Triglaus (Latinized by Ebbo and Herbord)(Triglávŭ)
Also known as: Triglaus
sky, earth, and the underworld (per the chroniclers' gloss)
The three-headed chief god of pagan Szczecin, whose temple and golden idol were destroyed during Bishop Otto of Bamberg's Christianizing mission of 1124–1128.
Triglav is known from the Lives of Otto of Bamberg, written within a generation of the events they describe by the monks Ebbo (Vita Ottonis, c. 1151) and Herbord (Dialogus de Vita Ottonis, c. 1158), recounting Otto's mission to convert Pomerania in 1124–1128. Both describe a three-headed idol at Szczecin (Stettin), its heads covered by a golden veil or blindfold that the chroniclers gloss as meaning the god chose to see, hear, and speak no evil of the three realms — sky, earth, and the underworld — the three heads were said to survey. A black, divinatory horse comparable to Svantevit's white one at Arkona is also recorded at Szczecin.
A missionary's frame
As with Svantevit, the surviving account comes from writers celebrating a bishop's conversion campaign, so the neat symbolic reading of the three heads (sky/earth/underworld, or "see/hear/speak no evil") may be the chroniclers' own interpretive gloss rather than a doctrine the Pomeranians themselves would have stated that way. The idol's fate is recorded precisely: after the temple's destruction, a golden likeness of Triglav's heads was reportedly sent to Pope Honorius II in Rome as proof of the mission's success.
Source Notes
These records lack edition and translator details. Their wording has not been verified as a direct quotation.
There was in the city [Szczecin] a triple-headed image, which on the necks joined in one body was called Triglav [...] The priest explained that the great god had three heads because he oversaw three kingdoms, that is, heaven, earth, and the underworld, and that he covered his face with a golden veil, so as not to see or make known the sins of men.
Worship & Cult
How Triglav was venerated in ancient times
Sacred Temples
•The chief temple at Szczecin, destroyed during Otto of Bamberg's mission of 1124–1128; a related cult is also recorded at Wolgast.
Worship Practices
A black horse was kept for divination before military or civic decisions, its refusal to step over crossed spears read as an unfavorable omen, per Ebbo and Herbord's accounts of Szczecin.
Domains
sky, earth, and the underworld (per the chroniclers' gloss)
