The Old Gods die Pathetically
At least that seems to be the case in the dialogue Henryk Sienkiewicz' novel Knights of the Cross between two Polish nobles about campaigning in Lithuania. Lithuania had been pagan and only recently converted to Christianity when its prince became king of Poland/Lithuania. If Paris were worth a mass, think how much Poland and Lithuania might be worth! You will notice that neither of the two Christian knights assume that the old pagan gods were imaginary, simply that they had been demoted by Christ. I think Sienkiewicz got to the heart of something important about the faith of Europeans before the modern era.
"We cannot complain," answered Zbyszko [...]. "A part of
our booty, we sold in Krakow and received forty silver _grzywiens_ for
it."
"You don't say so! Why, one can buy an estate for that."
"Yes. There was one Milanese armor which my uncle, expecting to die, sold
for a good price."
"I know! Well, it is worth while to go to Lithuania. I wanted to go there
also; but I was afraid."
"Of what? Of the Knights of the Cross?"
"Ej, who would be afraid of Germans? I was afraid of those heathenish
gods or devils. It seems there are plenty of them in the woods."
"They do not have any other place for shelter, because their temples have
been burned. Formerly they were well-to-do; but now they live on
mushrooms and ants."
"Did you see them?"
"No, I did not see any myself; but I heard of people who had seen them.
Sometimes one of them sticks out a hairy paw from behind a tree and
shakes it, begging for something."
"Macko told me the same," answered Jagienka.
"Yes! He told me about it on the road," said Zych. "Well, no wonder! In
our country also, although it has been a Christian country for a long
time, one can hear laughter in the marshes; and although the priests
scold about it in the churches, it is always good policy to put a dish
filled with something to eat, for the little devils; otherwise they will
scratch on the walls so much that one can hardly sleep. Jagienka, my
dearest! put a dish at the threshold."
Jagienka took an earthen porringer full of noodles and cheese, and placed
it at the threshold. Zych said:
"The priests scold! But the Lord Jesus will not be angry about a dish of
noodles; and a god, as soon as his hunger is satisfied, will protect one
from fire and from thieves."
Begging for a plate of noodles and cheese. How the mighty had fallen.
Labels: historical fiction, religion
2 Comments:
But isn't that what some of the gods were already about anyways? Little hearth or kitchen gods and sprites, to whom you leave small food offerings? Maybe it wasn't much of a change?
Some of the gods. But the Lithuanians were typical Indo-Europeans with lots of genuinely nasty sky gods - and that is what I think they are talking about here.
I have read a 17th cent. account of North American Indians written by a French Jesuit that displays much the same attitude towards the Indian gods - i.e. they were real, just not powerful. Not on a par with Jesus at any rate.
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