Palm, Thede. Becaus, Enlil Up to the twentieth century peasants believed that in springtime it was a grave sin to strike the earth with anything before March 25, because during that time the earth was pregnant. Omissions? The festival, during which a bull was sacrificed and prepared for the communal feast, took place on a hill or summit. The primary figures of the oldest stratum of Slavic culture are predominantly female: Fates, Death, Baba Yaga, Moist Mother Earth, and a host of nymphs and goblins (water, mountain, and forest spirits) largely preserved in folklore and attested by written records. Cross introduces these beliefs in the following manner: The religion of the pagan Slavs was thus primarily animistic in its origins, and the animistic personification of powers of nature is further exemplified by abundant references to water and forest spirits (vily, beregynji, lesie). A myth known to all Slavs tells how God ordered a handful of sand to be brought up from the bottom of the sea and created the land from it. Of utmost importance are archaic motifs in folklore, linguisitic reconstructions, and archaeological monuments. The worship of pagan gods did not disappear immediately with the arrival of Christianity. Paris, 1926. Mokosh was later transformed into the East Slavic goddess Paraskeva-Piatnitsa, who was associated with spinning, water, fertility, health, and marriage. 2, pp. in 1, New York, 1972. Although described as the "lord of the whole world" by Procopius and listed first in Vladimir's pantheon, Perun was never addressed as "summus deus" ("highest god") as was the god of heavenly light (Sventovit). The white god is the deity of daylight while the black god is the god of night. The South Slavs, covering the area east of the Adriatic, south of the Danube, and west of the Black Sea, had the Magyars and Vlachs as their northern and eastern neighbors. Johnson, Kenneth. In the late 12th century, Danish invaders began to move into the Slavic regions. Belyakova, G. S. Slavyanskaja mifologija [Slavic mythology]. Socially the Slavs were organized as exogamous clans (based on marriages outside blood relationship) or, more properly, as sibs (groups of lineages with common ancestry) since marriage did not cancel membership in the clan of ones birtha type of organization unique among Indo-European peoples. Moscow, 1995. 2022 . Krauss, F. S. Volksglaube und religiser Brauch der Sdslaven. We understand that these gods, spirits and ancestors are not archetypes, concepts or part of the human psychology, but that they are truly in the world and real beings. This is a parallel to the self-sacrifice of the Germanic god inn (Odin). The term Slavic religion can be used to refer to the mythology and cultic life common to all Slavs from the sixth to the tenth century. His presence and actions are perceived in lightning and thunder. Tokarev, S. A., ed. Of utmost importance is the description of the sacrifice of the priest Volkhv in Skazanii o postroenii grada Yaroslavlia (Legends about the Founding of Yaroslavl), published in 1876 and based on a manuscript of 1781. Manuel de l'antiquit slave, vol. To Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs she was known as Kuga; to Bulgarians and Russians she was Chuma. Encyclopedia.com. In addition to these family observances, general festivals commemorating the dead occurred three or four times a year. Other practices may include keeping sacred oaths, dietary restrictions or meditation. The most reliable sources on the religion of the West Slavs are provided by Otto, a twelfth-century bishop of Bamberg, whose war with the pagan gods of the Slavs in northern Germany was recorded by this three biographers, Ebbo, Herbord, and Monachus Prieflingensis, as well as by Thietmar, bishop of Merseburg, who wrote firsthand accounts of eleventh-century Wendish paganism (see Palm, 1937). The descriptions that we have of Slavic idols and temples, it must be remembered, come from the writings of the very people who destroyed them. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). The Old European goddess of death and regeneration is reflected in the Slavic deity Baba Yaga, who has been preserved in folk tales as a witch. The polycephalic images, three- or four-faced gods, known as Triglav or as Chetyregod, represent different faces of the year god. A tradition going back millennia is evidenced by carved images of gods, produced throughout proto-Slavic periods and later times, that are similar to those of early history. This religious dualism of white and black gods is common to practically all the peoples of Eurasia. Austin, 2002. We've created a Patreon for Medievalists.net as we want to transition to a more community-funded model. Revue des tudes slaves 23 (1947): 48ff. They often gather near water where they dance in a kolo ("circle"). In film, Disney's Fantasia features a sequence called Night on Bald Mountain, in which Czernobog is the great black demon, and a number of successful Russian movies like Finest, the Brave Falcon and Last Night all draw from Slavic legends. Perkowski, Jan L. The Darkling: A Treatise on Slavic Vampirism. In antiquity the Slavs were perhaps the largest branch of the Indo-European family of peoples. Though in early times the leshy was the protector of wild animals, in later ages it became the protector of flocks and herds.

