Pagan society - part III - women

Note: this article describes only women's position in pagan societies, mainly in the context of local laws. I skip here the situation of roman and greek women ('cause everybody learns about it in school. At least here in Poland...) and will focus on germanic, slavic and baltic people. Their laws were very similar, so there is no point in dividing this topic unto three different parts. 

About celtic women you will read in an article describing the role of female element in celtic myths.

Mund

Mund (old germanic mundo, or latinized mundium) was a privilage of the head of the family. It litteraly means "protection", and it belonged to the oldest male member of the family (understood as all persons related by blood). The men who had mund over the other person (children, wife etc.) had a right to decide for him about marriage, his political actions etc. This power wasn't absolute (as many people think), but was of course limited by the law. Moreover, this privilige was also a kind of duty - to protect the family against all problems and dangers. It was indeed a matter of honor, but also the law. 

The institution of munduol was inherited. So for example when a father of the family dies, his oldest son take care of it. When he also dies, and there is no adult heir, the brother of the father take care over the family. Et cetera. 

There was also many kinds of mund. Other was mund under your own child, other under a wife and other under your mother-widow. 

Now, when this typically barbarian law is known to you, let me describe the situation of women. 

Their situation

Woman of those times (and I mean something around VIII-XII century) was always under protection of man, whether they wanted it or not. The society was than very patrarcharne, which means that it was dominated by man. It was beginning since the girl's birth day. The father were deciding if he accepts her as his daughter or not. And sometimes he actually didn't - if he suspected that his wife was cheating him with another man. In such case the girl was left in a forest, and a wife was sent back to her father (or oldest brother/son). 

The girl was raised only by mother (even with in those times father could spent quite many time with his children). Under her protection she was learning farm management, weaving, cooking. singing and of course how to influence men ;] Sometimes she was also learning how to fight, due to the fact that man (as a warrior) quite often was leaving his farm to raid some lands, or protect the tribal land. Eventually she could even became a shieldamaiden - a woman who decided to be a warrior (of course by a permission of her munduol). Altought it wasn't very popular (as pagan men weren't very happy to see women taking care of their traditional male activities) sometimes it happened - but only in the land of norse and russian people.

Most of the women became wifes. Icelandic family sagas show us clearly that very often a women were choosing husbands for their own. However sometimes father were urging them to get married with particular men. Just remember - the woman could refuse it. Forcing women to marriage was recognized as a big stain on the honor.

A marriage was a happy moment especially for the slavic fathers - because they were getting a big amount of wealth (or money, or land) for mund of his daughter. It is also important - a new husband was buying a mund from his wife's father, and not a wife as a person! It means that he was becoming a new protector of a woman. And by the way - a woman was also receiving her bride price just for her, as her own property. It wasn't a small thing - norsemen were able to give for example equivalent of annual profit of local forges. I don't have to mention that blacksmiths were one of the richest persons in such societies?

The women hadn't - of course - any political rights, but quite often they had a big influence on their husbands. Norse sagas describe many situations when men (like Sigurd) were taking advice of their wifes, or when woman had quite a big power and prestige in a whole scandinavian world (like Sigrid, a sister of polish prince Mieszko I).

But what happened when woman was abused in her home, she got raped by her husband or her spouse was insolvent? Well, she could ask her relatives to prosecute prepetrator of her misey on a local thing. She couldn't do it for herself, but a family was supposed to defend her in such situations. If he won a trial, she was free to go under a mund of her father/brother/oldest son. As a widow/divorcee she was receiving a right of re-marriage - from this time she could got married with whoever she wanted to. SHE was a side who was negotiating marriage, and not her munduol.

So to conclude - the position of women in pagan societies was different than most of people think nowadays.  In his work "Germania" Tacitus, a roman historian (56-117) was astonished how much freedom had germanic women (comaring to the situation of roman ones). The rights of pagan women were old, and well preserved through ages. Because pagan men, even if they were dominating in the society, understood very well how important to them were their daughters, wifes and lovers. 

