In the Search for Our Past

In the Search of Our Past

Cover of In the Search of Our Past, second edition, 1994 (Lithuanian)
Author	Česlovas Gedgaudas
Original title	Mūsų praeities beieškant
Illustrator
Country	Lithuania
Language	Lithuanian
Publication date	1972
Media type	Print
Pages	365 (second published edition)
ISBN	9986-407-11-7 Search this book on .

In the Search of Our Past (Lithuanian: Mūsų praeities beieškant) is a book, often judged pseudohistorical, written by the Lithuanian author Česlovas Gedgaudas.

In the book, Gedgaudas talks about his theory that the Balts, or Lithuanians, inhabited a large part of Europe and that the Goths, Vandals and Veneti were actually a Baltic people. To prove his theory, he references many sources, often comparing words and place names in different languages with the Lithuanian language.

Part One

Instead of an introduction

Česlovas Gedgaudas begins with the phrase "Give me strength" in runes and prays to the pagan god, entitling him as:

• "God of Žemaitians and Aukštaitians" (Lithuanian: Žemaičių ir Aukštaičių Dieve)
• "Ruler of Prussians, Galindians, and Curonians" (Lithuanian: Prūsų, Galindų, Kuršių Valdove)
• "Almighty of the Liauduvians, Sėsnians, Tautonians, Tauringians, Varulians" (Lithuanian: Liauduvių, Sėsnų, Tautonių, Tauringių, Varulių Viešpatie)
• "Protector of the Vandals" (Lithuanian: Vanduolių Globėjau)
• "Guide of the Aesti and Upeningians" (Lithuanian: Eisčių ir Upeningių Vadove)
• "King of the Visigoths" (Lithuanian: Vyčių-Gudų Karaliau)
• "Grand Kunigas of the Yotvingians, Varangians, and Rus" (Lithuanian: Jotvingių, Varingių ir visų Rasų Didysis Kunige)
• "Judge of the ancient High Rikiai" (Lithuanian: senovės Aukštrikių Teisėjau)
• "Lord of the Krivians and Krivaitians" (Lithuanian: Krivių-Krivaičių Pone)
• "Marshal of Vytis' Banners" (Lithuanian: Vyties Vėliavų Karvedy)
• "Creator of the Liela Tauroja" (Lithuanian: Lielos Taurojos Kūrėjau)

In his prayer, Gedgaudas calls on him for knowledge, truth, and help, when revealing the old untold truths. He laments that his words are too weak to remind the military undertakings of the hillfort giants, the science of the star-gazers, the insight of the oracles, and the hard-working and creative hands of the "bright [Lithuanian] nation". He continues, writing that:

Although ages have passed, the mysterious body of the Miraculous Serpent, chopped into the smallest pieces, is still moving, covering itself in a bloodbath;

the Crusader's hand still shakes, and he worries in his heart: "Hath I not shattered you enough - maybe it will revitalize?"

Our language's monuments still glow proudly, scattered as if diamonds on three continents, and are witnesses to an age, when demigods walked on land and gave the first names to cities and rivers, mountains and seas.

According to him, archives contain many ancient writings, who are constantly denied and destroyed by "the enemies of our [Lithuanian] culture". Furthermore, he complains about how history is distorted, as unearthed discoveries are always appropriated by the current inhabitants on that land. The prayer ends with Gedgaudas calling on the "Lord of Battles" to help him restore the truth "with the unearthed swords" and asking the Lord to remember and forgive his nation, even if it has long forgotten Him.

Why do we know so little about our glorious past?

Gedgaudas critiques the fact that the rule of Mindaugas is considered akin to ancient history in Lithuania, whilst Western Europe already had extensive archives onwards from the 5th century. He poses the question why only a few pages are dedicated to the centuries prior to Mindaugas when up to three millennia of Lithuanian history could be restored based on the Western, Rus, Byzantine, Arabian, Scandinavian, and many other numerous sources. According to Gedgaudas, this ignored history is often unmentioned, and when it is mentioned, it is toned down to a child's level of understanding and described using stereotyped templates. Yet, pre-Vytautas Lithuanian history was very complex and reaches so far back, it could be analysed inexhaustibly.

