Which European mythology do you find most interesting?

[Jana]

Old Croatian mythology, which is part of wider Slavic mythology but we developed our own and unique myths and legends


Legends of ancient Croatian gods and giants
Little is known that ancient Croatian mythology is replete with stories dating from the beginning of the world until the final showdown of light and darkness, and that many of them relate to the regions of Istria, Kvarner and Gorski kotar.

Long and painful battles took place between the Naval Gods and the Force of Light against the Force of Darkness, to bring Light and Good to victory, leaving such a world to our heritage, and many mountains, rivers, islands and shores bear names in memory of them. The supreme ancient Croatian god Svarog and his sons Svarožići: the god of the thunder of Perun, the god of the sun Svantevid, the god of the wind Stribor and the god of the moon Tatomir led the Forces of Light. They also had allies such as the goddess of victory Bojana, the god of war Gerovit, the god of hospitality Radogost, the god of the waters of Vodan, the god of nature Volos and many giants, good fairies and other creatures. The Dark Powers, on the other hand, were led by the ruler of the underworld of Black, and his helpers were the fiery dragon Crt, the leader of the demons Bjesomar, the leaders of the evil giants Kornat and Lejan, the goddess of death and winter, Moran, and other members of the evil forces. After a long war of varying fortunes for each side, the members of the Dark Powers eventually fell one by one, in order to clash the evil Line and the good Svantevid, who claimed victory in the final battle, and took the Forces of Light and Good to the final triumph. . From the defeated evil giants emerged the Adriatic islands, and by the largest of them the Kornati islands. The name Gerovo in Gorski Kotar was named after the good Gerovit, the place Volosko on the eastern Istrian coast, after Perun the hills near Plomin and Gračišće, and Svantevid got shrines at the places where the churches of Sv. Vid.

[renaissance12]

This confirmed the flow of Anglo-Saxons from present-day Germany into Britain after the departure of the Romans in 410 ad. They interbred with local residents instead of replacing them wholly, as some historians and archaeologists have suggested. Danish Vikings, who occupied Britain between the 700s and 1100s ad, by contrast, left little signature in most Britons’ genomes.

https://www.nature.com/news/uk-mappe...cestry-1.17136

[Token]

I know it... Anglo-saxon mytohology doesn't really exist.. that is a fact..

Even the days of the week in English are named after Germanic gods dude. Anglo-Saxon mythology was like any other Germanic mythology.

[renaissance12]

Even the days of the week in English are named after Germanic gods dude. Anglo-Saxon mythology was like any other Germanic mythology.

Absolutely true... the problem is that all ancient germanic mythology (before Wagner ) can be written in 4 pages..and 90% of the written lines derive from Tacitus and Julius Caesar..

[Jana]

Croatian mythology: Fairies and Elves

Many of us know more about Greek, Roman, Egyptian and even Viking mythology than our own. This is partly due to the attitude of the Church, which throughout history has been largely negative towards mythological beings, holidays and customs from Slavic (and thus Croatian) mythology. On the other hand, there is the influence of Hollywood, as well as films and series that promote and popularize certain, most interesting, mythology and religion to the public.

The Fairy myth is common to many Slavic peoples, including the Croatian people, and is one of the most widespread and oldest myths. The first information about the fairies in our region is obtained from the Procopius of Caesarea (6th c.), Who says that the Slavs "respect rivers and nymphs, as well as other demons, and offer sacrifices to all, and on this occasion they sacrifice."

Although there are fairies (more specifically 'elves') and elves in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, in Croatian mythology there are only fairies as supernatural beings, mysterious women who live in nature, mostly on mountains, along lakes and streams, or in addition to springs or land in special caves and caves. The fairies resemble human women, they have a special beauty and, unlike the Bell, they have no wings. They are tall and slender, with lush hair that is either loose or braided. They wear white clothes and sometimes have a gold crown, gold star or evergreen wreath on their heads.





In some stories, fairies have several physical flaws. In one version, their hair stinks horribly, and in another version, instead of human feet, they have cat paws, horse hooves or mules and ass hooves, and goat or beef legs, which they then hide well. Maybe that's why fairies love horses a lot. If a horse is left out of the barn overnight, they will play with it until dawn and braid its mane. Apparently, Ivana Brlic Mazuranic was aware of this myth, which used it in her book The Tales of Dawn (1971) in the story of the Fairy Kosjenka.

"It seemed very wonderful for Kosjenka to ride like a whirlwind on cavalry at night. And it was she who had caught the living crow: the little one and the angry one like the fire. He runs a crow all the way with other horses, and is the fastest of all. All over it foam spray. But Kosjenki wanted an even faster ride. She bent down and pinched the crow's right ear. The crow crows, rises to its hind legs, then in the summer straight surrenders, leaves the other horses, leaves the meadows and takes Kosjenka as a whirlwind to a distant world. Kosjenka was fond of this light riding. "

Fairies are generally good or neutral, but caution should be exercised around them as they are easily angry. They help people by giving them useful things, shepherds know how to keep a flock while sleeping, treat people with herbs, or teach them herbs that have healing properties. They show the stray traveler the way, strengthen the soldiers, and lull the baby crying in the cradle. Sometimes the fairies make it impossible for the person to whom they gave the gift to look at the gift until they get home. If a person kneels down and looks, the gift turns into charcoal, egg shell and the like. The four-leaf clover is known in Slavonia as fairy grass, and it will bring good luck and fortune to the person who finds it, but also a great misfortune if it throws the clover into the fire.



