24 June 2016

Alexandr Dugin (1996) on Racial Archetypes in OLB

(Originally copied from www.eurasianist-archive.com)


The Racial Archetypes of Eurasia in the Oera Linda Chronicle
Алекса́ндр Ду́гин (ᛉ1962)

Author: Alexander Dugin
Translator: Jafe Arnold

Chapter 8 of Mysteries of Eurasia (1996 edition) from the collection Absolute Homeland (Moscow, Arktogeya: 1999)

Sacred teachings on race

The question of the racial layers of the Eurasian continent has occupied many researchers. In this regard, there exist the most remotely conflicting hypotheses and, moreover, not a single one of them is coherent and intelligible from a traditionalist point of view, that is, in regards to pre-history to which the origins of race date back. The views of modern scholars are so absurd and fantastical (due primarily to the influence of evolutionary theory) that their theories are even less acceptable in this sphere than in all the rest.

Moreover, it bears recognition that even within the confines of Tradition today, it is still difficult to find any more or less complete theories of the origins of races. The Biblical perspective which refers to the rise of race out of Noah’s sons – Shem, Ham, and Japheth – is either incomplete or its plausible interpretation has been entirely forgotten. Of course, it would be extremely interesting to compare the Judaistic and Christian theories of human races to even more extensive material, but this would demand a separate work altogether.

Here we propose to consider the mythological interpretation of the history of race based on the Oera Linda Chronicle, a document of the history of the Ingvaeones (whose authenticity has been disputed to the same extent that many have argued for it) [44]. We are dealing with a myth, perhaps not even a “new myth,” but a myth which presents the advantage of suggesting a reduction confirmed by the most general historical observations. On the other hand, the various interpretations of this myth so significantly impacted the very real socio-political history of the 20th century that this alone renders it deserving of careful consideration. The Oera Linda Chronicle contained in basic terms the general features which became, in a vulgarized and simplified form, the theoretical foundation of German racism. Everything that was scattered throughout numerous publications by Nazi “experts on the racial problem” is found in concentrated form in this text.

The Three Mothers


The Oera Linda Chronicle begins with a description of the origin of races:
After the twelfth Juulfeest she brought forth three maidens [... Lyda was... Finda was... Frya was... Tex Frya's...] for she said, “Without liberty all other virtues serve to make you slaves, and to disgrace your origin.” [translation Sandbach]
Such is the fundamental paradigm of the Oera Linda Chronicle. Three sacred mothers give birth to three sacred types, three paradigmatic psychological worldviews. The offspring of the three mothers are named accordingly: from Lyda the “Lydians,” from Finda the “Fins” and from Frya the “Frisians.” Interestingly enough, Africa was known as “Libya” or “Lydia” in ancient times (such as the time of Ptolemy) and the Lydians correspond to the black race. The Fins, according to the Oera Linda Chronicle are peoples of the yellow race, while the Frisians are the ancient Germanic tribes collectively denoted as the white race, the Aryans.

It is characteristic that almost the exact same paradigm is present in the Edda “Song of Rig” which tells of Rig’s (Odin’s) visit to three couples belonging to three generations. The visit paid to “grandfather and grandmother” leads to the generation of trolls, the “slaves” described as the negroid racial type. Rig’s stay with “father and mother” produces the Karl giants, the “owners” with the phenotypic traits of the yellow race. Finally, Rig’s coming to the “husband and wife” ends in the birth of the Earl, the prince, king, or aristocrat, endowed with all the Aryan attributes of blonde hair, blue eyes, etc.

The “Song of Rig” concludes at this point, having described the sacred structure of the castes and races in ancient Germanic society, but the Oera Linda Chronicle gives us a more detailed historical narrative abounding in important symbolic details.

Atlantis and Eurasia

The racial paradigm of the Oera Linda Chronicle has a clear geographic structure corresponding to the racial one. The “Lydians” inhabit the deep South and are hardly mentioned in the Chronicle.

The primary geographical territory where the sacred history of the Oera Linda unfolds is Eurasia, especially its North-Western region. The sacred center of the Frisians is situated in the North Atlantic in “Oldland” (or Atland), i.e., the “old country” (the word “Oldland” or “Atland” peculiarly resembles “Atlantis”). Following the sinking of “Atlantis,” this center is moved to the North Sea, to the lands lying north of present day Holland and Germany which were flooded only much later. The Frisians, the children of Frya, the Aryans, thus have their origins beyond Europe, their original abode being a sacred island. The Fins, the children of Finda, on the contrary, represent the indigenous people of Eurasia inhabiting all of the lands stretching from deep Siberia to the Iberian Peninsula. The peoples of Finda, accordingly, are the original Eurasians.

The ancestral home of the Frisians can naturally be referred to as Altland, Hyperborea, or the “islands of the joyful,” with the sacred center of solar Apollo. The northern location of the ancient Aryan lands confirms all of the sacred traditions of the Aryans such as the Vedas [46] and the Avesta (Aryan-Veja, the polar country) as in Greek and German myths [47].

Eurasia, in turn, is presented as the territory of the later distribution of the Frisians. Moreover, the spread of the Frisians has always been compared either to the ousting or the assimilation of the indigenous “Finish” population. According to the Oera Linda Chronicle, this paradigm of geographical relations is fundamental to all of racial history. The Frisians are the newcomers, the bearers of sacred knowledge, those “free in god” (Gottesfreien). The Fins are the natives who perceive this knowledge, the “servants of god” (Gottesknechten). The Lydians occupy the southern peripheral position of the continental structure and do not come into direct contact with the Frisians.