Books:

K. Modzelewski - "Barbaric Europe" ("Barbarzyńska Europa")

Icelandic family sagas (click!)

Germania by Tacitus

Links:

E-anthropology

The Viking World

Tranceform

Viking Norway

Women in the european early Middle Ages

Vladyka, written in the year 2013

Percival - "Slava!" (2012)

Percival 

"Slava!"

[Self-realeased]

2012

Percival is a side-project of folk metallers from Percival Schuttenbach. This polish band released in 2012 an album entitled "Slava!", which will be a part  of slavic trilogy. This album is focused only on the traditional songs of South Slavs (click to learn more).
Hmm, and what can I say? The previous album album was good. Maybe it wasn't a revelation, but it was a good piece of music inspired by the early Middle-Ages' tunes. But sorry to say, "Slava!" is worse. Moreover - in some moments it's indistinct. Let's take, for example, the second song "Delberino". The song is not very dynamic, instruments are not outstanding in this track and the vocalists sing like if they do not wanted to do it. Tragedy. There are though here some tracks that are interesting like e.g. "Gusta" or "Karanfile" with a bit mysterious atmoshphere. But most of the tracks are mediocre. Yes - not bad, but also not good. Just mediocre. I know some of these tracks in other arrangement by artists from Balcans - and they have much more power and energy than Percival's versions. I don't know why - maybe because of the southern temperament, maybe because people from Balcans know better their own culture. But anyway they are better in performing this kind of music.
The other case are instruments. In my opinion - if you want to play a music from certain region, you should use instruments from this region. However Percival is just using their own instruments, inspired by Middle-Ages stuff. Sorry to say, but I don't like it. It was OK on the previous album, but here it doesn't fit the music at all.
Generally speaking if you are doing something, and you want to listen to some uncomplicated music this album will be a nice soundscape. But if you want to listen to some real, energetic folk music let better seek for something else. There are much better balcan folk albums than this. What a shame that this one sounds so poor, but I hope that the next Percival's album will be better. There are no many talented folk musicians here in Poland, and these guys are one of them. I wish they won't waste their talent.

Rate: 5+/10
Vladyka

Music video for "Gusta":

Tracklist:

1. Gusta (Serbia)
2. Delberino (Bulgaria)
3. Karanfilče (Serbia)
4. Vrsuta (Montenegro)
5. Lazare (Bulgaria)
6. Korita Ivanova (Montenegro)
7. Ne orji, ne sejaj (Slovenia)
8. Naranča (Croatia)
9. Žali Zare (Serbia)
10. Ljubav se ne trži (Croatia)
11. Šta to radiš (Serbia)
12. Karanfile (Bosnia)
13. Dve nevesti (Macedonia)

Maras - "Mienje Na Svetcite" (2012)

Maras

"Mienje Na Svetcite"

[Self-released]

2012

OK, this review will be short, because "Mienje Na Svetcite" is just a single with only one track. It was recorded by macedonian band Maras - you must admit that it sounds kinda exotic, huh?

The music bases here on slow, guts crushing doom riffs with black metal feeling and very condensed, stifling production. One of the better elements here is surely a vocalist - the guy is spitting out deep, stertorous growls like some possessed demon (yeah, I know, veeeery original comparison). The music sounds quite powerful, and later it turns into a bit cacophonous-tribal areas. That's because of traditional balcan instrument - zurla - which creates very strange, disturbing atmosphere. If you can't imagine it you should know that it sounds similar to what you could hear on Rotting Christ's last albums (I mean this kind of trombone). The whole composition creates quite an interesting atmosphere. It works very well in a small dose of single, yet I am a bit affraid that in the long run of LP it could be tiring.

And that's it. You can check for yourself if this track is worth your attention or not. Personally I liked "Mienje..." well enough to wait for the upcoming full-lenght album (coming soon at the beginning of 2014).

Rate: 7/10

Vladyka

Click here to download the official single for free from Bandcamp.

