Wicker Man [1] ( English Wicker Man ) is a human-made willow cage that, according to Julia Caesar’s “ Gallic War Notes ” and Strabo’s “Geography”, was used for human sacrifice , burning it together with locked up there people convicted of crimes or intended to be sacrificed to the gods. At the end of the 20th century, the ritual of burning a “woven man” was revived in Celtic neo-paganism (in particular, the teachings of Wicca ), but without the accompanying sacrifice.
Content
In history
The existence of human sacrifices in the religion of the ancient Celts was recorded by many Roman authors. They are mentioned by Cicero , Lucan , Suetonius , Tacitus , but only Caesar contains fragmentary information about the use of the "wicker man" in the rites:
All Gauls are extremely devout. Therefore, people afflicted with grave diseases, as well as living in war and other dangers, make or take a vow to make human sacrifices; they are in charge of the druids. It is the Gauls who think that immortal gods can be propitiated just as by sacrificing for human life also human life. They even have public sacrifices of this kind. Some tribes use for this purpose huge stuffed animals made from rods, the members of which they fill with living people; they set fire to them from below, and people burn in flames. [2] [3]
The veracity of information reported by Caesar is often questioned; they see his desire to slander his enemies by all means, the Gauls, by attributing to them their adherence to cruel rites [4] [5] .
Strabo in the IV book "Geography" reports that the Druids make sacrifices, piercing people with arrows , stabbing in temples and building a " colossus " of straw and wood, into which they throw cattle , wild animals and people, and then burn everything [6] . This fragment is almost identical with the information of Caesar; Perhaps Strabo simply borrowed it from the "Notes." There are no archaeological evidence of the existence of this ritual.
After the battle in the Teutoburg Forest, part of the legionnaires who were captured by the Germans were put in cages of rods and burned alive.
James George Frezer , without doubting the presence of ancient sacred Celtic sacrifices with the “woven man,” cites numerous examples of remnants of this rite in the culture of European nations (primarily in agrarian rituals ) and links them with the common custom of burning people suspected of witchcraft , on bonfires [7] .
In modern times
The ritual imitation involving the "wicker man" is used by some neo-pagan groups that are guided by the Celtic tradition (mainly in the UK ). As a rule, they are confined to certain holidays like Beltine ; the participants of the ritual braid a wooden frame with willow rods and solemnly burn it. Some "wicker people" can reach enormous heights, and their creation takes several days [8] . The sacrifice of any living beings in the rite is absent.
Since 1986, the annual Burning Man Festival has been held in Nevada , where a huge wooden statue has been burned.
In music
The songs of the same name are in the British Heavy Metal band Iron Maiden and in her solo project with her singer Bruce Dickinson .
In literature
In the cycle “The Witcher ” by Andrzej Sapkowski there is a description of this ritual. In the book, popular rumor ascribes it to the Druids , which, according to Geralt, is superstition. However, this did not prevent Geralt himself almost from becoming a victim of this ritual. But this is clearly an isolated case, because the flaminica [9] of the Druids speaks about him as follows:
| “This cage,” said the Flaminik, as if not hearing him, “was to serve as a winter feeder for starving animals and stand in the forest filled with hay. But when we caught these scoundrels, I remembered the vile gossip and slander that people spread about us. Well, I thought, you will get your Willow Baba. You yourself have come up with this horrendous nightmare, well, so I will provide it for you ... |
In the cinema
- Wicker Man (film, 1973)
- Wicker Man (2006 film)
Notes
- ↑ The name used by the ancient Celts has not been preserved; the modern designation of the object is borrowed from the English folk culture, where a similar ritual is preserved, not involving the burning of living beings.
- ↑ Notes on the Gallic War
- ↑ Latin text
- ↑ About.com: Alternative Religions Archive dated December 11, 2008 on Wayback Machine (inaccessible link) (English)
- ↑ Lugodoc's Guide to Druids (English)
- ↑ "Geography" (eng.)
- Золот Golden Branch
- ↑ WickerManBurn.com Archived September 24, 2008.
- ↑ So in the book is called the female head of the order of the Druids