The Trinity-Троjство-Триглав

on . Posted in Other articles

The Great Migration whipped much of the old Middle and Northern Europe away. We can say that the Germans including the three foster brothers Erils, Warners and Thuringians fought down the Roman empire which also was eroding from inside.
Trinity, Great Migration, ritual society, European Celts, equality and federation, terminology of Edda, triglav stonehead, Trihead, Triglav, Trihead Thurs, Svetovit, rune staff, three terminuses, hov, Three Stone Hov, Adam of Bremen
However, also the winners lost their position in the days of Great Migration. The Franks killed most of the Thuringian tribes, The Warners and Rugi were whipped out by Slaves and the Erils had to move or vanish to the underground. To that the movements of Lombards, Burgundians and Anglo-Saxons.

A bronze locket found at Austerlars Bornholm

In a ritual society it was natural to bury the ritual items when they were out of fashion and a new age began. They thought in ages and worlds. A year had three or four ages. A time to sow ... a time to harvest ... a time to store. The ideas are surely hidden in words like vilald, groald, harald, apald, which belongs to the way of thinking in ald within verald the world of humankind.

That was the time when the specified things happened and the ald and work were led by an aldur (Old Norse) or aldor (Old English) and the same word as alderman. Ceremonies before a season or ald were perhaps named ferrit, berrit, serrit, harrit since these words partly still in use.

The customs did not vanish, but the ceremonies once lead by the nobility with very old roots was out of fashion and as most of them moved or were killed there were no carriers anymore. All religions, rites and customs have to have carriers and often manifestos as buildings, remedies, places etc.

This is one of the proofs that the skill of using runes, leading of rites and many customs were lead and carried out by the nobility. Rune stones and remains were not seen for a few hundred years after the fall of the Erils. However the skill preserved.

It was really a change of Age. The golden necklace had its roots in the rites with the moon Maiden Inanna before 3000 BC. The double neck-rings had its roots in the pairhood from about 2000 BC. The single leader rings occur ca 1000 BC and as the nobility lost their status people did not want to see or use them anymore.

Statue of the Trinity from Marne France

The European Celts had their heydays ca 500 BC to AD and the remains were the Scandinavian Celts still using the rituals instead of the Roman Style and Ara Pacis. The Roman Caesar was god-begotten and sat above the people. He had his military camps wherever needed and the tax collectors to gather the money needed to pay this circus as well as that on the Coliseum.

In the sparse populated middle and north Europe the principles of equality and federation were the only way of keeping peace and create conditions for trade and peoples communication. During thousands of years there was a flow of culture between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic without a ruler and a military system.

Coin from Hedeby with both a triad and the Trinity symbol

Nowadays we now and then see lovely TV programmes from odd tribes around the world. Mostly they are met with respect and love from the reporters. Lastly I saw a fine programme about the bushmen and their world.

It is out of date to speak about pagans as unenlightened and irreligious. Our evaluations are out of fashion in a world of tolerance with more than 150 very different nations and many more tribes with their own culture and religion. Our achievements in destroying nature and people are bad measures. In fact we have not much t be really proud of as long as pollution and monofold are going on.

The triglav stonehead found at Glejbjerg near Esbjerg.

Instead we should try to understand the pragmatic thoughts behind seemingly odd ideas. The Trihead is one of them and the graves with three corners belong to the same ideas as well as the Three Stone Hov. Triheads are surely like the four headed "the father of Ages" or a symbol of time and its division in four seasons or three terminuses. All heads had of course their names and they were related to stars on the zodiac.

Observe that these are not dated exactly, but they are perhaps from Iron Age. It is impossible to sort out if some of the tri-symbols meant the Trinity of Arianism that was Father, Son and Holly Ghost as separate persons. The calendar symbolism was independent of religion.

King size brooch in silver from Tveitane Vestfold Norway

The composition with trefoil tri-head is common on square-head brooches. If not pure gold some of them are gold plated and have inlay made of almandines. But there are also finds in bronze and alloys. The type was in use until end of 6th century in AS England.

The heads are also seen on some so-called cruciform brooches however most of the eventual heads are worn away. As we see they often set symbols form their world order on their jewels. Near the bow there are usually two snakeheads as hear with curled beaks. If we look closer we see that each snake begins at the head in the end and the composition is made symmetric.

The snakes surely symbolise the time snakes for winter and summer but also the snakes symbolising the building and destruction forces in life. The heads are then the three seasons that also is symbolised by the Trihead Thurs. Surely people coming from other cultures and later trhe church people did not understand the symbolism. It would bot have been good strategy either because they wanted to "sell" the Christian order. But for sure there was no primitive, pagan and magic in these features of the old Celtic World Order.

