Flins

Flins is a Slavic deity, mentioned for the first time in the book Cronecken der Sassen  in 1492 by the German writer Konrad Bothe.Jerzy Strzelczyk: Mity, podania i wierzenia dawnych Słowian. Poznań: Rebis, 2007, s. 72. .Krzysztof R. Mazurski: Świeradów-Zdrój i okolice. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo „Sport i Turystyka”, 1986, s. 29-30. . People believe it was not really worshipped.

People believe the name of the Polish town, Świeradów-Zdrój also known as Flinsberg in German, came from Flins.

Bothe said Flins was worshipped by people in the Harz Mountains and in Lusatia . 

The described statue was supposed to be destroyed by Prince Lothair. Bothe's information was spread all across Europe and many people drew Flins.

 Theories about his Origin 
There are a variety of theories about his origin, almost all consider him to have never been a real Slavic God. 

According to Elias Schedius (1605–1641), the name of the deity was in fact a corrupted name of a supposed king of the Vandals : Vitzlauw (Wisław? )→Vlitzauw→Vlintz. 

Christian Wilhelm Bronisch (1788–1881) believed that it was derived from the Sorbian mrlinjec, mrlinjc – "dead". 

 (1908–1993) derived it from the sequence lawjenc → lwiniec → lwinc → wlic → flins, and said it was related to lions.

Leonhard Franz argued the description was related to St. Christopher rather than a Slavic deity.

The figure of a Slavic necromancer holding a staff, but without a name, is also mentioned in the description of the shrines of the Western Slavs by Al-Masudi, a traveler from the middle east who visited the region in the 10th century. He recorded the following cult in the temple-resort:


 References 

Category:Slavic pseudo-deities