Types of culture

The three paradigmatic sacred races are differentiated not so much by external signs or psychological peculiarities as they are by metaphysical positions determining their cultural manifestations. The Oera Linda Chronicle thus suggests three variations of “racial metaphysics.”

The children of Frya, the “Frisians” (Aryans, whites) live in a state of primordial “democracy.” The Frisians’ law is internal, and therefore they are “externally”, absolutely free. The religious type of the Frisian is thus the “naturally dedicated” one. Its “I” coincides with the world spirit, Wr-alda. The sacred formula of Hinduism, “Atman is Bratman”, is best of all applied to the Frisians, whose “I” is identified as the absolute. The Frisians are thus peace-loving, happy, and enlightened.

The Frisians worshipped the feminine element, the Great White Mother [48], or Frya, the embodiment of racial gnosis, the “Aryan Sofia,” therein granting woman the priestly functions of carrying out basic rituals and preserving sacred knowledge. Every Frisian settlement had its own “Virgin,” Burgmagde, who acted as its highest sacred authority. This “Nordic matriarchy”, however, was purely intellectual, i.e., the woman standing at its center, the “goddess,” the daughter of Freya and her embodiment, was the concentration of the Frisians’ racial idea and divine purity. Sexual symbolism was completely absent in Frisian culture insofar as Frisian consciousness was maximally close to pure intellect and had no need for sensual “resistance” to spiritual reflection. Give that the idea of “liberty” was central to them, the Frisians had no slaves.

The peoples of Finda, the “Fins,” by contrast, lived in the conditions of strict hierarchy. They had lords, servants, and slaves and their laws were carefully proscribed, implemented only by way of authoritative coercion. Their god existed outside of themselves. They were warlike, aggressive, and prone to sensual symbols with idols, fetishes, and images of “gods” being characteristic of their culture.

The “Fins” lived under patriarchy. Man stood at the center of Finish civilization and fulfilled priestly and legislative functions, while women held subordinate, secondary oppositions. Physical symbols and the “naturalization” of primordial logos structures were characteristic of the peoples of Finda’s symbolism.

Finally, the Lydians had no clear laws whatsoever, even outward ones. They obeyed chaotic impulses in accordance with their decentralized cosmos. No hierarchy existed. At the heart of their social life were scraps of “Finish” sacred complexes, while promiscuity and semi-animalist matriarchy were characteristic for them. Thus, the Lydians often came to be slaves of the peoples of Finda.

Another important detail should be noted: “criminals” who betrayed the internal laws of the spiritual race could be found among the Frisians. As a matter of habit and as a dictate of their own consciousness, they withdrew themselves to a special territory which the Oera Linda Chronicle referred to as “England.” But sometimes it was such that the Frisian outcasts came to the peoples of Finda and became their higher caste, their lords and kings. Such “Frisians” formed a special type of people, a dynasty of “magicians,” “magi,” who put the sacred potency of the Frisian race at the service of the interests of the Fins. These “magi” became priest-kings and, properly speaking, the vicissitudes of the conflict between the Frisians and Fins in Eurasia only became so deep as a result of such “racial betrayal” of the “magicians,” whose intellect gave the Finish tribes the chance to really compete with the Frisians. The “magicians”, despising the Finish people, made them into their slaves and developed the basic tenets of an ersatz-religion which imparted the sacred knowledge of the Frisians into faith in “gods,” “spirits,” “demons,” and “images.”

The Frisians and Nostratica


The Frisians’ migration was not merely the spread of Aryan or Indo-European waves at rather foreseeable intervals. In the Oera Linda Chronicle, the white children of Frya correspond to the more modern presentations of the “Nostratic” porto-tribes, the carriers of the paradigmatic proto-language of Eurasia (and earlier that of the polar, now flooded land). The Indo-Germanic peoples were merely the last historical wave of the Frisians who were preceded by many other waves that laid the foundation of the pre-dynastic Egyptian, Sumerian, proto-Turkic, Kartvelian, and even Sino-Tibetan cultures. The “nostratic” intellect of the Eurasian and North-African languages corresponded to the traditional “Hyperborean” and “nostratic Frisian” paradigm which, being transmitted to one or another people of the Frisian type in one or another pre-historical people, gradually degraded, became detached, and lost its resemblance to the primordial, crystal hieroglyphs and subsequently transformed into belief in “gods”, “spirits,” and “demons.” Thus, the white race of the Oera Linda does not match the historical white race of the Indo-European races, but precedes it by many millennia.

It is important to note that Frya’s sons not only established the sacred, linguistic, and mythological base for the cultures of Finda’s type, but themselves reversed the effects of this degraded type. Thus arose the mixed, “Fino-Frisian” forms of tradition which, on the one hand, included spiritual cults of a “Hyperborean culture” while, on the other hand, bore typically “Asian” features. The Hittites, Scythians, Cimmerians, and Celts were such peoples. Moreover, many Indo-European tribes gradually absorbed “Finish” elements, such as the Germanic peoples of the Scaldic era, the Romans, Greeks, and Hindus of the post-Vedic period who were themselves quite far removed from the original “Frisian” state.

