He also wields a hammer
A mysterious totem pole has appeared on a coastal path in South East England. Historians and locals speculate about the mysterious appearance of a pillar about two and a half meters high after an unsuccessful attempt to find the artist.
Photo: wikipedia.org/GkgAlf/CC BY-SA 3.0
When a totem pole mysteriously appeared on a popular coastal path in the southeast of England, locals began to speculate as to who was responsible for the wooden monolith, from art pranksters to aliens.
According to The The Guardian, a 2.4 meter tall pillar perched atop a cliff on the North Downs Way in Kent, between Folkestone and Dover, has aroused particular interest with an inscription bearing the name of Perkunas, the Baltic god of thunder.
In an effort to preserve the artwork in the Capel-le-Ferne Nature Reserve, the Kent Wildlife Trust is in the process of applying to Dover District Council for retrospective planning permission. But his call to find the artist behind it has so far been unsuccessful.
Dr Francis Young, an Oxford University historian and folklorist who specializes in the history of religion and belief, said the pillar, thought to be carved from solid wood, appears to indicate a Lithuanian link to its origins.
“Perkunas is perhaps the most famous Baltic god, – said the expert. – This is his Lithuanian name. He is the same as the Slavic god Perun. He is one of the three or four main gods in Baltic mythology, but not the most important. He is equivalent to the Norse god Thor and also wields a hammer”.
Dr. Yang, author of Pagans in the Early Modern Baltic: An Ethnographic Description of 16th-Century Baltic Paganism, said that little is known about the appearance of the original pagan totems, as no illustrations of them survive.
But the expert clarified that the mysterious sculpture, apparently, corresponds to the descriptions of totems made by Christian missionaries of the 15th-16th centuries in Lithuania – the last country in Europe that stopped practicing paganism and conducting comparative studies of Eastern European mythology.
“Sometimes [the totem] was carved from a living tree or from one that had just died,” – added Francis Young.
Jerzy Sikora, a medieval archaeologist at the University of Lodz, noted on social media that the Kentish totem resembles Wolin Svetovit, a ninth or tenth century wood carving depicting Svetovit, the Slavic god of abundance and war, found in Poland in 1974.
Dr. Young agreed that this could have been the inspiration for Kent's sculpture, given the lack of other source material. But he said the location of the new totem was unusual, as the sculptures were traditionally placed in forest groves.
Ian Rickards, regional manager for the Kent Wildlife Trust, said he likes to suggest that the totem was placed to protect the newly reintroduced red-billed chauh – birds that have been absent from the wild in Kent for over 200 years due to habitat loss and historical persecution.
“I would like to think that someone invoked this god to protect the birds nesting on the chalk cliffs in the recent wet and windy weather,– said Rickards, who has visited the pole twice since its sudden appearance in late July. – Many people passing by stopped to admire it. The entire post was covered in what looked like intricate waves depicting a totem head with a metal cap on top. This is a work of art, well designed. His size and weight meant that it would take a lot of effort to get him up there in the dark.”
Francis Young said that Perkūnas was a positive figure who was looked to for protection from stormy weather. “Even in the 19th and 20th centuries, folklore survived, and people turn to it when they go out in the rain”,– he says.
But Patrick Knill, 57, a support worker from Folkestone who visited the totem pole on Tuesday, said it reminded him more of a dark metal band prop than an authentic Lithuanian artifact.
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