Baltic Paganism Was The Last To Be Suppressed

(August 1, 2023, Updated September 22, 2024) 

The codex Runicus is the only surviving book written in runes and it has remained untranslated until now. Its title page states that it was found in 1505 and is a copy of an original commissioned in 1190 CE by Danish king Valdemar 1. It has 200 pages in 14 layers. Prior to this first translation it was thought to be a runic version of Danish law like those found in other early Danish books. It seems to have been written by a Wendish/Vendish Druid and is a Druid metaphysical treatise on how to avoid droughts.

The deities it mentions are Druid and not those of the later Nordic tradition. Druid deities are found in all earlier runic texts associated with the Neolithic farmer culture (the first such texts were Minoan from about 1900 BCE). That some specialized priestly class must have existed throughout Europe is shown by the fact that these Akkadian runic texts exist despite all the local spoken languages around them being some mix of Indo-European and Akkadian. Some group was preserving this language and this writing style.

The book claims drought is to be avoided by magically diverting and adjusting the natural divine powers in a way which integrates the two spiritual power classes representing changes in life and motion. Magic should not be used in an attempt to override those powers but only to modify them. Based on tree ring and other physical data, northern European droughts occurred in the years 1080, 1120, and 1180 CE (Ionita, and all 2021).

This text was commissioned by Danish King Valdemar near the end of his life as indicated by the introductory paragraph on page 1. King Valdemar 1 was born January 14, 1131 and died May 12, 1182). He ended the eastern Baltic Wend threat to Danish shipping, won independence from the Holy Roman emperor, and gained church approval for the hereditary rule by his dynasty, the Valdemars. 

He was the son of Knud Lavard, duke of South Jutland, and a great-grandson of the Danish king Sweyn II. Valdemar won a 25 year civil war waged by competing contenders for the throne. 

Initially during this struggle, Valdemar acknowledged the overlordship of the Holy Roman emperor Frederick I Barbarossa and accepted his antipope Victor IV (or V). This caused Denmark’s chief prelate Eskil, archbishop of Lund, to choose exile rather than oppose Pope Alexander III. After Valdemar and Bishop Absalon changed their mind and  acknowledged Pope Alexander in 1165, Eskil returned to Denmark. There he confirmed the canonization of the king’s father and anointed his son Canute VI as joint king (1170) inaugurating the hereditary rule of the Valdemars.

Apparently, as a part of this deal Valdemar agreed to take part in the Northern crusades aimed at suppressing Paganism in the Baltic lands. These only ended in 1185 shortly after his death. Valdemar began a series of expeditions against the Wends aided by his foster brother Absalon whom he made bishop of Roskilde. The Wends were attacked and by 1169 his forces had captured the Wendish stronghold of Rügen (now in Germany), which was then incorporated into the diocese of Roskilde. He also destroyed the Wendish sanctuary at Arcona. A year later he was forced to divide his gains with his ally Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony.

Shortly before his death in 1182 yet after the start of the drought around 1180, Valdemar commissioned the Codex Runicus which was likely written by a surviving Wendish Druid and finished in 1190.

Other surviving books from this time are Danish law books written in the old Norse/Germanic language. These were compiled during the 1200s and represent the bulk of Nordic literature from the period between 1200-1400. The Danish provincial laws consist of the Scanian Law (written between 1202 and 1216), the Jutlandic Law (issued in 1241) along with King Valdemar's Zealandic Law and King Eric's Zealandic Law. 

References

Arild Hauge's scan: https://www.arild-hauge.com/am_28_8vo_codex_runicus.htm

Freeman, Kirk (2007) Baptism or Death: The Wendish Crusade, 1147-1185. Online at:  https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/baptism-or-death-the-wendish-crusade-1147-1185/

Ionita, M., Dima, M., Nagavciuc, V. et al. Past megadroughts in central Europe were longer, more severe and less warm than modern droughts. Commun Earth Environ 2, 61 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00130-w

University of Copenhagen's Interactive Online Scan with Zoom: https://www.e-pages.dk/ku/579/

Wendish Crusade here at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendish_Crusade

(April 15, 2025) By the time Christian missionaries made it into the Baltic during the 1200's Druidry had already gone underground. What was observed was the developing pre-Christian folk religion mixing Druid culture with Indo-European culture.