Such a presentation of the original white race of polar origin actually destroys the established notion of the Middle East as the focal center of civilization, writing, culture, etc. Moreover, in the logic of the Frisians’ migration, the Middle East appears as a later (in terms of pre-history) center of interaction between various streams of Frisian influence which flocked to the region from literally all corners of the world that were only then “Finized” in a most often distorted form, not a pure one. The Libyans, Takhars, and Amorites came to the Middle East from the West while the proto-Germanic peoples and proto-Celts came from the North. From the South-East came the proto-Turkic peoples and proto-Finns (this time in the historically narrow ethnic sense). The Ethiopians came from the South, and from the East came the Elamites and later the Persians and Dravidians. Thus, the famous concept of “ex Oriente Lux,” or “Light from the East,” or “Phoenician factor” in a cultural sense turns out to be not the source, but the distant consequence, a syncretic and simplistic summation of various aspects of the Frisian tradition brought there in already mixed, distorted “Finish” versions dating back to far more distant epochs.

Thus, the racial factor, as derived from the mythology of the Oera Linda Chronicle, perfectly accords with the modern linguistic “Nostratic” theory on the common origin of the whole spectrum of Eurasian languages [49]. On the other hand, the dialectical relation between the Frisian and Finish types in the sphere of sacred forms is key to understanding the many ancient transformations of mythological and religious complexes.

White esotericism and yellow exotericism


The main contradiction in the Oera Linda Chronicle is the confrontation between the culture of the “sons of Frya” and the culture of the “sons of Finda.” The meaning of this confrontation corresponds with astonishing accuracy to what have been called the “exoteric” (external) and “esoteric” (internal) sides of Tradition. Finda embodies the specificities of “exotericism,” as God existed outside of the “sons of Finda” as does sacred law. The Fin perceives himself as a “servant of God”,  the “lord’s property” existing outside of God himself. The Divine is thus manifested in such external images as idols and symbols which, for the sake of clarity, are supposed to possess a “naturalistic” character, the appearance of something concrete and tangible. The religious life of a Fin, just like his social life, is thus reduced to suppressing and punishing personal spiritual passions (in the case of religion), women (in the case of the family), or other people (in the case of social hierarchy), etc. At the head of the political and religious structure of Finish society stand the “magicians,” the “priestly kings,” who in relation to the people as a whole thus perform the function of the “subject” , the “incarnate deity”, or the mediator between the “lower” person and “higher” spirit.

The “children of Frya”, on the contrary, illustrate the “esoteric” level of Tradition. For them, God is within and is identical with sacred law and their own “I.” The Frisian perceives himself as “free in god” (Gottesfreie) and as an embodiment of freedom. For the Frisian, the Divine exists without an intermediary, outside of images or symbols. If the Frisian uses a symbol, then it is only a purely abstract, non-naturalistic, geometrically mathematical one. The religious life of the Frisian passed under the sign of justice and the rule of wisdom over deeds. He lives in a state of “aristocratic equality” and “harmony,” and inhibits no-one – neither his own feelings, since they concede with his wisdom and godly, “theophanic” worldview, nor women (who are absolutely obedient and are the material embodiment of the purity of his spiritual race, the white mirror of the world spirit, the guardians of the Nordic fire), nor other people, as he honors their freedom to be as holy as his own. Finally, instead of a priestly king, a “mediator” between people and the “gods,” the Frisians have the “White Lady,” the Great Priestess who is nothing other than their own racial substance and is not something external, but something internal, the tangible presence of the spirit uniformly distributed in each of the sons of the “goddess” Frya.

If we turn to historically known traditions, then we see a remarkably similar ratio between their esoteric and exoteric sides. If in some cases both of these aspects co-exist without conflict, then in other cases they are contradicted by one another which often leads to religious wars, reforms, schisms, and the rise of heresies. Thus, the dramatic confrontation of the Frisians and Fins in the racial conceptualization of the mythological, sacred geography of the Oera Linda Chronicle can be taken as a paradigm of considering the dynamics of religious reforms in Eurasia. The most glaringly evident example of this is the confrontation between Christianity (an esoteric, essentially Frisian tradition) and the later “residual” Judaism (which reproduces in itself all of the most characters signs of of “Finish” sacrality). It is also telling that the zone of Christianity’s historical spread coincides to a significant extent with the territories inhabited by the descendants of the last waves of the Frisian migrations, who preserved the memory of the “God within”, the “White Lady,” and the “God-given freedom of the supreme”, etc. more clearly than all the other “Finized” peoples.

The majority of Eurasian (and North African) ethni in which the Finish element is predominant converted to Islam, which has an emphatically exoteric character. On this note, it is extremely telling that the most “Frisian” aspects of the Islamic tradition, in particular Shi’ism (which highlights the mystical role of the Fatima, the progenitor of the “divine race” of the Imams, the “light of Ali” within believers, the thesis of the “lahut,” and the dignity of the Imams themselves, etc.) captured the areas predominantly inhabited by Indo-Europeans (Shi’ite Iran), while the majority of Finish ethni, such as the “Arabs” and “Turks”, are Sunnis.

As a hypothesis, it can be assumed that certain racial particularities stand behind the phenomenon of Islamic Sufism which is also a sacred from of the distinctly “Frisian” type. Although Sufism is widespread among peoples of the Finish type who are Muslims in their majority, it is possible that in the Sufi communities are grouped mainly those rudimentary sprinklings of other ethnic groups who, after dissolving into the general mass, distinguished themselves yet again, this time on purely spiritual grounds instead of ethnocultural criteria.

Democracy and Totalitarianism


The last two thousand years of Eurasian history and the dialectic of political transformations in Eurasian states can also be examined from a mythological perspective on racial types according to the Oera Linda Chronicle. All of the aspects of “aristocratic equality” can be assigned to the “Frisian” archetype while all “authoritarian,” “centralized,” and “tyrannical” systems accord with the “Finish” model. Of course, here, as in other cases, most often are found mixed versions containing elements of both structures since the peoples who acted in these epochs were almost all racially mixed without exception. Therefore, it is only possible to speak of things “relating to the Frisian variant” and “relating to the Finish variant,” in which the proportions of these two elements can substantially vary.

