Radogost is one of the gods from Slavic mythology.
He is the Slavic god of hospitality (his name roughly translates as “dear guest”). Some say that he had two heads, one of the human and one of the lion. In one hand he had an axe and in other bread and salt.
But name of the band, At Radogost’s Gates, doesn’t speak of the god but rather the Slavic sanctuary in the town Rethra and its destruction by Christian army led by bishop Burchard of Halberstadt, in 1068. ( some sources say that it was in the year 1066.)
I won’t go into details about the sanctuary or its beauty and meaning which it had for all surrounding Slavic tribes. At Radogost’s Gates name tells of the moment both armies gathered in front of Sanctuary Radogost.
Now pause for the moment, and look at it like we would look at a painting. What do we see in front of us?
We see on one side a christian army and on the other side we see the Slavic pagan army, in lesser numbers because of the political struggles between the tribes, standing to defend the sanctuary that bears the name Radogost – dear guest.
Now can we remember any moment from the history of the humankind that can be similar to this?
Of course we can, the whole history of humankind is based on fear of the unknown, destruction of that what is different, destroying the knowledge with it, always searching for the way to dominate and not seeking the way to coexist.
Look at us, in search of the heaven we are destroying one, and we are too blind to see and too stupid to realize what we are doing. If we look at the evolution of mankind through Darwin theory, after all the inventions and achievements humankind is still stuck with that sharpened rock in one hand trying to make bigger, better and more deadly weapon so we can stand up and pound our chest. We are acting like parasites, so we are parasites. And we all know what we do when we get flies?
The Earth will do that too. Unless we open our minds and embrace the reality.
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This is really interesting. I've recently gotten into slavic mythology and started reading up on Perun, Dazbog, Svarog etc. but I've never heard about Radogost before this.
Does anybody know about any good material on the subject (besides wikipedia)?
Way to paint a picture with your words... I give you mad props :)
Props again for the slavic mythology reference, but also for your stance on religion... I couldn't agree with you more
I'm a huge fan of Slavic mythology and I'm proud of my Slavic roots. I've never heard of this battle, and I'm always happy to learn something new about Slavic history! Tnx for this post! :)
Burchard was a nephew of Anno II of Cologne and Werner of Magdeburg. I think that there they mention it as temple Radgosc in land Wilzi.
At Radogost's Gates just takes its name from that moment, that conflict of cultures. All human history is made of conflicts, rarely you will find the moment when one decided to coexist with other...
But the story ARG is trying to tell doesn't take roots in any religion.. as i think of religions as a prison of mind. For example, if we say that this existance, this world is a desert, Religions and sects are desert storms preventing us from finding and reaching oazis. Without it (oazis) we will continue this vicious circle of self destruction and parasitic behavior. ..
Sorry for a late response, was on vacation :)
So if Im following your storyline correctly, u draw the energy from ancient nature realm...dating from 10th or somthin century? Wasnt that a temple from Merseburg chronicles.
headbanging my anthropologist skull on stained mirror .thats all mob.