Fire
History

Pilėnai and Margiris

Pilėnai is a place that looms over the landscape of Lithuanian history. It is a place shrouded in legend and a castle that became the symbol of Lithuania‘s life and death struggle for freedom. When listening to the voices of the writers and historians having contributed most to turning Pilėnai into a symbol, we know that Pilėnai duke Margiris and his men fought fearlessly against the numerous forces of the Teutonic Knights. It was only when the situation appeared bleak that they decided to destroy all of the wealth taken to the castle, then kill their wives, children and finally themselves. Choosing death instead of slavery, the defenders of Pilėnai showed a special love for freedom. These tragic but noble events occurred on February 25th, 1336 and was declared as a typical example of Lithuanian valour. […]

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History

Pagan superstitions and spells in the GDL

Baltic Paganism, surviving in Europe up until the very late Medieval times, gave rise not only to hostility among the Christians, but also to a certain curiosity. As the Franciscan Bartholomew the Englishman described in his encyclopaedic treatise written in the mid-18th century, Baltic Paganism was regarded by Christians as a ritus mirabilis. […]

History

Poles in Pagan Lithuania

Lithuanian and Polish ethnic territories did not have a common border in the Middle Ages because they were separated by Yotvingian lands. The first closer contacts between Lithuanians and Poles date back to 1209–1211, when Lithuanians started organising raids into Polish lands. […]

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History

Scouts and guides in medieval Lithuania

Life in the Baltic lands in the middle ages was full of dangers. In the 13th century, the old rivalries between the local tribes were accompanied by fights against the Knights of the Cross, and the Knights of the Sword. By comparing the art of warfare practised by local tribes and alien Germans, one can notice considerable differences in technical issues, such as weaponry, fortifications, and strategies, as well as in warfare customs. In this respect, the Livonian Chronicle by Henry of Latvia is particularly telling. While Germans and other western Christians would adhere to the knightly rules of war in Livonia, local Baltic and Finno-Ugric peoples acted very much like the barbarians did during the times of the Great Migration of the Nations. […]

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History

Suicide in pagan Lithuania

The romantic attitude towards the pagan Lithuania, shaped in the 19th century, remains tenacious up to these days. Romantic authors, such as Teodor Narbutt and Józef Ignacy Kraszewski who wrote in Polish, saw the old Lithuania as a fairy tale country with an ideal state order and virtuous inhabitants. They were confident that the Lithuanian history of the 13th and 14h century was a period of “golden times”. This kind of standpoint made an essential impact on the leading figures of the Lithuanian national resurgence in the second half of the 19th century. They employed the visions of the pagan glory to wake the nation up considering the majority of people immature for high nationalist aspirations. […]

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History

Drinking in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Alcohol, produced by fermenting liquids, has been known in many continents and cultures from as far back as the stone and bronze ages. The first knowledge of consumption of alcoholic beverages in the Balt lands, provided by the Anglo-Saxon traveller Wulfstan who visited the lower reaches of the Vistula River, date back to the end of the 9th century: “Kings and nobility drink mare milk, while the poor and slaves drink mead.” […]

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History

The sacrifice of captives

Human sacrifice is attributable to the most forbidding customs of ancient tribes. Among Asian and European cultures, it permeated unevenly. The Greek myths speak of human sacrifice but historical sources provide no data of any actual practice of the kind. In the ancient Greece, it was considered an old yet no longer exercisable rite replaced by the sacrifice of animals. Although the gladiator fights point to the fact that the Romans enjoyed terrifying shows, neither can they be associated with the human sacrifice as a common feature of their customs. […]

Mid summer celebration in Lithuania
History

Role of female slaves in the ancient Balts societies

Issues related to the history of slavery in Lithuania have neither been properly studied nor have they drawn a greater international attention yet due to the scarcity of sources. This aspect of the early history of Lithuania can be brought to light by employing only very sparse sources and the comparative context as the background. The social structure and evolution of Lithuanians and other Balt peoples resembled that of societies in Northern and Eastern Europe. The historiographic description of Lithuanians as “Vikings of the overland”, by Edvardas Gudavičius, represents more than a mere metaphor as it reveals typological similarities which become evident in comparing Viking and Curonian societies. The same is true speaking of other Balt tribes. […]

Replica of the Byzantium Rumeli fortress built in 1452 m
History

Lithuanians through the eyes of the Byzantines

In terms of civilization, Byzantium represents the Christianized East, however if we travelled almost completely straight in a southwest direction, we would hits its center, Constantinople. In discussing Lithuania in the context of Eastern Christian civilization, we should remember the distinction of North and South, which during Antiquity coincided with the divide between civilized lands and barbaric lands. The rise of Northern Europe in the second millennium occurred as a result of the spread of Christianity, which at the time became synonymous with the spread of civilization. […]