cult addressed to idols (like the Golden Calf) , even if no idols really existed. According to Wienecke, everything hitherto written concerning West Slav paganism is put out of court by this lack of pre1iminary criticism, that is by taking the evidence at its face value, without first attacking the problem of its literary ancestry and thus implicitly its validity. There is however a group of facts to which it seems hard to apply the explanation adopted by Wienecke. We have three mediaeval Lives (twe1fth century) of Otto of Bamberg, the "apostle of Pomerania". One is the Vita Ottonis of the Monachus Prieflingensis, the second the work of Ebbo with the same title and the third Herbord's Dialogus de uita Ottonis. In these, we repeatedly hear of an idol or image adored especially at Stettin, which showed a three-headed god, named Trigtav, that is "the three-headed". To this Pomeranian "three-headed" god we must add the various deities with many-headed images among the pagan Slavs of the island of Rügen, of whom we read in Saxo Gram­ maticus' Gesta Danorum, Book xiv. These are the (wooden) idol of Svantevit at Arkona, which had four heads, that of Rugievit at Karen­ tia (Garz) with seven, of Porevit, again at Karentia, with five, and of Porenut, in the same place, with four, and a fifth on its bosom 3). How are these testimonies to be explained? They are quite explicit and they testify to images, many-headed ones, among the West Slavs. Granted that the principle of interpretatio ecclesiastica is enough to do away with tradition concerning idols generally, it is hard to see how it can be applied to explaining these many-headed images, the description of which in the biographies of Otto and in Saxo can by no means echo Scriptural language, for many-headed idols are not mentioned in the Bible. Here, Wienecke is obliged to argue diHerently, and does so thus. The oldest evidences regarding many-headed idols among the West Slavs are those referring to the god Triglav, the main centre of whose cult was Stettin, as already said. The town of Stettin 3) The texts may be found eolleeted in C. H. MEYER, Fantes historiae ,.eli­ gionis slavicae, in CLEMEN'S Fontes historiae religionum ex auctoribus graecis et latinis, Fase. iv, Berlin 1931. Only one referenee, and that too vague, to idols with two heads is found in HELMOLD, Chronica Slauorum i, 84 (p. 45 MEYER): multos enim duobus uel tribus uel eo amplius eapitibus exseulpunt. .