In Scandinavian symbolism we see the dualism around 2000 BC and that is the principle of compound two-part situations. In Swedish we still say, "All good things are three" and just a reminder to not be too narrow minded. We have the rule of equality "equal, equal high and third" that reminds we should not forget the unknown third in the ring of equal people. Another tripartite situation is the biologic sun, moon and earth when we know that the moon symbolised rain or water. These three parts are the creative growth.

In last millennium we got the tripartite year from Assyria maybe but they got it surely from, India. In the monsoon land maybe three seasons is the beast partition. In Sweden they made three thing/ court season of it in some landscapes while other stuck to the old Anatolian - Celtic four season calendar. When Christianity, Arians and Catholic Church began to discuss/ use Trinity it was just another kind of triune or tripartite logic to the Celtic World. That is why it is impossible to sort out if some of the motifs from the Golden Age are Christian or Celtic


From the site CARANTHA and Forum Veneti and Dr Jozko Savli I borrow these important cuts about the Slavic sacred places for Triglav and Swetovit. My contribution is to give rational explanations to the rituals and idols at the Baltic Coast were find golden bracts and the biggest golden neckring from pre-Slavic times. However the Slavs practised seemingly same World Order as in Scandinavia and among Celts. Wh, is a big question and I am not going to answer it
Triglav / Trihead Thurs three-faced sink unearthed at the Magdalensberg (Šentlenska gora) in Carinthia, Roman period.

Here a cut from the Ebbo Chronicles ca 1155:

"The God Triglav simulacrum had three golden heads. A veil covered his eyes and mouth. The priests said that if he did not see and speak, he nearly would simulate to ignore the human sins. The three heads represented his three dominations: heaven, earth, and underworld. His temple was encircled by a sacred hurst and grassland, in which a black horse pastured. The horse was used for presages. This happened in such a manner: the horse was led through nine lances, fixed in the soil; if he did not touch one, the presage was favourable, and vices versa."

In 1127, Bishop Otto of Bamberg, the apostle of Pomerania, let destroy the Triglav simulacrum, and one of the heads was sent to the Pope in Rome. But another similar statue, situated on the nearby Isle of Wollin, was saved, because the Vendic priests were hiding it.


Head of figurine Fourhead Swetovit/ Sventovit / Svantevit/ Elle from Poland 9th century symbolising the Slavic World Order

On the vast island called Rujana in the Baltic Sea, today Rügen, there used to be on the site of Arcona a temple consecrated to god Svetovit (Svantevit, Sventovit). The chronicler Saxo Grammaticus described him in his "Gesta Danorum" (ca. 1190/1216) as a god of four heads. He was four-faced, as one can see on his other idols, preserved until today. The chronicler substantiated many facts, which reflect the role of this deity in the creed of the Vendic people in Rujana. In short, his relation to the people is as follows:

"The simulacrum of god Svetovit kept in his right hand a horn and in his left an arch. Once a year, after the crop, a holiday was celebrated in his honour. Whereas the people were waiting before the temple, the priest took from the simulacra the horn, which each year was filled, to the top with wine. When a drop of wine was lost, a bad crop was predicted for the next year. Therefore, the priest ordered his people to conserve any disposable grain. If the horn seemed to remain full, a good crop was announced...

The attributes of the god were a saddle, a bit and a magic sword. The temple of Arcona was built of wood and it was painted variously. Two fences encircled it. A white horse was dedicated to him, who could have been mounted or led to pasture by the temple priest only. The horse was also used for presages. When the people wanted to know the oracle concerning the next war, pales in three rows and in equal interwalls were set up before the temple. Then, after the prayers, the horse was led through the rows. If it began to step forward with the right foot, the prediction was propicious. When it only one-time made a step with the left foot, the prediction was inauspicious...."

The Svetovit statue of Husiatyn (Zbrucs) close to Krakow in Poland as it was put once before the sconce. He was a fourheaded god. Each head faced a different direction. Svetovit\'s four heads were believed to oversee the universe from all directions, so that he would not miss anything.

The temple of Svetovit in Arcona was destroyed by the Danish king Valdemar, in 1168 AD. But the worshipping of this god was spread into the much larger Vendic territory of that time. Proof of this is his magnificent statue found in Husiatyn (Zbrucs) near Krakow.

My comments

Maybe the Pope was glad for the golden head since the Catholic Church always needed money in those days building the power of the Christian Empire. In time all rituals and myths undergo changes caused by things like new conditions and new people bringing their contributions. Still people are also traditional so they save very ancient symbol acts as parts of the ritual. For agriculture the triglav/ triad heaven, earth, and underworld were naturally the core of their world since they got their food from the activity of these forces.

