Putting Slavic women in their place
According to “The Tale of Bygone Years” in the year of 983 a few boyars knocked to the door of one of the Kievan estates. The estate belonged to a Varangian, who lived there with his son. Both the Varangian and his son arrived to Kiev from Byzantium and they both were Christians.
“The Tale of Bygone Years” does not specify if the boyars visited the Varangian in the morning or in the evening. It is not known if the wind tangled their robes, or if the rich embroidery of their clothes shimmered in the sunlight. We don’t know if the Christians were surprised by the visit, or if it they saw it coming. There is many unknowns in this story, but one thing is known for sure: the boyars knocked on the Varangian’s door to demand, in the name of the Slavic Gods, the blood of his son. Literally. On that day, in the year of 983, the Slavic Gods requested human blood and, through a divination They indicated the Varangian’s son as the appropriate sacrifice.
Being a Christian, the Varangian not only refused to give up his son, but also renounced the very existence of the Slavic Gods. This angered boyars and other citizens of Kiev. Furious Kievans wrecked the Varangian’s estate leaving standing only a gallery, where the Varangian and his son stood. Then the boyars once more asked the Christian if he will give up his son. After the Varangian refused again the angered people demolished the gallery from below, thus killing both men.
What does this story have to do with women? Well, as it turns out – a lot.
The olden days
For majority of the modern Rodnovers, so called “traditional roles and responsibilities” of Slavic women are a concept understood in an intuitive way. Not many question the “traditional” place of women in the society, the “traditional” responsibilities of bearing children and bringing them up, of serving the family, looking after the house and remaining in the shadow of the husband, whom the “traditional” woman should support, being at the same time obedient and faithful. Such intuitively understood “traditional” idea of being a woman is tied up with looking and behaving in a “womanly” way, so: pretty, nicely, delicately, meekly, humbly and in a well-mannered way towards, pretty much, everything and everybody.
Unfortunately such “traditional” ways of being a woman are thoughtlessly adapted and accepted by modern Rodnovers, who in this “traditionalism” see a proof od how very “rodnoy” those norms are. Not all preachers of Slavic Native Faith go as far as, for example, Ynglists, who claim that women are naturally materialistic and hence incapable of achieving any level of spirituality without the help of “naturally” spiritual men. Nevertheless majority of modern Rodnovers see women as mostly mothers and wives, who are domesticated, meek, obedient, and – no point in pretending otherwise – know their place withing the home, surrounded by children, needlework, cooking and other “traditionally” female activities.
But it wasn’t like that in the olden days.
The society of our pagan, Slavic ancestors was built around a single, most important goal: surviving. In order to survive our pre-Christian and pre-industrial ancestors needed food, shelter and lots of children. Although the food and shelter could be provided (or built) by pretty much any member of the society, the children was not so easy to “supply”.
As I’ve mentioned many times on Witia’s blog, becoming a biological mother to a human child was neither easy nor safe, let’s call it, “occupation” in the times of our ancestors. The perinatal mortality – of both mothers and children – was huge and additionally, without vaccinations, modern medicine and in general, prosperity, our ancestors faced issues with infertility, caused by: malnourishment, mumps, tuberculosis, STDs, various other infections and inflammatory condition of urinary tract, congenital defects etc. Because our ancestors did not have access to modern screening tests, the only way they could fully make use of individuals capable of giving birth to healthy children, was early empirical testing of the potential biological mothers, so: early sexual initiation in order to check if a girl is in fact able to get pregnant and successfully give birth to a healthy child. If the girl did not get pregnant or – what was not uncommon in those times – died during childbirth? Well, it, obviously, was a shame, but at the same at least the fertility issue was detected early and the girl (if still alive) did not have to waste any more of her life on trying to achieve something, that clearly wasn’t meant to be. But if the girl did manage to get pregnant and give birth to a healthy child – excellent! She had years if not decades of pregnancies and childbirth ahead of her. Sounds cruel? Such were the times of our ancestors. By the way, boys did not have it much easier. Although - obviously – nobody made them get pregnant, but they did have to prove that there were worthy of being husbands to the women blessed with the amazing gift of fertility. In order to prove that they are healthy, strong, brave, determined and capable enough to become good husbands, boys and young men had to spend years, if not decades, on gathering enough wealth to be able to afford a wedding gift and, through that, get themselves a wife (you can read about Slavic marriages here).
