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piuto’s cult, which is nothing but a display of Thietmar’s erudition. What is really worth attention is the mcntion about reintroducing paganism. It is believed that the war between Mstislav and the Lutizens was caused by the Union’s attempts at dethroning this Christian prince and reviving paganism. The object of attack was Schwerin. Thietmar’s text does not explicitly say that this place was the seat of the prince, but it implies that it was the most formidable of Mstislav’s strongholds. Therefore we can try to connect with Schwerin the mention about reintroduction of idolatry, which must have caused reconstruction of the sanctuary. It is quite possible that the existence of the sanctuary was reflected by a mention in the foundation act of the bishopric, which was transferred to Schwerin from the temporary seat in Mecklemburg in 1170. According to it, bishop Berno, a member of the expedition against Arcona, “began to enlighten the people of Schwerin, who had lived in ignorance, he baptized them, pulled down their idols and founded churches ...” (MUB, vol. 1, 1863, p. 85-87).

Finally, it is possible to derive the name Schwerin from the stem *svar (SSS, vol. 5, p. 495), and as we know that Radogost was a nickname of Svarożic, it ties up with the thesis that the Abodrite sanctuary of Radogost was situated in this town, perhaps in the island near the western shore of Schwerin Lakę, which is now occupied by the magnificent castle of Mecklemburg princes. Quite recently well preserved wooden construction of em-bankments was discovered in the foundations of the castle (Keiling, 1988).

In the fragment which initiated the above discussion Helmold does not explicitly say that the shrines of Prove, Siwa and Radogost had the form of temples, but this mention is only a beginning of a wider digression concern-ing the pagan religion in Helmold’s Chronicie (I, 52). It contains very interesting information: “These deities had their servant priests, offering feasts were organised for them and they were worshiped in various ways. Namely, following the lots, a priest announces a celebration to honour the deities, and then men and women with children gather. They kill oxen and sheep as oblation to their gods, some even kill Christians, claiming that the gods relish Christian blood. Having killed the sacrificed animal, the priest tastes its blood in order to become morę sensitive to oracular inspiration. When the sacrifice is fulfilled in the customary way, the people begin to eat and dance. The Slavs have this strange superstition: during feasts they send around a cup into which with the name of the god of Good and Evil they put words, which I will not cali sacrifices but swears. They do it because they believe that good fate comes from the good god while bad fate from the evil one. Therefore in their language they cali the evil god the Devil, or Zcemeboch (the Black-god).” The description characterises the forms of cult found at the Abodrites in a generał way, so it cannot be straightforwardly related with a particular sanctuary, but the mention about feasts indicates that there were cult halls in places of worship. Only in Vagria the house of gathering must have been remote from the grove, the main shrine of god

Prove. The grove was the most important sanctuary of the Vagrians ruled by Pribislav. The shrine of Radogost must have had an equal rank as the cult centre of the Abodrite group ruled by Niklot. Both sanctuaries might have had oracles. Helmold says that Abodrites regard as the god’s medium the priest who fell into a trance after drinking some blood of a sacrificed animal, and he mentions drawing lots, which was always connected with divination.

Helmold’s information about the existence of temples in Abodrite terri-tories were verified by archaeology. The cult halls of Oldenburg have al-ready been mentioned here. Two temple-like buildings were excavated in the tenitory of the Vams - tegarded as a group of Abodrites - in Gross Raden and Parchim. The latter one may come from the times contemporary to the events narrated by Helmold.