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X, vol. 6, 1985, p. 165-166), the Samogitians adored groves as sacred places and homes of their gods: “They fell into such infatuation that they regarded both the mentioned forests and wild animals and birds living in them as sacred, and everything that entered [the forest] was supposed to become sacred.” Probably St Adalbert, the patron saint of Poland, died a martyr’s death in a Prussian grove, because he was not killed after a sudden attack, but tied and struck with a spear by a priest on a forest glade (Jan Canaparius, 1, 30; Bruno of Querfurt, S. Adalberti vita altera, 32; Adam of Bremen, IV, 18). Sacrifices madę by Prussians in forests are mentioned in the Christburg Treaty from 1249, while the location of some sacred groves is recorded in the reports of The Teutonic Order spies (Mieżyński, 1892-1896, p. 90-105).

As far as the Slavs are concemed, the information about holy groves are not very elaborate, if compared with descriptions of temples and cult yards. Only the relation concerning the grove of Prove contains some details. Sacred groves were sanctuaries of various rank. Helmold (I, 52) says that the Abodrites “apart from groves and gnomes in which fields and towns abounded” - which refers to groves of local status - worshiped gods of all-tribe importance, one of which was “Prove, the god of the Starigard region.” Such deities were served by priests, and, as Helmold says, honoured by sacrificial feasts. In 1150 bishop Wicelin went to Starigard, which once had been the Capital of a diocese. He was met by “the barbarous inhabitants of the land, who worshiped god Prove. The priest who celebrated the idolatry was called Mikę. The prince of the land was called Rochel and was descended from the Kruto famiły, and he was the worst idolater and pirate.” Wicelin did not succeed in reestablishing the bishopric in Starigard, al-though the pagans allowed him to build a chapel in the town (Helmold, I, 69). At the beginning of January 1156 Wicelin’s successor, bishop Gerold, set out to Starigard despite severe frost. Prince Pribislav, inclined to accept-ing Christianity, hosted the bishop. Helmold accompanied the latter in this joumey and he witnessed the events. When Gerold left the prince’s house in order to travel to farther regions, on the 8th of January 1156, as Helmold (I, 84) narrates, “we happened to encounter on our way a grove which is the only one in that country, which is generally level. Among very old trees we saw there the sacred oaks devoted to the god of that country, called Prove. They were encircled by a yard and a dense wooden fence with two gates. Apart from home deities and gnomes in which separate settlements abounded, that very place was a sanctity for the whole country, had its own priest, holidays and various offering rituals. Every Monday inhabitants from the whole country with the prince himself gathered to dispense justice. The entrance to the shrine was forbidden to all except of the priest and those who wanted to bring offerings, or were in danger of death, because the latter were never refused asylum. The Slavs revere their shrines so much that they do not allow to desecrate the enclosure of the tempie even with enemy*s blood. They hardly permit swearing oaths, as for a Slav to swe ar means nearly to draw a curse on himself, because angry gods revenge it.” Compa--ring the cult practiced in the described grove with the temples, Helmold stated that the deities that “inhabit forests and groves, such as the god Prove from Starigard (...), are not pictured in any efflgies.” Helmold relates also the destruction of the grove, in which he participated: “When we came to the mentioned grove, which was a devilish place, the bishop admonished us to destroy it courageously. He himself dismounted his horse and smashed the decorated fronts of the gates. Then, having entered the shrine, we heaped all the wood from its fence at one place near the holy trees in order to bum it, although we were afraid that the inhabitants might surprise us and attack with Stones. But God saved us.”

Thus, we know that the grove of Prove lay near Starigard/Oldenburg, not far from the town, in a desolate area. It grew on an elevated place. There are very few hilis in the neighbourhood of the present Oldenburg near the Baltic coast. W. Struve (1988, p. 39-40) supposes that the grove hill might have been Weinberg (possibly derived from weih = saint). The sanctuary was formed by old oaks surrounded with a fence. There were two gates in it, but profanes were forbidden to enter, so probably the adjudication held there every Monday and the counselling assembly took place outside the enclosure. The grove of Prove was undoubtedly the main sanctuary of the Vagrians, as Helmold explicitly says. The priest from this shrine “celebrated the idolatry” of the tribe and was the most influential priest in Vagria. He is mentioned in the texts from 1150 and 1156 along with the prince, with whom he jointly dispensed justice. Mikę, mentioned as the priest of Prove in 1150, is the only Slavonic priest whose name is known.

The name of the deity worshiped in that grove troubles researchers. The reference to adjudication provokes its reconstruction as Prawo (Law), but the fact that the epiphany of the god of Vagria are oak trees, attributes of the Thunderer, suggests that it may be a version of the name Perun, dis-torted by the prominence of the judicial function, probably stressed by Helmold’s informants (Gieysztor, 1982, p. 50-51; Jakobson, 1985, p. 17; Łowmiański, 1984, p. 390; SSS, vol. 4, p. 368; an altemative explantation in K.T. Witczak, 1993, p. 120)

Another grove appears in Thietmar’s chronicie (VI, 37). Referring to the achievements of his predecessor, Wigbert, bishop of Merseburg, Thietmar comments: “(•••) tireless in preaching, he dissuaded the sheep entrusted to his care from the errors of futile superstition, and having cut down a grove called Zutibure (the Saint Forest), which the natives used to treat as sacred and inviolable, he built a church to honour the holy martyr Roman in the same place.” Linguists (Eichler, 1981, p. 204) identify Zutibure or Saint Forest {Święty Bór) with the settlement Schkeitbar (now a part of the village Rapitz) near Leipzig. The mention indicates that the holy forest was subject to a taboo. In Slavonic bór means a resinous coniferous forest, or (as in Czech) a forest situated in a damp area, the Polish word borowina (a kind of

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