The system of “screening” for female fertility allowed our ancestors early identification of individuals capable of giving birth to healthy children. Let’s not forget – in those times, when 5% of women died in childbirth, further 15% died shortly after giving birth, when 1/3 of newborns did not make it to the 5th birthday and only minority of people lived past 45 years, numerous and frequent giving birth to children was the only chance of the survival of the family, the clan, the tribe or Slavic people in general. Back in those days, hundreds and thousands years ago, when there was less than 300 million people on the whole planet Earth, when Central Europe was inhabited by barely 2,3 millions of humans, in those times mothers were the pillars of the very existence of the society. But now? There is over 8 billion of us and every year the human population grows by just over 1%. As a species we have a lot of problems, but the risk of extinction (of humans) is not one of them. Why then do we expect of women to have even more children?
Sowing rue
It wasn’t an easy task to give birth to healthy children in early Medieval Ages. The pregnant woman had to eat properly, she needed help and support, particularly in the last trimester of the pregnancy, when even the most healthy and fit soon-to-be mother finds it difficult to deal with simple daily tasks like putting shoes on. Considering how important the pregnant woman was for the family or clan, there can be no doubt, that the not-pregnant members of the community did what they could to help and support the future mother. There can also be no doubt that those helping and supporting were not only men, but also not-pregnant women.
For obvious reason the role of wife/mother was reserved for women who were fertile and ready to get married. But such women were not the only women living in the communities of our Slavic ancestors. There must have been women who could not have children, as well as women who did not want it. Considering the risk of pregnancy and labour as well as common knowledge of herbal remedies, it is no difficult to imagine, that at least some of the early medieval Slavic women made a decision to remain childless through, for example, using herbal remedies like rue (which, by the way, is frequently mentioned in Slavic folk songs in the context of romantic, pre-marital relationships). Termination of pregnancy or infanticide is quite frequently mentioned in early Medieval sermons, which suggest that family planning or birth control methods were well known among pre-Christian Slavs. And no wonder. It seems that, contrary to Christians, Pagan women could, apart of being a wife/mother, take on other, socially accepted roles.
We know, for example, that among pre-Christian Slavs women could be rulers, like Libuše, the female founder of Prague or Olga of Kiev, a female ruler of Kievan Rus’. Women could be spiritual leaders, like Libuše’s siter, princess Teta or the anonymous priestesses mentioned in hagiographies of St. Wenceslaus and Otto of Bamberg. They could follow a path of a scholar, studying lore of, for example, herbal medicine or more generally healing and become – as Christian chronicles called it – witches. One of the few known by name early medieval Slavic witches was Kazi, an older sister of already mentioned Libuše. Healers-witches were mentioned in pretty much every medieval sermons preached to the pagan Slavs, which indicates that witchcraft was a popular activity among our ancestress. Additionally historical sources indicate that Slavic women could also be warriors. The chronicle of John Skylitzes states that bodies of female warriors were found on the battlefield during the siege of Dorostolon. Slavic female warriors were also mentioned by Nikephoros I of Constantinople and Leo the Deacon. Cosmas of Prague wrote about the Maiden’s war and the legend of the uprising led by Šárka is still alive in Czechia.
Šárka and Ctirad, by Věnceslav Černý. Public domain
From the above it follows, that in the world of our ancestors women not only had control over their own reproduction rights, but they also had options of taking on other, apart of wife/mother, socially acceptable roles. And this is where an obvious question arises – why pre-Christian Slavic women got married and had children at all? What made young, strong and capable girls decide to get married and risk their life by getting pregnant?
Sacrifice of blood
Do you still remember the story of the Varangian I started this post with? Since I first read this story, I could not help by wonder why did boyars waste their time to even talk to the Christian Varangian? If they were after his son, they could easily have arranged for his capture from a street or a market place. Surely a kidnapping would have been much more efficient way of getting the required sacrifice for the Slavic Gods. But the boyars wasted their time to talk to the Varangian in an attempt to convince him to give up his son. Why?
