The Chronicle of Cosmas does not contain many descriptions of ancient Czech pagan rites and beliefs but it does contain some interesting ones (for example, references to Pentacostal feasts similar to those of the Poles) mentioned already (see references below). Since Karl Meyer included some additional passages passages in his complication of Latin/Greek texts’ Suavic pagan mentions, I include them here. The translation, as before, is from Lisa Wolverton’s edition.
Book 1.2
[see here for the beginning and here for another full reference to some of these stories]
…Then the elder, who them others accompanied as if he was their lord, spoke thus to his followers (among other things): “O comrades, you have endured with me heavy burdens through lonely forests, halt your step. Offer thankful libation to your gods, through whose wondrous work you have come to your fatherland, as once foreordained for you by destiny… This is it. This is that land which you often reminded me I promised you, a land subject to no one, filled with wild animals and fowl, wet with nectar, honey and milk, and, as you yourselves see, air delightful for living…”
Book 1.3
…How happy was that age, content with moderate expense and not puffed up with swollen pride. The hardly knew the rewards of Ceres and Bacchus [food and drink], which were not available. They made their evening meal with acorns and wild game. Uncorrupted springs provided healthy drinks. Like the brightness of the sun and the moisture of the water, so the fields ad the forests, even their very marriages, were held in common. For in the manner of cattle, they tried new lovers on various nights and, with dawn rising, broke the tie of the Three Graces and the iron shackles of love. Wherever and with whomever they had spent the night there they caught sweet sleep, spread out on the grass under the shade of a leafy tree… Oh, alas! Prosperity gave way to the contrary, and communal goods to private ones. Later, they turned to someone in their tribe or generation, someone considered better in character and more distinguished by virtue of wealth. Without a tax collector, without a seal, of their own free will they came to him and, with their freedom whole, debated uncertain cases and injuries incurred.
One particular man had arisen among them, called Krok, after whom a castle is known to have been named, located in the forest adjacent to Ztibecna and now overrun by trees. He was a man absolutely perfect in his generations, exceptional for his wealth in secular things, discreet in considering lawsuits. Like bees to their hive, so everyone both from his own tribe and from the common folk of the whole province, flocked to him to sot out their lawsuits [conflicts]. Such a great man lacked manly offspring. Neverhess, he fathered three daughters, to whom nature gave riches of wisdom no fewer than she was accustomed to give men.
Book 1.4
The eldest of them was named Kazi who surpassed Medea of Colchis in herbs and song and the Paeonian master in medicinal art, because she often made the Fates themselves cease their unending work and oracles follow the commands of her song. Hence the inhabitants of this land, when the lose something and despair of its recovery, say the following proverb about her: ‘Even Kazi herself cannot get it back.’ Like the place there the daughter of Ceres was abducted by a tyrant, her burial mount cash still be seen today, heaped up very high by the inhabitants of the land in memory of their mistress, on the bank of the River Mze near the road which leads to the province of Bechne, over the mountain called Osek.
Worthy of praise though second by birth, Tetka was a woman of keen discernment lacking a husband. She built a castle on the River Mze, named Tetin after herself, well fortified by the nature of the placem with rocks reaching steeply to the summit. She taught the stupid and senseless people to adore and worship Oreads, Dryads, and Hamadryads, and established every superstitious sect and sacrilegious rite. Like many villagers up until now, just like pagans, this one worships waters of fires, hat one adores groves and trees and stones, another sacrifices to mountains or hills, and still another beseeches and prays to the deaf and dumb idols he has made himself, so that they rule both his home and his one self.
Younger by birth but older in wisdom, the third was called Libuse. She built a castle, the most powerful then, next to the forest which reaches to the area of Ztibecna, and called it Libusin after her own name. She was truly a woman among women: cautious in counsel, quick to speak, chaste in body, upright in character, second to no one in resolving lawsuits of the people. Affable, even lovable, in all things, she adorned and glorified the feminine sea while handling masculine affairs with foresight. But because no one is altogether blessed, this woman of such quality and of so great praise – alas the terrible human condition! – was a prophetess [phitonissa]. Since she predicted many proven futures for people, that whole people took common counsel and set her up as judge over them after the death of her father…
Meanwhile, she summoned the aforesaid sisters, who stirred up matching rages. With their magical skill and her own, she made a fool of the people through everything. Libuse herself was, as we said above, a prophetess like Sibyl of Cumae, the other sister a sorceress of potions like Medea of Colchis, and the third an enchanter like Aeaean Circe. What kind of counsel those three Eumenides obtained that night and what kind of secret they carried out was then unknown. Nevertheless it was made manifest – clearer than light – to everyone in the morning, when their sister Libuse revealed both the place where the future duke was hidden and who he was by name. Who would believe that they would request their first duke from the plow? And who would know where plows the man who would become ruler of the people? What does prophetic rage not know?…
Book 1.5
The next day, as was ordered, they convened an assembly without delay and gathered the people; at once everyone came together into one. Sitting on the highest throne, the woman addressed the boorish men: “Oh most pitiable common folk, who do not know that you live free and that no good man gives up [freedom] except with his life. You flee that freedom not unwillingly and submit your necks voluntarily to unaccustomed servitude. Alas, later you will regret in vain, as the frogs regretted it when the serpent whom they had made their king, began to kill them. If you do not know what the rights of a duke might be, I will try to tell you in a few words…”
“…If you persist in what you have begin and do not swear your oath falsely, I will now announce to you both the duke’s name and the place where he is.”