In essence, if we understand the racial particularities of the two fundamentally political paradigms of “democracy” and “totalitarianism,” then all the ambivalence of their confrontation becomes obvious, as does the essence of the disputes between “right” and “left” through the political history of the last centuries. “Freedom,” “equality,” and “fraternity,” are good for “free”, “equal,” and “fraternal” “Frisians”, and imposing despotic systems upon them would be a clear abuse of their racial nature. “Hierarchy,” “order,” and “discipline” are absolutely essential for people of the “Finish” type, while molding a “democratic regime” out of them will never lead to anything else but anarchy, disgrace, and degradation which naturally, logical ends in only greater “tyranny.” In this sense, we should understand the words of Plato that “democracy logically entails tyranny.”

The races of Russia

The history of the Russian state and Russia, lying at the center of the Eurasian continent, is significant to the greatest extent insofar as it brilliantly illustrates the whole complex of racial dialectics characteristic of Eurasian territories and ethni, albeit in a less obvious form. The pre-Russian history of the Slavs is above all tied to the last wave of the “Frisian” migration from the flooded island, the “Ingvaeones’ kingdom,” as the Slavs were originally, organically included in the Indo-European, Aryan cultural and racial bloc. At the same time, however, the history of Russia as a special geopolitical space represents something else.

First of all, according to the Old Russian Chronicles, Russian history began with the calling of Rurik to kingship which precisely corresponds to the “Finish” archetype of social organization in which a “Frisian” is called to be a priestly king, a “magician.”

Secondly, the “Chud,” “Mer,” and “Muroma”, i.e., “Asian” and “Finish” peoples, appeared among the Slavic tribes already in the first lines of the chronicle. Thus, we find the “Asian” sample at the very onset of the Russian state.

The later baptism of Rus and its feudal fragmentation are evidence of a strengthening of the “Frisian” factor, the “white” element, or carrier of the “white” religion which develops and begins to create the structure of “aristocratic equality.” In this period, the most “Gnostic” and “esoteric” elements of Russian spirituality were put into place, on the matter of which it is important to note that in some of the lands of Rus, and particularly in Novgorod and in general in the North, the “Frisian” model is rooted quite deeply and firmly. The invasion of the Mongols, the bearers of an obviously “Finish” model – hierarchy, discipline, and a developed repressive apparatus – tilted the (still far from absolutized) Frisian complex, thereby integrating Rus into the Yellow Empire which covered practically the whole of Eurasia except Northwestern Europe. But the Empire of Genghis Khan itself crumbled due to the expansion of the “aristocratic element” (once again the “Frisian” factor) among its rulers. Then Russia finally chose the “sons of Finda” type of state and took upon themselves the mission of uniting Northeastern Eurasia. Until the end of the Mongol yoke, the “Russian aristocracy” was constantly persecuted by the monarchs and the “Frisian” element was relegated to the purely religious sphere in the “equality” and “brotherhood” of Orthodox monasteries. After the long and more or less stable imperial period with the obvious domination of the “sons of Finda” complex, the “democratic” concept, already completely alien to the racial type of the Russian population, once again appeared in the form of the communist eschatological doctrine which heralded the beginning of a restoration of “Hyperborean,” heavenly proportions.

The races of Europe

The European zone of the Eurasian content is geographically closer to the sacred island, the cult center of the “sons of Freya.” Indeed, the “democratic” cultural type is found there much more often in history than in Asian or North-African regions. However, it would be a mistake to believe that Europe is inhabited only by “Frisians” and is therefore homogenous in its racial substrate. In Europe’s northern part, the “Frisian” element is mixed to a significant extent with the Lapp-Finic ethnos which in Eastern and Central Europe is phenotypically akin to the so-called “Alpine” race.  Western Europe is to a significant extent “Celtized,” and the “Celts” themselves were already a mixed people in antiquity according to the Oera Linda Chronicle. Finally, the population of Europe’s southern regions, the so-called “Mediterranean race”, bears a significant number of Middle-Eastern, Levantine, and Semitic racial traits. Thus, in their ancient, autochthonous Eurasian base preserved in the “Mongoloid Europeans” (and in particular the “Bigoudens” of France, who are indigenous French phenotypically indistinguishable from Paleoasiatic peoples) and in other non-European racial components (the Finnish, North African, Semitic and Turkic), the peoples of Europe are the descendants of the “sons of Finda.”

Given this racial heterogeneity, it becomes obvious that if European “Democracies” are to be stable, then they must be compensated by a fairly strict control of the “totalitarian” type. Herein lie the particularities of the modern “democratic” regimes of the West behind the facades of “equality” and “liberty” of which lurks a strict hierarchical system implicitly guiding the “Finish” herd in the right direction. The modern “magicians” governing Western societies, however, to this end utilize more refined and subtle means than the king-priests of ancient Eurasia.

