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A place for Aryan (European) Folkish Pagans
The crook itself is made out of wood, but features intricate bronze decorations. It’s unique since (so far) no other staff like this was found.
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Discovered in Polohy district of southern Ukraine this artifact is known as Polohivskyi crook (staff).
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There’s a recently discovered and rather obscure artifact I’ve read about a week ago. The whole article is too much, but I can translate the important parts and present them here tomorrow. It’s an ancient, most likely ceremonial item.
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Greek philosophy is the decadence of the Greek instinct: Thucydides is the great summing up, the final manifestation of that strong, severe positivism which lay in the instincts of the ancient Hellene. After all, it is courage in the face of reality that distinguishes such natures as Thucydides from Plato: Plato is a coward in the face of reality— consequently he takes refuge in the ideal: Thucydides is master of himself— consequently he is able to master life.
Friedrich Nietzsche
When you look upon the people of antiquity, our pagan ancestors, almost all of them were extremely devout and ultra-conservative compared to anyone of today.
Perverted academics will try to belittle your ancestors, to try to get you to disassociate and disconnect from the very blood that flows in your veins.
Whether the lies come from judeo-christianity, or they come from plato and his acolytes, or those of modern atheistic academia; their goal is simple. Its to stop Pagan Revivalism from emerging once more, and for our people to be healed with ancestral ways by our ancestral Gods.
The Norroena Society has made an unvaluable contribution to the reconstruction of the Germanic faith. As far as I know, an unparalleled achievement.
I also consider myself a follower of the Sedian Path, and I encourage everyone to read these incredible books. I believe they are essential for anyone with the intention of restoring the ancient ways.
I will be getting more books by them in the future.
You can follow them at
/channel/TheNorroenaSociety
I think that’s a good enough place to end the review. Overall, Trumps of Doom is not the weakest in the book series, but is nevertheless far from the best. Worth reading if you like Zelazny’s style and want to have some more of Amber.
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With Merlin there was no longer any reason for us to learn the basics after reading the previous books, but despite this the plot starts with a mystery. Merlin’s life is regularly threatened every year on the same date. He sees it as a personal issue and says nothing to his relatives until his girlfriend is murdered by a monster summoned from another world and Merlin meets an occultist who tries to sacrifice him to get powers promised by an unknown party.
Also Corwin is absent and no one knows where he is.
Ultimately, the real culprit here is the author. I think Zelazny wanted to up the ante by making the hero a powerful mage, but to me this cheapened the story. We came from a witty warrior to a hacker wizard cheating reality on the fly.
Corwin’s cycle had Highlander vibes, while Merlin’s is more of a generic fantasy with spells flying left and right.
But I don’t hate Merlin as some fans do. He’s an amicable kid who doesn’t let power and heritage inflate his ego. It just sucks that his adventures are not as fan to read as his dad’s.
Merlin’s powers give him such an advantage he barely uses a sword. Corwin had to rely on his skill and wit, as well as the inborn strength and regeneration of Amberites.
But Merlin can just think for a second and conjure almost anything from thin air.
Sure, there’s an in-universe explanation for the increased role of magic in the new cycle. Merlin is a son of a princess of Chaos and hence has more affinity towards magic. But the plot is now full of over the top sorcery and stakes feel lower. Also, it’s harder to relate to a half chaos-monster Merlin is, even though he takes more after his father.
My biggest issue with Trumps comes down to the protagonist. Despite being a power fantasy Corwin’s story managed to keep the hero grounded. Sure, compared to a regular human he is a superman, but Corwin was average when it comes to the princes of Amber. Half of his brothers are as good, while Benedict and Gerard could easily beat Corwin.
Meanwhile his son Merlin (Merle) is rather overpowered. Won’t say he’s a Gary Stu, but the guy has the best mix of genetics possible being a part of both Amber and Chaos royalty. He’s also a genius programmer and one of the strongest sorcerers in the world.
Trumps of Doom is the first novel in the second cycle of The Chronicles of Amber. It’s focused on the son of the original hero and was written in 1985. I dislike plot summaries since they are boring and redundant to anyone who has read the book himself, but I will quote specific events and lines to analyze the work so the review is NOT spoiler free.
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Despite his rather short rule Sviatoslav the Brave managed to impact the history and became an inspirational figure, especially to modern Pagans.
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Sviatoslav the Brave burns a bible and answers a christian monk
A scene from The Legend Of Princess Olga in my translation
Editing by @Pagan_Revivalism
Also, communists managed to semi-successfully use the red corner tradition. The line of subversion came far by then. From Ancestors to jewish gods to jewish politicians.
