Prussian mythology

Affected by the Protestant Reformation, the former Catholic stronghold the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights was transformed into the Lutheran Duchy of Prussia in 1525.

Right about that time two fundamental studies of Prussian culture were produced: the Sudovian Book and Chronicle of Simon Grunau.

[1] Another school of thought claims that it was the opposite: the Sudovian Book was a distorted copy of Synodales, which in turn was prepared based on Grunau, and that they all should be rejected as "invention" and "forgery".

Modern scholars often dismiss the chronicle as a work of fiction, though Lithuanian researchers tend to be more careful and attempt to find its redeeming qualities.

The work is responsible for the introduction and popularization of several major legends: 6th-century King Widewuto, the temple of Romuva, the pagan trinity (Peckols, Potrimpo, and Perkūnas), the pagan high priest (Kriwe-Kriwajto), and female waidelinns (similar to Roman vestales).

[b] He also appears to be connected to words for "star" in Baltic languages: Lith žvaigždė and Latv zvaigzne.

[12][c] The deity's name seems to contain a Prussian stem -swaigst-, present in swaigst-an (perhaps related to German Schein, "light") and verb er-schwaigstinai ("[it] illuminates").

[11] On the other hand, still aligned with the interpretation as god of light, Roman Zaroff postulates that Suaixtix might have been a solar deity, based on ethnographical and folkloric data of the other Baltic languages.