At this, the base commoners jumped up with a disordered shout; with one voice everyone demanded a duke be given to them. Libuse said to them: “Behold! Beyond those mountains’ – and she pointed to the mountains with her finger – ‘is a river not yet large, named Bilina, on whose banks a village is to be found, Stadice by name. In its territory lies one newly cleared field, twelve paces in length and in width, which – wonder of wonders – while positioned in the midst of some many [arable] fields, yet pertains to no field. There your duke plows with two parti-colored oxen: one ox is girded with white and has a white head, the other is white from forehead to rear and has white rear feet. Now, if you please, take my ankle-length robe and mantle, and capes fitting for a duke and go. Report my and the people’s commands to that man, and bring back your duke and my husband. The name of the man, who will think up [excogitabit] many laws upon your necks and heads, is Premysl (for this name means in Latin, ‘thinking upon’ [superexcogitans] or ‘thinking beforehand’ [premeditans]). His subsequent progeny will rule all this land forever and ever.”
[for the complete legendary introduction to the Czechs in the Cosmas’ Chronicle, again, see here]
Book 1.10
…We judge it not superfluous to put in writing briefly in this little work of ours, in its place, what we heard from rumor’s telling. Once long ago, a the time of Duke Neklan in olden days, a battle was fought in a field called Tursko between the Czechs and the Lucane (who are now, by resent-day men, called the Zatcane, after the burg of Zatec)… A duke named Vlastislav was in command of them… Standing in the middle of the rampart surrounded by a crown of people, leaning on a shield and brandishing a sword in his hand, he began thus: “O warriors, in whose hands is the final victory, in the past more than once you have conquered, and now you should finish the deed. What need is there for arms? You should pretend to carry arms to give the appearance of an army. But why not take falcons, hawks, owls, and every kind of flying creature with you instead, since that is more suited to fin and games. You ill give them the flesh of your enemies to feed on, if it happens to be enough. With the god Mars and my lady Bellona, who makes all good things for me, as witnesses, I swear on the hilt of my sword, which I hold in my hand, that I will put the pips of dogs at mothers’ breasts in place of their children. Raise the signals and toss of restraints. Delay is the bane of preparedness. Go quickly and conquer happily.” Their cries rose up to the heavens. The useful and the useless, the strong and the worthless, the powerful and the impotent resounded: “To arms! To arms!” The mango mare and the spirited horse alike leapt into battle.
Book 1.11
Meanwhile, a certain woman, one from the number of Eumenides, summoned her stepson, who was just about to go to battle. She said: “Although it is not natal for stepparents to favor their stepchildren, nevertheless, remembering my connection to your father, I will make you safe so that you will be able to survive if you wish. Know that the Czechs’ witches and ghosts have prevailed over our Eumenides in their prayers, whence victory will be be granted to the Czechs, pour men having been killed down to the last one. Here is how you might succeed in avoiding this calamity: kill whoever is opposite you in the first encounter and, cutting off both is ears, throw them into your purse, Then, with your unsheathed sword mark the earth in the shape of a cross between both fee of the horse. By doing this, you will loose the invisible bonds which make your horses (bound as they are by the anger of the gods) fail and fall, as if exhausted from a long journey. Immediately mounting the horse, fee. If a great fear rushes after you, never look back but quicken your flight. Thus you alone will barely escape. The gods who accompany you into battle are turned to aid your enemies. For those unable to resist the Czechs, for those indeed completely vanquished by the enemy: the one salvation of the defeated is to hope for no salvation.”
Just as faithless men are always more prone to evil wherever good men and good arts are lacking, some regions are inclined to worse depravity. It was scarcely otherwise with this people [i.e., the Czechs]: devoted to empty rites, trusting more to lies, despairing now of their men and military arms, they approached a certain fortune-teller, consulted her, and insisted she proclaim what act should be performed in such a crisis and what results a future war would achieve. As she was full of divination, she did not keep them long with this obscure rifle of words: “If you want to obtain the triumph of victory, it behooves you first to follow the command of the gods, Sacrifice an ass to your gods, so that they might be your refuge. Jupiter, the greatest, Mars himself and his inter Bellona, and even the son-in-law of Ceres order this prayer to be made.” The pitiable donkey meanwhile was sought out, killed, and, as ordered, cut a thousand times into a thousand pieces. More quickly than could be said, it was consumed by the entire army. Having been endowed with courage from the eating of the ass – rather like an omen – you could perceive the divisions were cheerful and the men as ready for death as forest swine. Just as the sun is brighter and more pleasant to view after a rain cloud, so too the army was more eager for the fight and bolder after so much inactivity.
Book 3.1
The new Duke Bretislav – the “younger” but mature in age and more mature in attitude – worthily celebrated the feast of Saint Vaclav, his patron, according to the rite of this land and with all the obligatory ceremonies, in the burg of Prague. With his satraps and comites he hosted a great three-day feast, There, when he perceived how much the church might profit from certain things by virtue of his newness, he established those things for the benefit of this land. Just as previously, in the first campaign [tirocinium] of his youth, he put every hope in God’s protection alone, so now, burning with great zeal for the Christian religion at the beginning of his rule… [see here for the full story]
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