He blames the lack of exploration into the ancient times on religious, political, scientific, and democratic taboos.

Religious taboo

He considers the Baltic Crusades as a genocide conducted by the Catholic Church, comparable to that conducted by conquistadors in Central and Southern Americas. For example, the Pope Honorius III had threatened to excommunicate the Pomeranian Duke Šventupuolis, because he cooperated with "the infernal Lithuanians" (Latin: cum infernali lithuanorum). Moreover, the Crusaders, after crushing one of the Prussian uprisings, slew open the belly of the captured Prussian king Paupinis (Pipin, similar to Visigothic Pepin), nailed his intestines to the sacred oak, and forced him to run around the tree, and after a few circles, he collapsed. The writer points out that that the genealogy of the Lithuanian ancient kings was labelled the "Book of Belial's children" (Latin: Liber filiorum Belial), which shows that the Catholic Church was clearly hostile to Lithuanians.

Gedgaudas writes that viewing the atrocities committed in the Crusades against pagan Balts as genocide would lead to civil strife in Lithuania. Hence, in order to not upset the Catholic Church and its followers, the crimes committed in its name are glossed over and the pagan faith is degraded to an uncivilized religion. However, he points out that paganism's primitiveness is refuted by the forty-page section in the Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics dedicated to the Aryan religion, which interweaves Ancient Greek, Sanskrit and Baltic cultures, which, unfortunately, referred to the fact that there is a lack of research with regards to Baltic linguistics.

In the search for the origin of Lithuanians

Gedgaudas proposes that the word Aisčiai (Aesti), with which the Balts call themselves (the word is related to the Latvian words Ists or Istenieks, meaning companion or consanguineous), was a cognate of the Lithuanian verb eiti, which means "go, walk", and of Greek Aistos and Slavic Aisr, ancient names for storks which are migratory birds.

He derived Vandal from Vanduoliai, or "inhabitants of a place with water" (from vanduo, which means "water" in Lithuanian).

Part Two - Having found the Chronicle of Žiniavaldas

Gedgaudas accepted the authenticity of the works of the historian Hinnibaldus on the Franks in the 5th century, who said that the Trojan War happened in 1179 B.C. Gedgaudas, upon seeing in the names of Frankish kings an indication of their closeness to the Baltic peoples, identified the Franks with the Cimmerians (although the original text is lost, there is a partial copy, including a summary of the works of Johannes Trithemius).

He defended the theory that the Hyperborean gods in Greco-Roman mythology (Apollo, the Muses, Latvia, Thetis, Diana, Ganymede Proteus, Ceres, and Ares) had Baltic origins.

Based on the studies of Theodor Mommsen (Monumenta Germaniae Historica) and Alfred Gutschmit (Untersuchungen Über die Geschichte), Gedgaudas developed a chronology of the expansion of the Goths. He dated the first great Goth expedition (the departure from Scandinavia and the conquest of Gothiscançia) as happening in the year 1490 B.C., during the reign of Bueric.

Part Four - Censored Past

Gedgaudas attributed the Godo to the Baltic word Gaudas, "the subject that catches", from the word Gaudo, "catch", which could mean "the one who catches the beef", a cattleman, or "the one who catches a slave", a warrior. The Gothic conquest of Scythia would have begun in 1324 B.C. with King Pilimer. The Gothic arrival in India, under King Thanauso, would have occurred sometime after 1290 B.C.

Part Five - The Renounced God

Gedgaudas suggested that the alphabet used by Romuva priests, since lost, was a runic alphabet, making this conclusion from the Lithuanian word Rantyti, Ranto, meaning "to record" and "to speak" in Latvian.

Publications

The book was first published in 1972 in Mexico City, and then republished in Lithuania in 1994 and 2018.

References

Gedgaudas, Česlovas (1972). Mūsų Praeities Beieškant [In the Search of Our Past] (PDF) (in Lithuanian). Mexico City.CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link) Search this book on

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