The very fact that the boyars knocked at the door of the Varangian’s estate and openly presented their request, indicates that they did not expect the request to be refused. It’s hard to say what did the boyars expect. Joyful giving up of the son’s life? Or perhaps they expected some sort of negotiation to, for example, offer a slave or a few oxen instead of the Varangian’s son? Nevertheless, considering how angry they were when the Christian rejected their request, it seems like the complete and utter rejection of any sort of cooperation in preparing the sacrifice for the Slavic Gods was not something that the people of Kiev saw coming. It seems like the boyars took the Varangian’s refusal to cooperate as surprising, unexpected and – perhaps – disrespectful to the Slavic Gods. We can draw only one conclusion from this story: the society of pre-Christian Slavs expected the individuals to be prepared, upon request, to give up their life/their children’s life for the benefit of the community or the glory of the Slavic Gods. What more such sacrifice of oneself had to be done willingly and knowingly – otherwise the boyars would not have wasted their time on talking to the Varangian or on destroying his estate, but they would have just forcefully capture his son and drag him on the altars of the Slavic Gods.
Similar picture of the individual’s responsibility towards the community can be seen in other sources about the Slavic culture, for example, in Slavic demonology. One of the most common “symptom” of demonic influences on a Slav’s life was development of egocentric or selfish behaviours, ignoring the needs of the family or the community or, for example, stealing from the neighbours. Egocentrism in a pre-Christian Slav indicated the influence of demons such as: inkluzy, chobołdy, warginy or mamuny. The mamuny are particularly interesting here. Mamuny were (are?) woodland spirits, which liked to steal human children. Mamuny stole the human children from their beds and in the children’s place they left their own changelings. The changelings were quite easy to recognise from their looks (ugly and skinny) and behaviour (moody, greedy and lazy). A sure way of “curing” the changeling was placing it on a heap of manure and hitting it with a stick. The success of such treatment could be easily recognised by a change in the child’s behaviour. The child cured from being a changeling immediately stopped to be moody, greedy an lazy and, instead, started to be a helpful and hard-working young Slav.
So, if – as the sources indicate – pre-Christian Slavs valued to benefit of the society above their own, if the individuals were expected to be ready to give their life for the benefit and upon request of the community, we have another “why” here. Why Slavs were not loners? Why did they live in communities that reserved the right to request their own blood? Why young girls risked their lives by becoming wife and mothers? Why Slavs knowingly and willingly risked their life only to support the wellbeing, good fortune and future of their communities? Well, if we look at the world of our pre-industrial ancestors, the answer to this “why” becomes obvious very quickly
Before the universal human rights were written down and introduced as an universal law, before the development of the concepts of rule of law, social care or state-founded police/military, the life of a loner was short and not very appealing. Without a family or helpful neighbours, one long winter, some critters in the pantry or an illness in the time of harvest (causing inability to gather the grain from the fields) resulted in an inevitable death from starvation. Without members of one’s family, neighbours or own’s tribe, able and ready to defend their land, an individual stood no chance against a military attack. Without the concept of family honour and tribal laws, which required, for example, a revenge for killing a member of a family or a tribe, a solitary loner could not hope for a safe travel. Carrying the symbols of one’s clan or family (be it a certain type of clothing, colours or ornaments) an individual could at least hope that a thug or a robber will think twice, before attacking. After all hurting a member of a well-known family or a tribe could result in the revenge of this family or tribe, so chances were, the thug would want to avoid such revenge. Without the community of people who supported each other, defended their land and followed their laws, there simply couldn’t and wouldn’t be any cities, trade centres or safe trade routes. Without the effort of generations of families, clans and tribes, there wouldn’t be Kiev and the Varangian from “The Tale of Bygone Years” would not be able to travel from Byzantium to settle in an estate, in a big city, under the safety of the authority and military power of Vladimir the Great. So, considering all of this, it is not wonder that the people of Kiev were so angered by the Varangian’s refusal to honour the Slavic Gods and thank Them for Their blessings. Considering all of this, it is no wonder that our ancestors were ready to give up their lives for the benefit and upon request of their Slavic community.
