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| caricature of spying monk, ca. 1700 |
They [monks] speak sweet words, but unnoticed they meddle with all that concerns us Fryas. They collaborate with foreign kings, who pay them well. These know that we are their greatest enemies, because we dare speak about freedom, justice and royal obligations. Therefore, they want to obliterate all traces of our ancestral heritage and what is left of our morals. [...] if we do not strengthen ourselves, they will exterminate us all.1b. Adela’s Advice, ca. 560 BCE (p. 22, 24)
[...] the magus did not conquer a single district by force of arms, but rather, merely through deceitful intrigue and with ease, since the military leaders and noblemen were beset by greed.
[...] he selected the best looking of his Finns and Magyars and promised them mountains of gold if they could find acceptance among our people and then spread his doctrine. But his people went further: children were kidnapped and taken to the Upsalands, and when they had been perverted by his ways, they were sent back. When these apparent slaves had learned our language, they convinced the military leaders and nobles to submit to the magus, so their sons could succeed them without election by the folk.
4e. Aewa (p. 63)
While we are busy damaging each other, the envious Finda people come with their false priests, to steal your possessions, defile your daughters, corrupt your morals, and in the end throw the bonds of slavery over every Frya’s neck.
4f. Minerva (p. 65, 68-69) ca. 1620 BCE
[...] a certain kind of people is wandering the earth [...] gnawing in the dark [...] to invent tricks to rob other people of their knowledge, so they can more easily seize and enslave them, and suck their blood like leeches.
They cunningly made themselves masters of our laws and customs, and they managed to explain and distort them all through misinterpretations. They also placed maidens under their care [...] and instead of properly educating these maidens before sending them among the people, to nurse the sick and teach the children, they kept them ignorant and dimmed their light [...]. They were also used as counselors, but that counsel only appeared to come from their own lips, as in reality their lips were nothing but the mouthpiece through which the priests promulgated their own desires.
8a. Magyars and Finns, ca. 2090 BCE (p. 87); domination by exploiting fear
[The Finns] believe that evil spirits are everywhere and enter into people and animals [...] The Magyars claim that they can ban and banish the evil spirits. The Finns are always in fear because of this, and their faces never show signs of joy.
8b. Wodin and the Magus (p. 89-91)
When the magus heard how his men were all being slain, he sent messengers with scepter and crown. They said to Wodin: ‘O you, greatest of all kings! [...] The magus possesses great riches [...] You are the most heroic king on earth [...] Become our king, and we shall willingly be your slaves. [...] Wodin [...] was caught in their trap and crowned by the magus. [...] the magus gave him his daughter as a wife. He then was incensed with [...] magic herbs, and gradually Wodin became so audacious, that he dared to disavow and ridicule Frya and Wralda’s spirit, while he bent his free neck before images of false gods. His reign lasted seven years, and then he disappeared. The magus said that he had been accepted among their gods, and that he ruled them from there [...] The magus, however, did as it pleased him, because his daughter had born a son by Wodin, and the magus now declared this son to be of high descent. [...] he crowned the boy as king, and installed himself as his guardian, representative and counselor. Those who valued feasting above justice let him win them over [...]8e. The Idolatrous Gols (p. 98)
The Gols, however, celebrated various vile idolatrous rites, attracting the coast dwellers with their whorish girls and the sweetness of their poisonous wine.
If one of our folk had committed such a bad offense that his life was in danger, the Gols afforded him refuge and shelter, and lead him to Phoenicia — that is Palmland. When he was settled there, they made him write his family, friends and allies that the land was so good and the people so happy that no one could imagine it.
In Britannia were plenty of men, but few women. When the Gols realized this, they abducted girls from everywhere and gave them to the banished men for nothing. All of these girls, however, had become servants of the Gols, and stole the children from Wralda to offer them to their false gods.
9a. The War of Kelta and Minerva, ca. 1630 BCE (p. 101, 102)
At the first war [lit. defense] feast that followed, when all her landsmen were armed, she [Kelta] brought barrels of beer, to which she had added a magic potion. When the folk was altogether drunk, she went standing on the back of her warhorse, leaning her head upon her spear. The red of dawn could not have been more beautiful.
When she saw that all eyes were fixed upon her, she opened her lips and spoke: ‘[...] Minerva has hexed all the folk [...] just like all our cattle that died lately. [...] if I was not a burg maiden [...] I would burn that witch in her nest.’
As soon as she had thus spoken, she hurried to her burg. The drunken folk, however, was so much aroused that they had lost any sense of reason. In their mad fervor they crossed the Sandfal, and while night was falling, they attacked the burg in ongoing rage.
(more to be added)
