Has someone been invoking a Lithuanian god on the Kent coast?
Walkers on the North Downs Way between Dover and Folkstone have been encountering an unexpected surprise overlooking the Channel in the Capel-Le-Ferne nature reserve – a mysterious totem pole. No one seems quite sure when it arrived, but it is believed to have been erected towards the end of July and has become something of a tourist attraction. Eight-feet (2.4m) tall and carved from a single tree, the pole is inscribed with the name Perkunas. Local residents, speculating about its origins, have attributed it to everyone from art pranksters to aliens. Now, the local authority, Dover District Council, has asked the Kent Wildlife Trust, owners of the reserve, to apply for retrospective planning permission to keep “Perkunas the Pole” in place. Area manager Ian Rickards said: “The artwork seems to be a hit with the walkers who have taken selfies and congratulated us on the installation, but we had no idea how it came to be there – it’s a ‘Totem’ mystery!” He is now seeking its creator, “The local council has given us eight weeks to submit planning permission and it would be great to track down the person behind Perkunas to get a bit more detail so we can keep it”.
A clue to its origins comes from the name carved on the pole; historian and folklorist (and recent FT contributor) Francis Young, author of Pagans in the Early Modern Baltic, says, “Perkunas is perhaps the best-known Baltic god. That is his Lithuanian name. He’s the same as the Slavic god Perun. He’s one of the top three or four gods in Baltic mythology, but not the most important. He’s equivalent to the Norse god Thor and also wields a hammer.” He was viewed as a positive figure and would be invoked for protection against thunderstorms. “Even in the 19th and 20th century, folklore lingers on and people invoke him when going out in the rain,” Young said. Peter Morris, national trail manager of the North Downs Way, feels that the thunder element could be relevant to its location, saying: “We’re right on a coastal section between Folkestone and Dover, so we’ve got the Channel behind us and it is quite exposed, so it might have some reference to that.”
Young says that the Kent pole