In Scandinavian symbolism from the Golden Age we see that the calendar aspect was the important thing with the underlying ritual that follows the natural fertility in nature. There is nothing cosmic and spiritual about that. Here it could be the forces while in Scandinavian symbolism it is the time events along the double snake representing the fertile season and the rest season of the year.

This cut is from the picture stone Ardre VIII Gotland 8 - 10th century

In Danish folk memory they have saved the word Elle / Aelle = Age or "Father of Ages". The four heads are naturally the same as Vishnu in India and he looks in the four cardinal directions that determine four seasons of the year. Naturally he counts time and age through the years, decades and millennia if we understand the poetic language.

Unfortunately politics are part of history and archaeology. Through the ages these aspect have been used by imperial powers to gain more power and destroy smaller and older tribes and lands. Around thousand years ago the Holy Roman Empire gave Slavs the choice "believe in Christ or die". In my lifetime the Western World feared "The Reds" and naturally the scientist played in the game and Slavic culture was named "primitive" and with disrespect demonise and making them foreign to Western culture. Non-Germanic language seems automatically make people/ nations primitive. I have to bring up such stupid things.

Still today scientist use adjectives and attributes that do not correspond to Human Rights and freedom of religion. The word "pagan" is comparing some better world without any real references. "Barbarian" is just an invective and does not suit a world of equality and in Europe even the idea of EU European Union. Such things rise walls instead of giving us the common ground and understanding of the past.

In Norway is found some single bust head too. That does not belong to the heavenly sphere but seems to be used as symbol/ totem of the local place. However in some place they set up a stone just to remember for instance Beltaine / May and the rising corn. These local heads are surely the Ansur in old terminology of Edda and the Ras in neo-Hittitian temples. They used three terminuses for the year and we have surely got it from them and they may have got it from India.

The rune staff was in use nearly to our time. They carved their calendar in a staff just to remember what to do in right time. Surely this is a very old tradition. We know some of it from India and as I find some Indian symbols on old rune staffs it is evident that the trade had brought ideas to us. We know little about the other direction. It is easily noticed when small nations get inventions. But when the great cultures learn something new it is hardly seen and up to their propaganda they have invented everything. In my early classical studies I was told that the Greeks invented all things including themselves.

Tri-star graves are good examples of the diversity and how the signs were spread only to some tribes and provinces.

These graves are seen along the Raunne River in Skaane some in West Gautland and North Jutland mostly single in other provinces. In Austergautland the squared grave was normal. The same is case with the ship tumulus of different shapes which in places are found in fields and other places have a few. It seems that there been three in a row in my parish and they were perhaps for ritual purposes.

The symbolism with triads continued in a way long after the Erils. Maybe it gave the idea of dividing the thing year in three terminuses. That means that the folk lands or provinces met to a thing trice a year and this custom was used until our new more or less permanent thing. That is up to how much the thing is about. The modern thing is divided in the juridical thing and the common thing of the province ... the new one is the Region thing.

A Three Stone Hov at Bjaurketorp Skaane.

To this belongs also the hov maybe court in English. The manifestos were perhaps three stones, which are found at places. That at Bjaurketorp is special, as there is text in runes. However, the Celtic mind of mystery has made it impossible to translate. From that I made the sentence: The less we directly understand of what we see, the more we fantasise wildly ... and some see magic shamanism whenever possible.

The wildly improvising Adam of Bremen tells about the hov in Uppsala. There should have been three phantoms of the main gods Frey, Thor, Tyr in the temple. All this is up to different customs and rituals in the provinces in Scandinavia. Some had only one leading star, others had two or three or the fourth with the stars of solstices and equinoxes.

The Icelanders and the Norse tell us much about the hov that seem to be very much like a church or the ancient temples we know of … even the foundations from Stone Age in Denmark tell about some kind of temple. Celtic legend tell about holly groves, but in fact they have only found one in England and some gold find at Fyn may be from a former grove.

An interesting detail is that they mention one or two pillars and that is a very old custom in the Old World as for instance the temple of Salomo. The "holy nails" in the pillars/pillar were perhaps the ladder to heaven or the declinations measuring height of heavenly bodies. On some seals from the Levant we see that kind of pillars/pillar. See also the "Gyrstone" at Rock 1 Haugsbyn.

The ground-plan have "always" been a hall and often an inner room. On some there is also an entrance. Naturally they are fenced in some way. Altar, fireplace, bowl/cauldron and Tree of Life are very old symbols and so is the custom of splashing blood.

We cannot apply the conformity from Christianity on the Ages before that. History is a process and changes are gradual. The Erils and legionnaires surely knew about Christianity from its very beginning. New fuel they got with the migration to England where Christianity came earlier than in Scandinavia. It is significant that most of the Benedictine monks came from England.