Pre-Christian Poland?

I take interest in Polish history only in the period after 963, the year when Prince Mieszko had to adopt Christianity for Poland (or else face the Teutonic extermination). To me, the idea Poland without Christianity makes no sense whatsoever.

By the way, I am your fellow but regrettably not your fellow Polanie.

Ya I know that Poland is WAY better off Christian, I'm just interested in learning more about something I don't know that much about.

PS: I don't midn if non-Poles answer too. I just wrote that because it's obvious that a Pole will have a better chance of knowing the answer to my question than someone else.

Latest archeological works seems to proove that the capital of Polanie tribe was Poznan while Gniezno was a pagan religious center.This year in Poznan archeologists found huge fortifications, a city wall or rather earth/wood/stone wall about 14 metres wide and 10 metres high. 2 years ago also the palace of first polish rulers was discovered also in Poznan. Both the palace and fortifications are dated on half of the 10th century. The size of these constructions seems to proove that Polanie were a well organsied tribe and that my city - Poznan was their political center.

boody4 wrote:Can you guys tell me a bit about their religion, rituals habits, stuff liek that, anything you know?

A great Polish historician said that the knowledge of the religion of Poles in the pre-christian period could take one sheet of paper.

Mosquito wrote: 2 years ago also the palace of first polish rulers was discovered also in Poznan.

A blue paint found on the walls of this palace was prepared on lapis lazuli base. That could be imported only from present day Afganistan.

Try Aleksander Gieysztor, Mitologia Słowian or just look here:

http://web.raex.com/~obsidian/SlavPan.html

or here: http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitologia_S%C5%82owian

The English site was very informative and I tried reading the Polish site even though I only understood only like half of the words because written polish and spoken polish is very different and I'm only used to spoken.

Nevermind, I found the English version of the site.

The names of some of the pagan Slavic deities are nearly identical to those of the Indo-Aryans.

Here are a few examples off the top of my head:

Shiva (Sanskrit) = Zhiva (Russian) = Zywie (Polish)

Vishnu (Sanskrit) = Vesna (Russian) = Wisnie (Polish)

Varuna (Sanskrit) = Perun (Slavic)

BTW, I'm of mostly Polish descent, so naturally these things fascinate me.

Boody4-

My Grandfather had said that our family was from Galicia.  He was born in Tarnow.  Thanks for asking.

It's good to know someone here has similiar interests.  Hopefully we can learn more here on this forum.  Rava is really good on this subject and seems to have a wealth of information.  I wonder if ScythKing from the old AllEmpires forum is here, maybe under a different name (BTW I used to be GoldenAge on AllEmpires).  He also was able to provide a lot of material on origins and migrations and that sort of thing.