Official single on Youtube:  

Pagan society - part II - social layers

King (a ruler)
The position of the ruler (king, jarl, konung, knjaz, vladyka etc.) was very different. It depends of time and concrete tribe(s). There were even societies where there was no ruler (like for example the confederation of slavic Lutici tribes). In the contrast there were also very powerful kings, who ruled vast lands (e.g. russian Kjaz). So I will focus here only on those smaller, local chieftains - as in pagan reality it was more natural to have such rulers than some great kings.
Depends on times, once ruler was more powerful and once common gathering was the mightest power center. The only thing is known for sure  - there was never pure democracy in such societies. The thing was a tool in the hands of an elite (including chieftain). The free people could only accept or reject proposals of nobles. Of course people could influence noblemen to take care of some things, but still the noble ones were those who presented the case on the thing.
In ancient times the king was someone who represented tribe in the outside. That means that he had to be as perfect as possible - because in some way if the king had flaws also society had them. The most rigorous were celtic people. In those societies if the king was hurted in the battle he automatically looses his title. It was a kind of magic, as king was also becoming an half-god after his death. He was worshipped as a hero - a personification of tribe's might.
OK, but let's say that you live in a pagan society and you desire to be a king? First of all, you have to be chosen by a thing or in a divination. The latter way is more charachteristic for celtic tribes, were the layer of druids had been very influencial in politics. But both methods had a common goal - to choose somebody who is a give warrior. The main function of rulers was to lead an army to the battles. The rest of the power was supposed to be in the hands of the thing. And that's why the personal skills of the king were important. If he wanted to be powerful - he had to gain a favor of his army. Because army was constructed from free people - the same free people who were voting on common and local gatherings.
OK, you're a king now. You have won many battles, and you have a big authority amongs people. What's our next step? Of course you want to convince people that your son should take a reign after you. Because after a death of one king the new one was always chosen by a thing. But if you change it, your dynasty can gradually gain more and more power. Eventually a thing could become only an representative gathering - without any real power. It was not easy though, because the dynasty had to be not only skilled warriors, but also they were supposed to be in good relationships with the noblemen. It was difficult especially when those both social layers were divided by fighting for their own buisness and rights.

Nobility and free people
To see what a difference was between ordinary free people and the nobility we need to study the roots of those division. At the beginning the elite was built up from people who were brave enough. The people who were a good leaders or tradesmen eventually got big assets, and what's important a land. Many between peasents ("ordinary" free people) also had a land, or even servants - yet their property or status hadn't been big enough to count in the society. So as we can see those two layers were very unstable - if you was good enough and had some luck, you could become one of those mighties ones. It may be strange for people who associate only knights with the military, but we must remember that in fact every free man was supposed to fight in defence of his land. Moreover - because noblemen were expected to give much harder effort during a war sometimes it was more profitable to be an "ordinary" freeman! (e.g. in the times of Charlemagne, in purely frankish areas, when the nobility had to serve in wars for many years unlike the rest of the society).
About mentioned luck - pagan people (and people in general, even very long time after a "baptism" of a tribe) believed that if you are wealthy and you are good in the battle - than the gods are on your side. That's why very often "lower" situated people were agreeing with ideas presented on the things with no objection - because they believed that talented elite, who are supported by gods will make best decision for the whole society.
Nobility, beside their obedience in society, had also another privileges bounded with a law. E.g. they were taking bigger compensation for killed relatives, grievances etc. Usually they were taking two or three times more "money" (or wealther) than a usual person. Later it changed - the christian kings, who wanted to protect their officials or gain a hearing from the nobility where raising these amounts. Also during a trial their vote was two or three times more important than a voice of "regular" men.
With noble blood were bounded also noble duties. The most important was to defend a tribe, but not only. Keeping a peace in society and such things were also important. If a noble men failed, than he was the only person who got punished. Also if he broke a law, he was paying more - because he was expected to be more ideal than other free people. The nobility was expected to be an example and inspiracy for the other tribesmen - and not a tool of tyranny in the hand of the king, like it became often in the christian times.