The curse of the good times
After analysing the role of the pre-industrial society, it is worth having a look at the role of the society in which the modern Rodnovers live. The society which, as we very often hear from the Slavic preachers, is toxic not only to Slavic women but to the Slavic soul in general. Personally I find it very funny indeed, that Rodnovery preachers reject the allegedly toxic rules of modern society, using:
- A computer – which wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the efforts of whole generations of human society. Generations that worked hard to make universities happen (and hence allow the education of the creators of computers), to build factories, transport networks, shops etc – all the elements necessary for the construction and delivery of said computer on the desk of the disgruntled preacher;
- Electricity – which is produced and delivered to the preacher’s desk, exclusively thanks to the efforts of many members of the allegedly toxic society;
- Internet – which, as it not hard to guess, requires a society to function and to connect us all.
I am not even going to mention such achievements of the modern society as heath care (so the preacher doesn’t die from an illness or an accident), plumbing (so the preacher doesn’t get ill from lack of hygiene or dehydration), building regulations (so the preacher has a roof over his head), public education (which is the very reason why we can all read and write) as well as, last but not least, 76 years of peace on (most of) the Slavic land, an event in itself extremely rare in the history of Slavs.
In a way I do understand the blindness of the people (not only Rodnovers) who deeply believe in the toxicity of the modern society. In our, highly specialised times, only very rarely we have an opportunity to notice how much other people do for us, and even more rarely with have a chance of appreciating it. Roadworks – absolutely necessary for our safety and comfort – are mostly seen as annoying disruption in the daily commute. The same story is with rubbish collection or, for example, maintenance works on elevators in high raise buildings. The daily efforts of employees of electrical or plumbing networks regularly go unnoticed and unappreciated. Spoiled by the blessings of good times, most of us see access to running water, toilets or electricity as something absolutely normal. We don’t even realise that water in the kitchen tap and electricity in every socket are rare luxuries, not available to the vast majority of humanity – not only across the history, but across the modern world. So, in a way, the blindness of the “traditional” Rodnovers is not really that surprising. And it is not surprising that they see bearing children as the main role of a woman. After all for the majority of the history of the human kind children were in scarce supply and only women could given birth to them.
The problem with the “traditional” place of Slavic women is the same as with most of the “traditional” “wisdom” of Rodnovery. As with sacrifices, prayers and rituals, here as well modern reconstructors of Slavic Native Faith don’t look for the ideas that guided our ancestors, but focus on reconstructing forms, which our ancestors used to express those ideas. Thankfully, after critical analysis of the historical sources, there can be no doubt, that the place of a Slavic woman was exactly where was the place of a Slavic man, child, elder, and every single member of pre-Christian Slavic society. This place was where one could contribute the most to the wellbeing and prosperity of the family, friends, neighbours and the whole tribe. If a woman was able and willing to risk her life to bear children – she was supported by the whole community. If she was able and willing to become a warrior – a blacksmith made a sword for her. If she was able to study the lore of healing or witchcraft – she served her community with her remedies and spells. And if she was wise and knowledgeable enough (and had enough political back up) – she took it upon herself to serve her people as a leader.
Following the example of our ancestors we also should strive to allow not only women, but every member of our society to utilise fully their potential and abilities in the service of our society. Thanks to the progress of science and technology (which, by the way, were achieved through the efforts of many generations of many communities), we, as a species, are not in danger of dying out. Quite the opposite, overpopulation is the core of many modern problems. So, instead of expecting women to bear children, we should expect of ourselves what our ancestors expected of every Slav: contributing to building prosperity and wellbeing of our families, friends, neighbours and, in general, our community.
Slava!
Bibliography:
K. Aitamurto “Paganism, Traditionalism, Nationalism: Narratives of Russian Rodnoverie”
J.A. Alvares-Pedrosa „Sources of Slavic pre-Christian Religion”
В. Серкина „О роли женщин у славян в период язычествa”
H. Kitsikopoulos “Agrarian Change and Crisis in Europe, 1200–1500”
D. Oren-Magidor, C. Rider ”Introduction: Infertility in Medieval and Early Modern Medicine”, Social History of Medicine 29(2)
W. Vargas, P. Zych “Bestiariusz Słowiański”