Beer in the Pagan Rituals of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: Maciej Stryjkowski

Introduction

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was one of the last European polities whose ruling dynasty retained paganism. The formal Christianisation of Lithuania began in 1387, while Samogitia was converted in the early fifteenth century. Pre-Christian beliefs and ritual practices, however, survived for considerably longer.

One of the most interesting sixteenth-century written sources is Maciej Stryjkowski’s Chronicle of Poland, Lithuania, Samogitia and All Rus’. In it, the chronicler describes religious beliefs and rituals among the inhabitants of Lithuania, Samogitia, Livonia, Courland, Prussia and neighbouring lands. In several passages he explicitly states that he had personally witnessed some of the customs he describes.

This article focuses on passages in which beer appears as part of an offering, ceremonial feast or funerary and commemorative ritual.

It is important to note that not all of the customs discussed below took place within the political borders of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Stryjkowski also described traditions from the wider Baltic region, and his accounts therefore provide evidence for a broader religious world encompassing Lithuania, Samogitia and neighbouring peoples.

A god who received beer

In his list of “Lithuanian and Samogitian” gods, Stryjkowski names sixteen deities. The last is Puschajtis, whom he describes as an earthly god dwelling among elder trees.

According to Stryjkowski, people brought bread and beer beneath the elder bushes and asked Puschajtis to send small beings called Parstuki into their barns. These beings were believed to preserve and increase stores of grain.

Stryjkowski also describes nocturnal meals prepared for the Parstuki. A table was laid inside a barn with bread, meat, cheese and butter and the building was then closed for the night. In the morning, the household examined which foods appeared to have been consumed and interpreted this as a sign of future prosperity.

The name Parstuki may sound strikingly similar to the Belarusian word patsuki (“rats”), but this is no more than a linguistic association. Stryjkowski’s account provides no evidence that the mythological Parstuki were actually rodents.

The autumn harvest ritual

One of Stryjkowski’s most detailed ritual descriptions concerns a feast held near the end of October, once the grain had been harvested and brought into the barns. He states that such celebrations survived in Lithuania, Samogitia, Livonia, Courland and some neighbouring lands.

People from three or four villages could gather together with their families and servants. The table was covered with hay or a cloth, bread was placed upon it, and four large vessels of beer were positioned at its four corners.

Sacrificial animals and domestic birds were then brought in. A diviner or pagan priest recited prayers before an animal was sacrificed to Ziemiennik, an earth deity.

The prayer thanked the deity for the previous year, health, grain and possessions, and asked for protection from fire, disease and enemies.

The sacrificial meat was then cooked. Before the communal meal began, portions of the various dishes were placed beneath the table, on the stove, beneath benches and in the corners of the building as offerings to Ziemiennik.

A communal feast followed. Stryjkowski says that the participants continued invoking Ziemiennik while eating and drinking, singing and playing long trumpets. He also states that he had personally attended similar celebrations in Livonia, Courland, Samogitia and Lithuania.

Beer was therefore more than an ordinary drink at the feast: it occupied a distinct place in the structure of the ritual and sacrificial meal.

The spring festival of Pergrubri

Stryjkowski separately describes a spring festival known as Pergrubri in Sambia, Prussia and Courland. It was held after the snow had disappeared, when grass began to grow and the season for agricultural work had arrived.

Several villages contributed malt for brewing beer and gathered in a large house.

A ritual specialist whom Stryjkowski calls a Wurschajt lifted a vessel of beer and addressed Pergrubius, a deity associated with grass and summer. He asked the god to drive away winter and allow the crops to flourish.

After the prayer, the priest took the vessel in his teeth, drank the beer without using his hands and threw the vessel backwards over his head.

The next prayer was directed to Perkunas, who was asked to protect the community from thunder, hail, lightning, storms and harmful clouds. Appeals then followed to Swajstix, the god of light, and Pilwitos, who was asked to help bring the grain safely into the barns.

Stryjkowski states that beer was drunk in this manner in honour of all fifteen gods recognised in this particular ritual, with the vessel held in the teeth rather than the hands. Songs in honour of the gods followed.

In the passage that follows, Stryjkowski describes an annual sacrifice of a bull or goat among the same Prussian communities. After the night-long feast, a wheat cake and remains of the food were carried to a crossroads, placed on the ground and covered with earth so that animals could not dig them up.

Beer in funerary and commemorative customs

Beer also appears prominently in Stryjkowski’s description of funeral customs.

He writes that a person who felt death approaching would, according to his means, have one or two barrels of beer prepared and invite friends and fellow villagers in order to reconcile with them and say farewell.

After death, the body was washed, dressed in a long white shirt and seated. Friends commemorated the deceased and addressed him before the body was finally prepared for burial.

A man might be provided with a weapon and money for the journey, while bread, salt and a vessel of beer were placed in the grave. For a woman, Stryjkowski mentions thread and a needle.

Commemoration of the dead formed another part of these traditions. Stryjkowski describes relatives visiting and mourning at graves in October. In Courland, Sambia and Prussia, part of each dish was thrown beneath the table during a memorial meal and a mug of beer was poured out for the deceased.

For Lithuania and Samogitia he describes a somewhat different memorial feast, again involving food, drink and old songs. In Samogitia, a festival known as Ilgy was observed around All Saints’ Day. According to Stryjkowski, even a poor household attempted to have beer available during this period while the dead were commemorated for several weeks.

Conclusion

Maciej Stryjkowski’s Chronicle suggests that beer had a much broader role in the Baltic rituals he described than that of an ordinary festive drink.

Beer was placed on ritual tables, offered alongside food to deities and spirits, consumed during prayers for a successful harvest, drunk in honour of gods, prepared for funerary and memorial feasts and even placed in graves.

Stryjkowski’s testimony nevertheless has to be read critically. It represents a sixteenth-century chronicler’s account of a diverse range of customs from Lithuania, Samogitia, Prussia, Courland and neighbouring territories. Even so, these descriptions show how closely beer could be connected with the agricultural calendar, sacrifice, communal feasting and remembrance of the dead.