 

Slaves

Here I make it short - a slaves weren't treated like a human beings according to law. If you read any agreement between two persons about inventory etc. you will see that very often a slave costed less than a cow - because cow is more useful. Even if icelandic family sagas present us that enslaved people weren't very often treated badly, in fact they had no rights. When you become a slave you loose everything - including your kin. And a man without a kin was nobody - because no one would take his side in a trial, no one would give you a shelter etc. Doing this was highly comdemned by ancient societies. The master of such slave could kill him, rape him/her or make him hurt without any consequences. The only situation when somebody was supposed to pay for a slave's death was when he killed someone's enslaved person. It was treated similar to killing a horse or a cow.

In the eyes of people from that times when somebody gave a slave personal freedom - than in some way he was creating him a human again, and becoming some kind of father for him. 

In germanic societies there was also a layer of lits, but I will write about it after an article devoted to women. Also there will be article about the priests - as they were something more special than other free people.

Learn more:

Karol Modzelewski - Barbaric Europe ("Barbarzyńska Europa")

Icelandic family sagas, (like Laxdoeala) codex of germano-roman rulers (like longobard Liutprand, Charlemagne and others)

Unfortunetely other books you have to find for yourself - as most of the literature about this subject I've learnt from mentioned book and some articles on the internet written only in polish. Yet those two sites should be helpful:

Icelandic Saga Database
Intenet Archive

Written by Vladyka in the year 2013.

Graveland - "Thunderbolts of the Gods" (2013)

Graveland

"Thunderbolts of the Gods"

No Colours Recs.

2013

Graveland is a well-known amongst fans of pagan metal polish project founded by Rob Darken in 1991 in Wrocław. "Thunderbolts..." is a 13th album of this veteran. 

One thing is certain - Rob decided to use all of his experience to create another good opus. For some time Rob was creating much slower albums, full of epic war hymns. Yet lately he is dropping it and returns to more extreme areas. The album is full of tempo-changes - from slow parts with usage of acoustic guitars and choir samples to fast, furious atacks. That positively influences a diversity of the music, so it is a good idea. Yet everybody who is following the band will discover here nothing new. Graveland is simply following the path that it has chosen many years ago - and so it brings us another portion of characteristic epic pagan metal sound. The music is not very complicated and a bit raw - the riffs thanks to the production are a bit noisy, yet tunes are highly memorable. There are more epic tracks ("Wolf of the North") and more agaressive moments (opening "Possessed by Steel"). And as I see it - it is better, more dynamic than last recordings. It simply kicks ass. I was affraid that "Thunderbolts..." will be just "another" position in Darken's discography, well producted but a bit emotionless. Yet this time I listen to something authentic, full of rage and passion!

Oh, and about a production. It's the same as last Graveland's releases, but that's a good thing because I simply love it. Organic, yet genuinely highlighting the epicness of the music (especially great parts of choirs). No critical notes here.

There is nothing more to write - and the thing is simple: if you like last releases of this band, you will certainly admire "Thunderbolts...". It is not original at all, yet it is a good portion of epic tunes in the characteristic style of almighty Graveland.

Rate: 8/10

Vladyka

Here you can watch a trailer of the upcoming videoclip:

Tracklist:

1. Possessed by Steel

2. Thunderbolts of the Gods

3. Chamber of Wicked Tears

4. Wolf of the North

5. Red Polaris

6. When Hammer Shines (outro)

Kroda - "Varulven" 2013

Kroda

"Varulven"

Purity Through Fire

2013

This album is a compilation of previously unreleased material. It contains only four songs, and lasts for circa twenty minutes. Here you can read more about it and actually listen to it for free - as it's available on Kroda's bandcamp. I may only add that the physical version (limited digipack) will be released by PTF in the beginning of November. For those who are not familiar with this band I will write few word why it's worth to have it in your collection.

And it's woth because it shows a bit different face of Kroda. The first track is played (as it's written on bandcamp) in a viking rock style, and bases on traditional nordic song. The main vocals are a female one, while the howling of Eisenslav is a bit on the second plan. In my opinion it sounds very good, and it would be interesting if a band adopted such elements on a new release. 