The Nordic Tragedy

The Oera Linda Chronicle connects its sacred-racial approach not only to geography, but also to the logic of history. Here, sacred history has a cyclical character as the flowering of the spirit gives way to its decline, which yields new prosperity. In the Chronicle’s account, the main subjects of ancient history are the “children of Freya” whose victory is identical to the height of the spiritual world, and whose defeat is its downfall. The whole history traced by the Oera Linda Chronicle begins with the sinking of “Altlanda,” the “old land,” i.e., the history of the Frisians’ decline as the downward trajectory of the cycle. In the beginning, their “great Homeland”, Altland, is destroyed only for their new lands in the North Sea, which were at one point located in the shallows of the Dogger, to sink. Later, they are forced to migrate to Eurasia where they mix with the tribes of the Fins or are pressured by them. In the end, the treacherous magicians declare a real war on the Frisians and in their invasions interrupt the sacred tradition of the “White Virgins.” The last of them perishes at the hands of the magicians, and the sacred Nordic fire dies. Those who remain of the Frisians are scattered across Eurasia or indulge in sailing to unknown lands. A rather curious story from the Oera Linda Chronicle is that of the Frisian sailor named Inka (sic!) who sets off for distant lands never to return. Here it is worth recalling the theory of the historian Jacques de Maio of the “Viking” origin of the sun-worshiping Incans’ civilization. Be that as it may, the Frisians’ line descends lower and low while the peoples of  Finda, on the contrary, rise and gain all the more strength.

According to the prophecy of the last “White Virgin,” the misfortune of the Frisians is to last until the beginning of the third millennium (from Christ’s birth). At this moment, the decline of the Frisians reaches its lowest point, its winter solstice, only for the world spirit, Wr-alda, to once again breathe its “Od”, its “breath” into the white people and instantly revive “Frisian civilization,” i.e., re-enliven the divine Frya and save all of her faithful sons and daughters. Thus, the racial cycle of the Frisians also possesses an eschatological perspective and its own mysterious end. In the abyss of their fall, the Hyperborean ethnos, crushed by Finda and the treacherous magicians, is still destined to see the grandiose prosperity of its nordic culture and regain its lost freedom, “freedom in God.”

Return of the myth

The racial paradigm of the Oera Linda Chronicle represents a classic model of the mythological explanation of historical patterns. As with any myth, it sometimes intersects with scientific data and in some places exits into the dimension of completely unprovable postulates. But in the 20th century, the sphere of the myth did not disappear following positivist criticism and scientific enthusiasm but, on the contrary, once again found itself at the center of attention. A myth is evaluated not according to its conformity to objective reality (just as the concept of “objective reality” seems all the more unreliable and inconsistent), but by its virtue of impacting culture, the consciousness of people, and social transformation. The ethnic (or racial) interpretation of events has always been one of the most powerful, hypnotic, and most exhilarating.

It is no surprise that the Oera Linda Chronicle was at the center of attention in Germany in the 1920’s-1930’s when the national-racial interpretation of the world achieved its climax in Central Europe. At some point in real history, this myth turned out to have enormous influence on the course of events. Culture can be desacralized, but human blood and one’s native land will sooner or later make themselves felt and call to life the dormant archetypes of past ages. It is also no surprise that most prefer to ignore the topic of race today, and that the Oera Linda Chronicle has been safely forgotten. This is understandable, since the scenes of the last war are still fresh memories, especially since the European “Frisians” were determined to put the Eurasian “Fins” in their place.

The awakening of racial myth in its time brought monstrous catastrophe to Germany and the world. But the myth itself was not responsible for this, but the pragmatism and lack of criticality of its use. If the sacred is cast for a long time into the periphery of reality, then the surprise is that it will return in a monstrous, distorted form.

The return of a myth should be prepared meticulously and cautiously in advance given the consequences, and even catastrophic potential, of it getting out of hand in being brought to life.

Mysterii Yevrazii
(Mysteries of Eurasia)
Footnotes:
[44] In his comments on his edition of the Oera Linda chronicle (Ura-Linda Chronik, Leipzig, 1933), Professor Herman Wirth offers an analysis of the text’s content which allows three levels to be distinguished: the archaic layer, the additions by the Dutch copyist of the Enlightenment era, and much later insertions. It is significant those scholars who opposed Wirth’s thesis by pointed to the forgery of the Oera Linda Chronicle completely ignored his arguments, thereby replacing properly scholarly debate with “political” arguments and diligently criticizing the claims that the supporters of the document’s authenticity never even put forward. The inserts and stylization of the manufacturing of the Oera Linda Chronicle are unquestionable. the debate focuses solely on the presence or absence of an original document. In general, among the mass of colossal paleo-epigraphic and historical-religious heritage heritage of Herman Wirth, the Oera Linda Chronicle takes on a quite special meaning but, alas, this heritage remains entirely unexplored to this day.
[45] Ura-Linda Chronik, Lepizig, 1933, p. 1.
[46] See B.G. Tilak’s The Arctic Home in the Vedas. This work of the most prominent Hindu traditionalist and political figure attracted the attention of many 20th century traditionalists working on the subject of the Hyperborean origin of mankind mentioned by Guenon, Evola, etc. Moreover, there are grounds to believe that Guenon’s councilors on the Hindu doctrine were close to Tilak’s circle. Herman Wirth took this book of Tilak as the basis for his detailed studies of the origin of mankind. . See Herman Wirth’s Aufgang der Menschheit.
[47] A large numberer of mythological tales on this subject were collected by Evola in his Revolt Against the Modern World. See also H. Wirth’s Aufgang der Menschheit and Heilige Urshrift der Menshheit as well as R. Guenon’s Le roi du monde, Les formes traditionnelles, as well as Geticus’ La Dacia Iperborea.
[48] This matriarchal aspect of the Oera Linda Chronicle could not be more precisely related to the theories of Herman Wirth himself as to the primordial matriarchal structure of the ancient Aryan tradition. In this field, he followed the Swiss historian J.J. Bachofen (Gesammelte Werke, Basel, 1948). It is this specific concept of Wirth’s for which he was persecuted by Rosenberg, who was convinced of the patriarchal structure of ancient Aryan society. Julius Evola also criticized Wirth for this aspect of his theory, although he considered it in his own complex model of the rhythms of civilization contained in Revolt Against the Modern World. Evola believed that matriarchy arose during the secondary stages of the development of sacred civilization, during the “silver age,” while “primordial patriarchy” was restored by the heroic male civilization of the “bronze age.” Evola himself did not escape the persecution of the Nazi elite which investigated him for “whether this Italian baron understands the essence of ancient Germanic societies.” By order of Himmler, the esoteric Aryosopher and visionary Karl Maria Wiligut handled this. In his report to Himmler, Wiligut suggested that Evola was justified, but was still guilt of “undervaluing the role of women among the ancient Germanic peoples.” Rosenberg repressed Wirth for “matriarchy” and Himmler’s staff accused Evola of patriarchy. One gets the impression that the bosses of the Third Reich had not really engaged these questions…
[49] See the articles and books of V.M. Illich-Svitych, such as Materials for a Comparative Dictionary and Etymology (Moscow, 1967), as well as The Experience of Comparing Nostratic Languages (Moscow, 1971), The Correspondence of Occlusions in Nostratic Languages (Moscow, 1968), and the various publications of the Italian linguist A. Trombetti.

