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Fig. 104. Sviatovid frora Zbruch. Aft er A. Gieysztor, 1982, p. 94.

from Altfriesack, Fischerinsel, Behren-Lubchin and the head from Jankowo were also carved in oak wood, only the head from Dąbrówka - from alder wood. Oak wood is very difficult for sculpturing, but exceptionally resistant. Moreover, we could point to the speciai role of oak as the tree attributed to Perun. Interestingly enough, no sculptures of linden wood have been attested.

The vision of Slavonic idols madę of rough wood or stone is as dose to reality as the conviction about white marble statues of andent Greece. We know that idols were covered with tar. The plank from Ralswiek was painted white, red and black. Remains of red paint have been detected on the so-called Sviatovid from the Zbruch. According to Herbord (II, 32), the faęade of the tempie in Szczecin, decorated with sculptures, shone with the fuli rangę of colours. Moreover, Ebo’s story (III, 8) about the priest from Wolgast who disguised himself using the god’s clothes, means that some idols may have been dressed. We know that Scandinavian statues were dressed and adomed with jewels. According to Thietmar (VI, 23) the idols from Radogosc had helmets and cuirasses, which were probably not carved in wood, but genuine. Finally, we should pose the ąuestion whether the Slavs produced monumental metal statues. The sources answer in a peculiar way. Some sculptures were madę of wood, but for instance the Kiev Perun had “silver head and golden moustache.” The face of Tjarnoglofi (the Black-Headed) from Rugen was decorated with silver moustache, while Triglav from Szczecin had three heads covered with silver (Słupecki, 1993, p. 64-65). The statuę seized in Starigard by the Saxonians was moulded of copper, while Adam of Bremen claims that the effigy of Radogost in Radogosc was golden. Sagas describe Scandinavian idols in a similar way (de Vries, 1956-1957, vol. 1, p. 386-389). Therefore, we should suppose that some wooden sculptures in the main sanctuaries had the faces covered with valuable metals. Some statues may have had eyes of glittering ma-terials, such as glass, amber or jewels, which may be inferred from Ebo’s mention (III, 10) about gouging the eyes of the statues from Gutzkow before buming them.

Deities were represented with one or many heads, or with one multi--faced head. Attempts at questioning the texts conceming that issue are unconvincing (Wienecke, 1940, p. 142; Łowmiański, 1979, p. 195-200). Polycephalism of gods is not a unique feature of Slavonic religion (Lamm, 1987; Krzak 1992; Kotlarczyk 1993). There is a fragment of HeImold’s chronicie (I, 84), which refers to polycephalism of Slavonic deities in generał, and concrete descriptions of multi-headed idols in the Lives of St Otto, Saxo Grammaticus and Henry of Antwerp. The reliability of those texts was proved by the sculpture from Fischerinsel. The char-acteristic shape of adjacent heads found there points to the existence of a specific style of Słavonic sculpture, at least in northem Polabia. Some confirmation of that claim may be found in Herbord’s information (II, 32) about “three heads touching each other,” belonging to the statuę of Triglav from Szczecin, and in Saxo Grammaticus’s description of Sventovit (Hensel, 1983). Possibly there was some correspondence between this style and the manner in which anthropomorphic planks from temples were omamented. I. Gabriel (1988a, p. 184-194) showed that some of them had been sculptured with moustache, eyes and nose on the face.

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