Triglav

Dr. Jožko Šavli

At the beginning of the 12th century AD the Vendic people in Brandenburg and Pomerania were still of pagan belief. At that time, their biggest centre was Štetin (Stettin, Szcsecin) which is set on the mouth of the Oder River at the Baltic Sea. It is also today an important port, which belonged to Germany before WW2, but today it is Polish.

We have the records from the chroniclers Ebbo (ca. 1155) and Monacus Prieflingensis (ca. 1160), who under the same title  "Vita Ottonis episcopi bambergensis" report that in Štetin there was to be found, at that time, four pagan temples, and that the most important of them was dedicated to the god Triglav.  His temple was high on a hill. Its walls were adorned inside and outside with human and animal shapes, painted with indelible colours. In the temple was kept a treasure of gold and argent cups, musical instruments, and decorated horns destined for libations.

The God Triglav simulacrum had three golden heads. A veil covered his eyes and mouth. The priests said that if he did not see and speak, he nearly would simulate to ignore the human sins. The three heads represented his three dominations: heaven, earth, and underworld. His temple was encircled by a sacred hurst and grassland, in which a black horse pastured. The horse was used for presages. This happened in such a manner: the horse was led through nine lances, fixed in the soil; if he did not touch one, the presage was favourable, and vice versa.

In 1127, Bishop Otto of Bamberg, the apostle of Pomerania, let destroy the Triglav simulacrum, and one of the heads was sent to the Pope in Rome. But another similar statue, situated on the nearby isle of Wollin, was saved, because the Vendic priests were hiding it.
The three-faced sink unearthed at the Magdalensberg (Šentlenska gora) in Carinthia, Roman period. It is very probable that it referred to the worshipping of the three-headed deity of Triglav.

Back in history of Carantania (Slovenia), the worshipping of Triglav had already been testified during the Roman period, when the province of Noricum still flourished in this territory. On the one-time sacred mountain called today Magdalensberg (Šentlenska gora) in today's Carinthia, a three-faced sink had been unearthed, and a three-faced beaker was found in the nearby field of Svatne (Zollfeld). Because the Christianization of Slovenians dates back to the 8th century AD, only very few traces of worshipping former pagan deities have been preserved.

Mt. Triglav (2864 m) in Slovenia.  It is called "three-headed" but it does not have three heads (summits). The name refers to the deity of the universe, which was first represented by a great mountain.

However, the highest mountain in today's Slovenia, Mt.Triglav (1864 m), was very probable named after the one-time three-headed god as described above by the chroniclers Ebbo (ca. 1155) and Monacus Prieflingensis. This mountain does definitely not have three peaks (heads); therefore its name is certainly not a geographical, but only a mythological one. Such a statement was made already in A. T. Linhart's historical book (1791), in which he ascribed to Triglav three dominions: the atmosphere, the earth and the water.
(cf: The Vends and the Slavs)