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Two related texts by Dugin in English translation:

On the Question of Russian Runes (chapter 9 of Mysteries of Eurasia
Herman Wirth: Runes, Great Yule, and the Arctic Homeland (foreword to Signs of the Great North: The Hyperborean Theory (Moscow, Veche: 2008))

Word studies BIJ(H)ELD(ING)A and LOK, LVK, LUK

This post contains two short word-studies for future reference.


~  ~  ~ BIJHELDA, BIJELDA, BIJELDINGA

1 [007/21] HJU WÀRTH GRIS FON.T VNWISSE BIJHELDA
Ottema 1872: gedrag (behaviour)
Sandbach 1876: behaviour
Jensma 2006: beschermen

2 [154/02] THRVCH SIN BIJELDA HÉDE.R FÉLO STÁTA WITHER TO MANLIK ÔTHERUM BROCHT.
Ottema: bemoeijing (effort, endeavour)
Sandbach: -
Jensma: beleid (policy)

3 [154/14] NW NE MACHTON THA ALDA FÁMNA HIM THÉR.MITHA WEL NAVT NE STÔRA IN SINA BIJELDINGA.
Ottema: bemoeijingen (efforts, endeavours)
Sandbach: meddling
Jensma: beleid (policy)

4 [156/11] THÉR HJA THRVCH GOSA HJRA BIJELDINGA KRÉJEN HÉDE.
Ottema: bemoeijing (effort, endeavour)
Sandbach: -
Jensma: bemoeienis (effort, endeavour)

BIJHELDA - 1
BIJELDA - 2
BIJELDINGA - 3, 4

Context: policy, supervision (Dutch: beleid, politiek, etc.)

Hettema 1832: Bihielda - het opzicht over iets hebben (supervising)
Richthofen 1840: bihielde (bihelde) - Obhut (keeping, guardianship, protection, care, caretaking, custody)

? Middle-Dutch: Bihouden (14th century)
http://gtb.inl.nl/iWDB/search?actie=article&wdb=MNW&id=04373&lemmodern=bijhouden


~ ~ ~ LOK, LVK, LUK

a) LOK
LOKTON - 1
LOKTE - 3
LOK (verb) - 4
LOK (noun) - 2


1 [008/04] HJRA ÔGON LOKTON ÀND LORDON
O and J: lokten (lured)
S: "Her eyes were alluring and enticing"

I rather think LOKTON is related to "looked", which could also mean to peer or peep (Dutch: turen, gluren); MNW loeken, loken, louken ~ http://gtb.inl.nl/...loeken

2 [080/14] KÉM ERMODE ÀND LOK THRVCH THA ANDERNA BINNA.
O: gebrek (lack)
S: want
J: gebrek (edited LOK => LEK)

Jensma might be right, but LOK could just as well mean hole (German Loch), figurative - similar to leak - for decay; MNW loc, locke ~ http://gtb.inl.nl/...lok

3 [093/32] THÁ NÉVIL EWÉI TÁCH LOKTE SVNNE THRVCH THA RÉTA THÉRA WOLKUM VP JRTHA.
O and J: keek (looked)
S: -

4 [096/25] LOK THÉR. THÉR WÉRE ÉNIS EN FÉN.BRÔND
O: zie hier (look here)
S: -
J: "Look here"


http://www.etymonline.com/...look

look (v.) Old English locian "use the eyes for seeing, gaze, look, behold, spy,"; Old Saxon lokon; Middle Dutch loeken; Old High German luogen; German dialectal lugen "to look out", of unknown origin (...)