You can still see it in modern ex-USSR countries, but at offices of government officials, not just regular households like it used to be.
The artifact was found with the remains of a man (aged 45-55), probably of higher social status.
The man was buried with a typical copper-bronze knife and a rather atypical staff.
Babyno (Multi-cordoned ware) was a Bronze Age Eastern European culture which produced many interesting artifacts. Today I’ll focus on a recent find attributed to Babyno.
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More translations on the way. Also, I want to try something new content-wise. Maybe more archeology.
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Beowulf by Daniel Jacobs
https://www.instagram.com/danieljacobsartist/
According to the belief of local Ukrainian peasants, there are two types of witches. The first type got their mystical power from birth, the second one gets it from the former through teaching or sell their souls to chorts to get power.
The first type is somewhat amicable towards regular people. They help with illnesses or protect from the malicious attacks of their evil sisters, the taught witches.
P.Ivanov "Folk tales about witches and ghouls"
Art: Witch by volkhv Velemir (Speranski)
Can you believe that there are people who believe that since Europe was nominally christian for a while we can’t return to paganism in any shape or form and should mix the two in this cringe?
There’s a lot of alt right who think so.
Trumps not only start, but also end the same way Nine Princes did with the hero imprisoned. But again, compared to his father Merlin’s conditions are much less dire. He wasn’t blinded, thrown in a tiny cell and emaciated. He has his eyesight, plenty of room and food. He’s also a wizard. Most won’t doubt that Merlin will get out of his confinement, even if it takes some time.
The twist with Rinaldo was decent at least and got some foreshadowing.
Right off the bat (and the ending only confirms it) one can see that Zelazny tried to recapture the first book of the last cycle. This is not an inherently bad idea, but can’t say it was a success.
When Corwin woke up in a hospital bed he knew nothing of himself and the world of Amber which made him a perfect protagonist.
Amnesia is an old, tired trope, but it was popular because it usually worked well. When the hero is a fish out of water there’s reason for him to ask things and receive explanations which makes even the most expository dialogue justified and natural.
Should we blame Corwin for using his unsheathed sword on a chaos demon Dara secretly was? I wouldn’t. After all, other princes did so too (some even knowingly). And if their father Oberon held back in such matters and chose his consorts with the big head Amber’s royal family would be much smaller.
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In Corwin’s circle magic was mostly limited to the use of a single magical jewel. The latter basically came down to advanced weather control because Oberon didn’t bother to teach his kids magic and their use of it looks like kids playing with daddy’s toy. Brand and Fiona were the only real wizards in the family and the most advanced thing they did was fast teleportation.
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I’ll just rip the bandaid off right away. The Trumps of Doom was a disappointing start for a new cycle. And from what little memory I have it won’t get much better. If Corwin’s adventures were a memory, though a very distant one, Merlin’s shenanigans are mostly a complete blank with just a few exceptional scenes I vaguely remember. And all 10 books were read in chronological order, so Merlin’s cycle should be at least somewhat fresher. Yet it’s not. Is it an old man’s memory acting up or was it that forgettable? Let’s find out.
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I’ll post a review of Zelazny’s Trumps of Doom tomorrow. Better re-read the ones I wrote for the previous 5 books in the Amber Chronicles if you are interested.
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When Olga (Helga) offered her son to convert like she did Sviatoslav famously said that his warriors would laugh if he did so. It’s also theorized that his opposition to christianity and Byzantium were the main reasons Sviatoslav was betrayed by voivode Sveneld and died in an ambush. Personally I think Sviatoslav’s loyalty to Paganism and aggressive foreign policy definitely played their role in the king’s untimely demise and the eventual cultural downfall of Rus under his bastard son Vladimir who was raised by christian Olga and eventually baptized.
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During the anti-religious campaign, the Soviet government massively banished the images of saints from the visible space of a private dwelling, yet, making use of the sacred essence and moral significance of the shrines location, it produced manipulations for changing the meaning: “red corners” are an indispensable attribute of administrative and public interiors and hostels. The phrase “red corner” is filled with a new ideological meaning, whereas the meaning of this memorial space remains its moral and spiritual education connotations.
Vestnik slavianskikh kul’tur. 2020. Vol. 58
Another interesting thing to note about the red corner is that when a person was dying and after he/she died they were always placed with the head to the red corner. It was also believed that the deceased's soul stayed at the red corner for the first 40 days after death.
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