The rest of the material is more typical for this project. "Nemesis" is a german folk song, played on traditional ukrainian instruments (sopilka etc). If you heard "Oj na Gori..." from "Funf Jahre Kulturkampf" you can be sure that it sounds really (let's not be affraid of that word) nice. This track is also a good break between "Werwolf" and "Der Scharlachrote Tod". Both of those tracks are covers - the first one is Temnozor's, while the second one is Absurd's. It's not a big secret that Kroda knows how to play in interesting and ass-kicking way music of someone else. "Werewolf" is a bit different than the original, and moreover it's so full of energy that it looks a bit strange how only one person can make such a gehenna! The last track is like his predecessor a guts-grinding piece of brutal art, except it's a live version. And well, it just proves that Kroda is a beast on the scene!

I listen to "Varulven" whenever I can, and I am already preparing some money to buy the upcoming digipack. To everyone who is a fan of this ukrainian band or is simply interested in pagan/folk metal scene I recommend to do the same. A short, yet very good release.

Rate: 8+/10

Vladyka

Tracklist:
1. Varulven
2. Werwolf
3. Nemesis
4. Der Scharlachrote Tod (Absurd cover)

Žrec - "Pameti" (2012)

Žrec

 "Pameti"

Murderous Prod.

2012

After a debut album "Zertva" czech folk metalheads strikes back with their second full lenght album "Pameti". And I must say that this second strike is not very powerfull.
First track "1066" is similar to what they have done on their first LP - a mix of fast, oldschool black with some slower parts, happy folkish tunes and many clean vocals and quasi-choirs. This first composition is a great example of musical schizophrenia - I am not sure if Czechs wanted to record something serious, or just another jolly polka crap. That worked on their previous opus, but here it's very... Mediocre. The effect is that nothing remains in the head, even after a couple of listenings. This problem touches almost every part of this album - you can't hear any true emotions. This album simply doesn't have cojones, so to speak. Later album goes into more classical hard/heavy areas, but it's still nothing special - sorry to write, but these riffs had been played something like 1000 times or even more.
But there are moments that can be more than listenable, when classical production of sound, which in no ways suits for more aggressive stuff, is a big advantage - I mean a slow, psychodelic parts like in "Smrt a Mraz" or "Vitr na Polich". If a whole album was constructed in such way, I'd be bought...
Last thing I'd like to write are vocals. This harsh are really good, and their suits well for more aggresive parts. Clean ones are much more... Unpredictable. Let's face it - a singer is not another Dickinson. I think that he had done everything he could to make this material more dramatic, but he has no bigger talent, and is only another element named "averageness".
The real problem with this album is that it is not a total crap - it really has it moments (a part of "Bida" in around 5:00 is really majestic and beautiful). But everything good is unfortunately burried by very poor, average elements. This could be a good album, really. I hope another Zrec opus will be something much more emotional.

Rate: 5+/10 

Vladyka

Tracklist
1. 1066    
2. Smrt a mráz    
3. Vítr na polích    
4. Čarovná vrba    
5. Bída    
6. Paměti

Introduction to paganism - part II - slavic tradition

Introduction
This text contains only basic information about slavic native traditions. If you want to learn more - read some books, or go to links that I recommend you (look at the end of this article).

Historical Background
First of all, it must be written that slavic religion is not so well known as e.g. german (id est scandinavian) or celtic. It's because of poor sources. There is no written texts like scandinavians sagas or celtic legends and poems - slavic christian elites had no interest in survival of their native traditions. They were going to erase it from history's charts instead. I suppose it is bounded with resistance, which gave lower classes. In many slavonic countries (e.g. Poland in 1034, Czech Kingdom in the beggining of Xth century) there occured something called "the pagan reaction". It was a revolt of lower, still pagan classes, against the oppresion of Church and nobleman. During this events, the paganism was again main religion for a short period of time. It must be obvious than victorious christian people wanted to erase momories about paganism - because it was a root of resistance against tyranny and feudalism (which was half-slavery system in reality).
Our sources than are: archeology, folklore, some fragments from foreigner's texts, linguistics and of course comparitive mythology. By it, we can rebuilt slavic's ancient traditions.