I could imagine a relation to loc, locke (hole) and lock (to close), since the eyes are like holes (with depth) and can open and close.

http://www.etymonline.com/...lock

lock (v.) "to fasten with a lock," c. 1300, from Old English lucan "to lock, to close" (...), from the same root as lock (n.1). Cognate with Old Frisian luka; Old Saxon lukan; Old High German luhhan; Old Norse luka; Gothic galukan.

lock (n.1) "means of fastening," Old English loc "bolt, fastening; barrier, enclosure," (...) Old Norse lok "fastening, lock"; Gothic usluks "opening"; Old High German loh "dungeon"; German Loch "opening, hole"; Dutch luik "shutter, trapdoor". "The great diversity of meaning in the Teut. words seems to indicate two or more independent but formally identical substantival formations from the root."

b) LVK
VNTLVKTON - 1
VNTLVKADON - 3
UT.LVKA - 2
ÛT (...) LVKTH - 4

1 [009/25] VNTLVKTON HJRA WÉRA.
when her lips opened ('unlocked'); Dutch ontluiken, ontsluiten.
O: ontsloten
S: opened
J: ontloken

2 [144/06] SÁ SKILUN WI STJÛRAR UT.LVKA.
O: uitlokken (evoke, attract)
S: attract
J: aanlokken (allure, entice, attract)

3 [160/04] VNTLVKADON THA NYA TÁLA AN HJARA BOLA.
O: ontlokten (elicitted)
S: -
J: onttrokken (substracted)

4 [201/21] HÉD.ER ÛT.A SAXANA.MARKUM LVKTH
O and J: uit ... gelokt (enticed out)
S: enticed out

Dutch "luiken" (to close) and "luik" (hatch, trapdoor) are accepted to be related to lock (opening, hole), see http://etymologiebank.nl/...luik

Dutch "lokken" (to lure, allure, attract)
http://etymologiebank.nl/...lokken1
Onl. lockon; mnl. locken; Ohd. lockōn; nhd. locken; oe. loccian; on. lokka; nzw. locka; ohd. lucken; mhd. lücken (...) Herkomst onzeker (origin uncertain)

I can imagine that this word is also related to "lock" (hole): ontlokken ~ to lure an animal out of its hole (lock).


c) LUK (always spelled with U, not V): luck, fortune, happiness
(Dutch: geluk; German: Glück)

13 June 2016

HARK Earth! Anglo-Saxon "Erce eorþan módor" explained

UPDATED Juli 3, 2022

Hans Dahl "Returning
from the Fields" (cropped)
Summary
1. The Anglo-Saxon charm fragment "erce eorþan módor";
2. the German and Dutch earth-spirit name "Harke" (and varieties); and 
3. the North-German and North-Dutch word for 'rake': 'hark';
can all be explained by the phrase HARK JRTHA in the Oera Linda Book.
________________________________ 

In this post I will solve a mystery (or two) with the help of the Oera Linda Book.

Between working on the new translation, I was reading in "Noordeuropese mysteriën en hun sporen tot heden" (North-European mysteries and their traces in the present) by F.E. Farwerck (1970), when something caught my attention.

On page 98, about female leaders of the 'Wild Hunt', It mentioned as leader in parts of Germany "Harke", who would also have been a fertility goddess. The author relates her to an Anglo-Saxon Charm that was referred to by Grimm.

The Charm fragment of interest is "Erce, Erce, Erce, eorþan módor" (the last two words meaning "earth mother"). Farwerck concludes: "... waarbij Erce kennelijk de Angelsaksische vorm voor Harke was." ('Erce' apparently being the Anglo-Saxon version of Harke.)

This immediately reminded me of a phrase in the OLB: HARK JRTHA (6th century BCE; see below), and I wondered if "erce" could rather have meant "hark", which is archaic for "hear".

So I searched the original Charm text and what was written about it. Here is what I found, some additional information and my conclusions.

From "The Anglo-Saxon Charms" by Grendon Felix, 1909 (Offprint from "Journal of American Folklore", 22):

"... the gibberish formula, "Erce, erce, erce," with the mention of the goddess Earth ..."


"Probably an incantatory phrase ... the meaning of which, if it ever had any, has been lost."

Felix' translation (p.175):
Erce, erce, erce, mother of Earth,
May the Almighty, the eternal Lord, grant you
Fields flourishing and bountiful.
Fruitful and sustaining,
Abundance of bright millet-harvests,
And of broad barley-harvests.
And of white wheat-harvests.
And all the harvests of the earth!
Grant him, O Eternal Lord,
And his saints in Heaven that be,
That his farm be kept from every foe,
And guarded from each harmful thing
Of witchcrafts sown throughout the land.
So it is not at all clear to Felix what "erce" could have meant and he refers to Grimm considering it to be the name of a feminine divinity.

Here is what Jacob Grimm wrote in 1843 (second edition 1844) "Deutsche Mythologie - Band 1":

Grimm merely considers a link between "erce" and Herke/ Harke.

Translated: In an Anglo-Saxon charm for the recovery of the fertility of fields that had been harmed by witchcraft, two remarkable salutations are used; one of them being: "Erce, Erce, Erce, eorþan módor", and it seems that not earth itself, but its mother is meant, but the expression is a riddle. Would Erce be an obscured name (...)? And can it be related to our lady Erche, Herkja, Herche, Helche from the famous heroic saga? (...)


In Germany and the Netherlands, there indeed seem to have been traditions of a feminine 'divinity' Herke or Harke:

From index in new edition of A. Kuhn (1848) "Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche"

From: "Arbeid" third year #1, 1-1-1943 (Weekblad v.h. NL Arbeidersfront)
idem ~ "... we here and there find on the peasant land in Drenthe (North-East NL) Lady Harke or Holle depicted with the spinning wheel, in the midwinter bread of Christmas and New Year."

This name of an earth-spirit may very well have its origin in the way she used to be addressed.

In our time, more than a century after Grimm and Felix, people seem to have become certain that "Erce" was the name of a goddess (similar to how 'Tanfana' is assumed to have been a goddess):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Anglo-Saxon_deities


"Frau Harke, Arke oder Herke erinnert vom Namen her an die altenglische Erdgöttin Erce." (source) (Lady Harke, Arke or Herke reminds by name of the old-English earth-goddess Erce.)