Admittedly, sometimes they know how to steal a child they particularly like (most often a beautiful and gifted child) and raise them as their own. Sometimes they steal a child and plant their child instead. Although there are no elves, fairies like to seduce human young men and have offspring with them. Men who are somehow associated with fairies are called elves, elves or elves, but they are definitely of human origin. If someone finds a pitchfork while combing at a well, take it with them. They like to take revenge on people if they break the oath they were given or if they do not accept fairy friendship. Those who embrace fairy friendship often become clairvoyant or become clairvoyant.

In addition to the children, the fairies also know how to kidnap adults. A myth has been reported in Novigrad saying that fairies know how to abduct a man and give him the knowledge of divination. They do this by taking him to the mountain where they live. The initiation of man takes place next to an old tree which is a frequent initiation symbol in many mythologies.

In the southern parts of Croatia, fairies were believed to feed on honey, lambs, small pigs or eat fat. From the Pannonian regions, there was a rumor that they ate the crumbs left on the table after people had eaten their lunch. Fairies do not drink water from anywhere except from pure sources. It was sometimes thought that their power was in the gold belt or headscarf they wore and if they were deprived of it, they would lose their power. This power was great, and is best described by a legend that says that the Arena in Pula was built by villas in one night. They took stones from Učka mountian and stacked the stones in a circle. But the fairies, in this version, were creatures of the night and when they heard the first rooster had to stop working. As a result, the Arena remained unfinished.



Judges (destinies, bridesmaids, birthdays) are also some kind of fairy creatures that determine a person's destiny at birth. Basically, there are three fatefuls who agree upon their fate after birth, and will be as the last fate says. They are invisible to humans unless a person has a fern flower around them, and the maternity can hear them if they wake up all night. In some places, there was a custom of leaving food on the table, which the bridesmaids would then eat and then be gentle and benevolent in predicting the fate of the child.

The women who claimed to be especially adept at healing and who had been taught the fairies were called elves. There is a case dating back to 1660 when a message came to "Captain Janjina in the Republic of Dubrovnik, Ivan Gučetić, to have an elf and a witch (streghe) in his captaincy." The captain ordered one of these elves to be brought in because he was interested in what the elves could do. Vilenica answered that she knew how to heal, and that Aunt Fairy, who appeared to her in a white robe, in the form of a nun, had taught her that. She also claimed to be able to identify who the witch had hurt and whether or not the person was healed. From this testimony, the older mythology of the villas with the more recent Christian elements that later came to Croatian soil is evident. Elves' character was common in Dalmatia, and in addition to healing, other people's spells could be nullified.

Church reform, fierce Protestant criticism of the situation in the Christian world at that time, and the Council of Trent (1545-1563) initiated processes that strongly influenced Europe. Namely, in addition to the reform of the Church, there has also been a "popular culture reform" when the elves are put in a negative context, although they have not previously attracted too much attention in church circles. In the 17th century, elves were equated with witches, which meant that they were equally susceptible to persecution. The practice of persecuting women accused of possessing supernatural powers came to an end in 1756, and two years later, courts in Croatia and Slavonia were prohibited from conducting any trials against witches, elves and sorcery without direct customs clearance.



The Fairy motif has remained in Croatia, and is often present in the art and literature of the Renaissance, neoclassicism and romanticism. Fairies are, for example, a common motif in many paintings by Vlaho Bukovac. In his picture, the Croatian Rebirth (1895) above the Gundulic sitting sits swarms of fairies, and one fairy hugs him. Fairies wear white dresses because white is most commonly associated with fairies, but at the same time it is a symbol of virginity and purity, with tiara-like decorations on their heads. The fairies can also be noticed in perhaps the most famous picture of Bukovac, "Gundulic's Dream". Hanibal Lucić wrote the poem Jur none at the Fairy (16th century), describing her supernatural beauty and green wreath on her head. In more recent times, the fairies character has once again attracted attention as part of cultural heritage and has been a frequent topic of ethnological research.

[Token]

Absolutely true... the problem is that all ancient germanic mythology (before Wagner ) can be written in 4 pages..and 90% of the written lines derive from Tacitus and Julius Caesar..

Grimm wrote two thousand pages on Germanic mythology. You can learn a lot from folk traditions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Mythologie

[renaissance12]

Grimm actually wrote two thousand pages on Germanic mythology. You can learn a lot from folk traditions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Mythologie

Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (4 January 1785 – 20 September 1863 )... the next one could write 1.000.000 pages.. and don't forget.. 1000 Thor Marvel comics.. they are norse mythology also..

[Token]

Based on archeological evidences, Germanic Iron Age mythos would not differ very much from Viking Age Norse mythology. The Eddas are by far the most important source for Germanic mythos.

Germans had Sól, Baldur, Freyja, Frija, Wodan, Donar, the concept of world tree and basically the same heroes. Valhalla, Ragnarök and Loki are probably Norse innovations and maybe the result of post Christianism syncretism.

[Samnium]

By the way Roman mythology was even more complex than the greek one. Each function, each task had their god or goddess, peasants invoked not only Ceres, but also the deity linked to the action of sowing, the deity linked to the action of gathering crops...

There were thousands of different entities with their own legends and folkrore.

What we know about greco-roman mythology is a little part of what greco-roman mythology was.

Envoyé de mon ALE-L21 en utilisant Tapatalk

[renaissance12]

Based on archeological evidences, Germanic Iron Age mythos would not differ very much from Viking Age Norse mythology. The Eddas are by far the most important source for Germanic mythos.

Germans had Sól, Baldur, Freyja, Frija, Wodan, Donar, the concept of world tree and basically the same heroes. Valhalla, Ragnarök and Loki are probably Norse innovations and maybe the result of post Christianism syncretism.

Please.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Germanic_Reich


Hitler also disapproved of the pseudoarchaeological projects which Himmler organized through his Ahnenerbe organization, such as excavations of pre-historic Germanic sites: "Why do we call the whole world's attention to the fact that we have no past?