Main Gods
Perun - He was also called with other names, dependly of region, and was widely worshipped in whole slavonic land. For many, he is the most important god of the pantheon.
He is describing as a bearded, strong men with an axe or hammer in his hand.
His name means "he, who strikes". As the god of sky and storm he represents an element of order. He is an active deity, in legends fighting with chaotic forces (e.g. he fights with a Dragon (Żmij), who represent a chaos in the universe). He is also responsible for the creation of the universe, along with Veles.
He is an incarnation of courage, honor and striving for perfection. He was worshipped especially by warriors.
He is similar with other thunder gods, like Thor and Taranis.
He's holy tree is oak.
He's holyday is 20 of July. 
Veles - a chtonic, god of underworld (Navia), wealth, magic, poetry and knowledge.  A deity that represents a chaotic side of the universe. He's the secend most important god in slavic pantheon, right behind Perun. He is his antagonist, (e.g. myth about creation of the universe). Together with Perun, he created a man.
Animals bounded with Veles are viper, bull and black horse.
He is similar to Hades and Pluto.
Svarog - a solar god, patron of celestial fire and of blacksmithing. He represents a more distant forces of light (deus otiosus), and by many he is called a demiurg. He is suppossed to be the main god of the pantheon, a king of all gods, not so interested in Earth's affairs though.
Similar to Hephaestus.
Dažbog - a son of Svarog, god of fire and a cultural hero. He represents a home's fireplace, and he gives people wealth and luck in life.
Similar to: Sol, Vesta and Hercules.
Mokosh - Mother Earth, goddes of fertility, abundance and love. Patron of women. One of the most important deities in slavic pantheon.
Similar to: Demeter, Aphrodite.
Rod -  He is a patron of all human gatherings e.g. families, kins, nations etc. He also assigns everyone's fate with help of his three servants, Rožanicas. He is a distant god, but Rožanicas were often an object of worship, due to their power of changing people's destiny.
Yarilo/Yarovit - a young, active god of spring, light and youth. He is incarnation of goodness, fertility and hapiness, especially worshipped at the first days of spring. He dies in the time of winter, and reborn on spring.
Described as a young, blond men dressing white drob. He rides a horse, and holds an ear of grain in his hand.
He's main holyday is 20th of april.
Similar to: Baldur, Apollo.
Marena/Marzanna - a goddes of death and winter, connected with underworld (Navia). Her effigy is burned on the first day of spring.
Hors - a god of moon.

Other beings
Dola - personification of fate, similar to disir in scandinavian mythology or christian guardian angel. They protect people form all the evil.
Dziady (Forefathers)  - a spirit of forebears, which can help in everyday life.


Regular festivals
21st of March - Jare Gody* - a festival of spring's equinox. 
20th of April - Yarilo's Holyday.
21st of June - Kupala's Night - a festival of summer's solstice.
20th of July - Perun's Holyday.
23rd of September - Festival of yields - a festival of autamn's equinox.
1st of November - Dziady - festival of forefathers.
21st of December - Szczodre Gody - festival of winter's solstice.
*I'm using Polish names if there is no English one.

Learn more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_mythology
http://www.paganspace.net/group/AncientSlavicMythology
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/548484/Slavic-religion
http://www.academia.edu/1264171/Slavic_Religion
http://piereligion.org/slavic.html

Books:
Marija Gimbutas The Slavs
P.M. Barford - The Early Slavs: Culture & Society in Early Medieval Eastern Europe
J. Mahal - Slavic Mythology
A. Szyjewski - Slavic Religion
B. Ribakov - Ancient Slavic Paganism


Books for polish-speaking people:
A. Gieysztor - Mitologia Słowian
A. Szyjewski - Religia Słowian
S. Urbańczyk - Dawni Słowianie – wiara i kult
H. Łowmiański - Religia Słowian i Jej Upadek (very critical work, but you can find here some useful infos)

Vladyka, May 2013