The earliest refences made by medieval era Christian authors are just deity names. The most complete list is found in a 1253 complaint by Rus chroniclers writing in the Galacian-Voihynian about the Lithuanian Grand Duke Mindaugus who converted to Christianity under military pressure. They complained he did not really convert:

• His baptism was a mere artifice and he continued to offer sacrifices to his gods in secret: to Nonadej, Teljavel, Diverkis, to the hare god Mejdejn. Whenever he rode into a field and saw a hare running into it, he felt he was not allowed to step into a forest, let alone break a branch there. He sacrificed to his gods, cremated his dead, and openly practiced paganism (BRMS, 1:259-60).

The above deity names are actually Druid Akkadian phrases for various spiritual powers which may or may not have been personified. Their derivations are:

1. Nonadej is the Druid Akkadian phrase N'.N.AD.EG meaning "The emotional-effects for revealing the Instigator's (Su) neglect."
2. Teljavel is the Druid Akkadian phrase T.EL.G.AW.EL meaning "The astrology-magic for the high-life-powers energized by the emotion-powers (Awen) for the high-life-powers."
3. Diverkis is the Druid Akkadian phrase D.IW.ER.K.IS meaning "The life-manifestations redirected by the harbor's involvement with the Woman" where the "woman" is for either the celestial light motion source goddess Selu/Selene or the crescent moon life network editing goddess Ayu.
4. Mejdejn is the Druid Akkadian phrase M.EG.D.E.G.N meaning "The fertility-fluids being neglected by the life-manifestations from being made ineffective by energy from fate-revelations." Rabbits and hares represented raw chaotic energy corresponding to their running style. So in this culture (and in Germany) an energized rabbit was a harbinger of fate involving life. This would seem to be the source for the Easter bunny as a harbinger of new life.

References

(April 15, 2025) More information about some deities were written down during the 1500's, just after the country had been nominally Christianized and numerous literate Christians were living there. After that time, the name past into legend in which many other related attributes were assigned to it by folk custom.

The deity Perkunas was the deity most often mentioned in these 1500's documents. This deity was sometime male and sometime female reflecting its source in the 2 Druid fate deities which were the dark new moon and eye pupil god Su and the celestial light goddess Selu/Selene.

"Perkunas"  is a name found in both Latvia and Lithuania. The word is from the Druid Akkadian phrase P.ER.K.UN.AṢ meaning "Openings of the harbor involving fate-curse expulsions. The sky expels rain and lighting and fires expel ash. In Druid culture "Harbor" was an epithet for the starry night sky in which the stars were assumed to be openings in the sky shell which let through the fate-powers which triggered the rains. Later Christian writings indicated this deity was a lightening god but the underlying Druid Akkadian indicates it was also involved with fate. This deity thus combines the rain bringing storm power (a life class power) with fate (a motion class power).  The Christian Jan Malecki wrote thiis in 1551:

• Among the Samogitians there is a hill situated by the River Nevezis, on whose summit at one time a perpetual fire was kept burning by a priest in honour of the same Perkunas, who is still believed by this superstitious people to be powerful in thunder and tempests (Young 2022)

It is analogous to the medieval Slavic god known as Perun/Piorun. "Perun" is the Druid Akkadian phrase  P.ER.UN meaning "Openings for the harbor's expulsions." "Piorun" is the Druid Akkadian phrase P.Y'.R.UN meaning "Openings for Yahu's eagle-vulture expulsions." Eagle-vultures (later griffons) were the editors of the life network often controlled by fate. Here Yahu/Yahweh (mistranslated as Lord in the Old Testament of the Christian church) is expelling those.

References