Peckols and Patollo were gods in the pagan Prussian mythology

Prussian mythology

The Prussian mythology was a polytheistic religion of the Old Prussians, indigenous peoples of Prussia before the Prussian Crusade waged by the Teutonic Knights. It was closely related to other Baltic faiths, the Lithuanian and Latvian mythologies. Its myths and legends did not survive as Prussians...

 worshiped by the Old Prussians

Old Prussians

The Old Prussians or Baltic Prussians were an ethnic group, autochthonous Baltic tribes that inhabited Prussia, the lands of the southeastern Baltic Sea in the area around the Vistula and Curonian Lagoons...

. Most researches believe that despite varying names, Peckols and Patollo were the same god in charge of the underworld and the dead. It is usually described as an angry, evil spirit similar to Lithuanian

Lithuanian mythology

Lithuanian mythology is an example of Baltic mythology, developed by Lithuanians throughout the centuries.-History of scholarship:Surviving information about Baltic paganism in general is very sketchy and incomplete. As with most ancient Indo-European cultures Lithuanian mythology is an example of...

 velnias. Hungarian Pokol also means the Underworld.

Patollu was first mentioned in 1418 by Bishop of Warmia in a letter to the Pope. Chronicler Simon Grunau

Simon Grunau

Simon Grunau was the author of Preussische Chronik,Full title: Cronika und beschreibung allerlüstlichenn, nützlichsten und waaren historien des namkundigenn landes zu Prewssen or Chronicle and description of the most amusing, useful and true known history of the Prussian land the first...

 (1529) provided more vivid but dubious details about Patollo. According to Grunau, Patollo was one of the three gods portrayed on the flag and coat of arms of King Widewuto

Widewuto

Widewuto was a legendary king of the pagan Prussians who ruled along with his elder brother, the high priest Bruteno in the 6th century AD. They are known from writings of 16th-century chroniclers Erasmus Stella, Simon Grunau, and Lucas David...

 and worshiped in the temple of Rickoyoto

Romuva (temple)

Romuva or Romowe was a pagan worship place in western part of Sambia, one of the regions of the pagan Prussia. In contemporary sources the temple was mentioned only once by Peter von Dusburg in 1326...

. He was portrayed as an old man with white beard and white headdress similar to a turban. He was a scary and ruthless god of the dead. He would haunt and taunt the living if they disobeyed their pagan priests or buried the dead without proper sacrifices to the gods. Many other medieval writers, including Alexander Guagnini

Alexander Guagnini

Alexander Guagnini was an Italian chronicler from Verona. He served in the Lithuanian military in Vitsebsk ....

 and Lucas David

Lucas David

Lucas David was a Prussian historian, who from ca. 1550 on compiled extensive volumes on Prussian history....

, followed Grunau in descriptions of Patollo.

The Sudovian Book

Sudovian Book

The so-called Sudovian Book was an anonymous work about the customs, religion, and daily life of the Old Prussians from Sambia. The manuscript was written in German in the 16th century. The original did not survive and the book is known from later copies, transcriptions and publications. Modern...

(1520s), mentioned two beings – Peckols, god of hell and darkness, and Pockols, airborne spirit or devil. The same pair is also found in the church decrees of 1530 (Constitutiones Synodales). There Pecols was identified with Roman god

Roman mythology

Roman mythology is the body of traditional stories pertaining to ancient Rome's legendary origins and religious system, as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans...

 of the underworld Pluto

Pluto (mythology)

In ancient Greek religion and myth, Pluto was a name for the ruler of the underworld; the god was also known as Hades, a name for the underworld itself...

 and Pocols with deities of anger Furies

Erinyes

In Greek mythology the Erinyes from Greek ἐρίνειν " pursue, persecute"--sometimes referred to as "infernal goddesses" -- were female chthonic deities of vengeance. A formulaic oath in the Iliad invokes them as "those who beneath the earth punish whosoever has sworn a false oath"...

. Jan Sandecki Malecki followed the Sudovian Book and wrote about Pocclum and Poccollum. Jonas Bretkūnas

Jonas Bretkunas

Jonas Bretkūnas, Johann Bretke, also known as Bretkus was a Lutheran pastor and was one of the best known developers of the written Lithuanian language...

, Caspar Hennenberger

Caspar Hennenberger

Caspar Hennenberger was a German Lutheran pastor, historian and cartographer....

, and later authors attempted to reconcile the accounts provided by Grunau and the Sudovian Book. In the 17th century Christoph Hartknoch

Christoph Hartknoch

Christoph Hartknoch was a Prussian historian and educator.- Biography :Hartknoch was born in Jablonken near Ortelsburg in the Duchy of Prussia. His father, Stephan Hartknoch of Lyck , is recorded to have been married for 100 years and to have lived to the age of 130...

 and Matthäus Prätorius

Matthäus Prätorius

Matthäus Prätorius was a Protestant pastor, later a Roman Catholic priest, a historian and ethnographer....

testified that people still believed in Picolli and Pykullis.