"Erce ist Frau Harke, die Erde, während Eostar als Frühlingsgöttin zwar die Frühlingserde bedeutet, aber wohl eher die Morgenröte bzw. Nacht und Mond."(source) (Erce is Lady Harke, the Earth ...)


... But "hear, Earth" is known from the Old Testament (Jeremiah 6:19):

"Aerde hoer" ~ Delft Bible 1477
"Ghy aerde hoort toe" ~ Dutch Lutheran translation 1648

King James Bible (1611):
Heare, O earth, behold, I will bring euill vpon this people, euen the fruit of their thoughts, because they haue not hearkened vnto my wordes, nor to my law, but reiected it.
Luther (1545):
du Erde höre zu / Sihe / Jch wil ein vnglück vber dis Volck bringen / nemlich / jren verdienten lohn / Das sie auff meine wort nicht achten / vnd mein Gesetz verwerffen.
This bible verse will have inspired later songs, poetry and prose:

"Hoor aarde! hoor! hoe wy Gods eer en lof verkonden" (Cornelis Wyt, 1781) (Hear earth! hear! etc.)

"Hoor aarde! hoor Hem klagen"

"Hoor! aarde, luister! bij uw snoode pligtverbreking" (G.A.C.W. Marquis de Thouars, 1830) (Hear! earth, listen! etc.)

Hans Dahl, "By the FJord" (cropped)

HARK in Codex Oera Linda (translation 2022)

[064/18] HARK THEN FRJUNDA TILTHJU I WÉTA MÜGE HWÉRNÉI J BITA.MÉI.
Hear, my friends, that you may know where to bite

[079/04] SÁ WARTH THER HROPEN HARK. HARK THÉR SKIL EN SÉ.MOMMA KÉTHA
people cried: Hear! Hear! A sea hag is going to speak!


[083/21] JES IK SJA.T. HARK JRTHA ÀND WÉS BLÍDE MITH MY.
Yes, I can see... Hear Earth, and rejoice with me!

[096/20] HARK ÁTHE. ADELA IS THET EN'GE BERN VSAR GRÉVET.MAN.
Listen, comrade. Adela was our reeve’s only child

[190/02] HARK HÍR. SE KVMTH FON VSA LÉTHA.
Pay attention! It comes from our enemies;


Official etymology (source: etymonline.com)

hark (v.) c. 1200, from Old English *heorcian "to hearken, listen," perhaps an intensive form from base of hieran (see hear). Compare talk/tale. Cognate with Old Frisian harkia "listen," Middle Dutch horken, Old High German horechon, German horchen. Used as a hunting cry to call attention. To hark back (1817) originally referred to hounds returning along a track when the scent has been lost, till they find it again (1814). Related: Harked; harking.

hearken (v.) late Old English heorcnian "to give ear, listen" (intransitive); hear with attention" (transitive) [...]


It is plausible that "erce, erce, erce, eorþan módor" means "hark, hark, hark, earth-mother" and that "Hark Earth" was an ancient incantation, that later had a reflection in the bible (Jeremiah 6:19).


Hark(e) = rake (agricultural tool)

by Cornelis Springer, 19th century
In Dutch and (North) German, "hark" and "Harke" respectively, is the word for "rake". In the oldest known sources, the word is still rare, later it appears to have become more common.

Oldest known Dutch source: "Een hiet Fabius ende was Romulus raetsman, de sloech Romus doot myt ener harken" (Hs. K. 17, Noord-Oost Nederland, 1455-1475.)

The etymology is not clear (source):
Hark is oorspr. een Noord-Nederlands woord; hierop wees Kiliaan al, die harcke, hercke “Saksisch, Fries, Rijnlands en Hollands” noemde. Ook in Duitsland is Harke vanuit het Middelnederduits (harke, herke) in de standaardtaal gedrongen. Zuidelijker was het woord onbekend en gebruikte men woorden als rake (zie hierna) en gritsel. Herkomst onzeker, wrsch. oorspr. een klanknabootsende vorming, naar het schrapende geluid dat men met een hark maakt. [...]
(... Origin uncertain, probably initially an onomatopoeic formation, after the scraping sound made with a rake.)

This does not make much sense to me.

I would suppose that it is at least possible (if not plausible), that the ancient incantation (Hark Earth!) that accompanied 'scratching' Earth's skin' has given the rake its name in Northern Germany and the Northern Netherlands. I can imagine that 'scratching' earth with a rake before sowing may have been a ritualistic act that was accompanied by a charm or song.


[137/13-17] (translation Ott)
JRTHA SÉIDER SKÀNKATH HJARA JÉVA NÉI MÉTA MÀN HJARA HÛD KLÁWAT.
THÀT MÀN THÉR IN ÁCH TO DELVANE TO ERANE ÀND TO SÉJANE SÁ MÀN THÉR OF SKÉRA WIL.

‘Earth’, he said, ‘grants her gifts to those who scratch her skin;
he must dig, plow and sow in it, he who wishes to reap of it.


Hans Dahl "An Alpine Landscape with a Shepherdess and Goats" (cropped)

02 June 2016

New transliteration PDF

Again, for all you Oera Linda pioneers, here is a new tool to work with: the new provisional transliteration. An introduction is given on the first 5 pages. When all is done and improved, a high quality printed version will be made available. Next part will be the new English translation!

I hereby want to thank you diligent students for your compliments, moral support and patience.