In Russia, Flor and Lavr were the protectors of horses. ." Shaparova, N. S. Kratkaya enciklopedija slavyanskoj mifologii [A short dictionary of Slavic mythology]. He called up the witch Baba Yaga, who created a massive storm that made all of the cows fall from heaven down to the underworld, where Veles hid them in a dark cave. She can be seen flying beneath the clouds and over the mountains and valleys on a broom or a rake. The names Veles and Volos apparently represent two aspects of the same god: (1) a sorcerer god of death, related to music and poetry, and (2) a god of cattle, wealth, and commerce. In folk beliefs, Mesiats is addressed as kniaz' ("prince") and is believed to have powers over the growth of plants. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. She knows the magical properties of plants and is the keeper of the water of life and death. The use of this methodology in contemporary paganism is not new. Girls honored Iarilo by performing choral dances upon newly sown fields. Up to the twentieth century, it was believed that fate took the form of birth fairies who appeared at the bedside of a newborn baby on the third or the seventh day after birth. They also venerated and made sacrifices to rivers, nymphs, and "other demons." She can turn into a horse, a swan, or a falcon. Yes, Slavic paganism is a reconstruction of the pre-Christian and pre-Islamic religion of Slavic peoples. Yankovitch, Nnad. However, secondary sources, mostly written by monks during the period in which the Slavic states were Christianized, have provided a rich cultural tapestry woven with the mythology of the region. At the end of the first millennium C.E., the state of Kyivan Rus (Kievan Russia) had undergone significant changes most notably, the acceptance of a new faith. Their language was the forerunner of Slovenian, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, and Bulgarian. The elected chief did not have executive powers. The stratigraphy of Slavic religion and mythology thus contains the following levels: (1) Old European, rooted in a local Neolithic culture; (2) Indo-European, derived from the pastoral; patriarchal culture of the Eurasian steppes; and (3) Christian, in which pagan prototypes fused with Christian figures, producing a "double faith." The divinity mentioned by Helmold is a deus otiosus; i.e., an inactive god, unique in the mythology of the Indo-European peoples. Slavic Paganism in Kievan Russia and the Coming of Christianity. 2, pp. Fireseven spontaneous combustionare blamed on him. Reminiscent of the Indo-European archetype of the divine twinsthe Dioscuri of Greek myth, the Asvins of the Vedas, the Dievo Suneliai of Lithuanian folk songsare the saints Boris and Gleb, Cosmas and Damian, and Flor and Lavr. . Therefore, its best to use Encyclopedia.com citations as a starting point before checking the style against your school or publications requirements and the most-recent information available at these sites: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. This understanding of sacrifice informs our practice: we regularly offer to the gods, spirits and ancestors to maintain this cycle, and in doing so to grow closer to them. Russian sources treat Svarog, present as Zuarasici among the Liutici of Rethra (an ancient locality in eastern Germany), as a god of the drying-house fire. 367410. Moscow, 1995. In the tradition of Celtic, Baltic, Greek, and other related mythologies of Europe, Slavic beliefs strongly preserved very ancient pre-Indo-European images typical of an agricultural, matrifocal, and matrilinear culture. Oak forests and mountaintopswhere a god of storms might easily alightare attested by literary sources as places of veneration. A Russian glossary to the 6th-century Byzantine writer John Malalas Chronographia mentions a god named Svarog. The monk Herbertus describes a sacred grove where a large tar-covered idol stood leaning against a tree (presumably an oak). A similar complex may be seen if the Slavic Perun is equated with Perknas, the lightning deity of the Lithuanians. Among the West Slavs, Iarovit, Porovit, Sventovit, and Svarozhich, described in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, repesent various aspects of the year god: spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Patti Wigington is a pagan author, educator, and licensed clergy. Descriptions of rusalka s vary from region to region. They helped with household chores, spun hemp, and reaped grain and tied it into sheaves. Perun knew that Veles was behind the chaos, so he used his sacred thunderbolt to defeat Veles. My main focus will be on the persistence of pagan elements in the religious and cultural life of the Slavs, despite the efforts of authorities to spread Orthodoxy in the region. "Essai comparatif sur la mythologie slave." "Baba-Jaga: A Search for Mythopoeic Origins and Affinities." In Pomerania, the person who cut the last stalks of grain fashioned them into a doll, which was called Corn Mother or Old Woman and was brought home on the last wagon. She made crops grow. 10251028. There is no evidence for the worship of Loki, nor any evidence of his being known elsewhe, Due to the concerted efforts of both the eastern and western churches, Christianity largely replaced Slavic paganism during the course of the ninth a, Egypt, Ancient Another male equivalent of Baba Yaga in her role of the "mother of the winds" is Morozko ("frost"). Bolshaya Rossijskaya Enciklopedija, vol.12. However, the date of retrieval is often important. "The Historical Roots of Some Russian Religious Festivals." The deity Svarog or Rod, is a creator and considered a father god to many other figures in Slavic mythology, including Perun, a god of thunder and the sky. Tall and naked, they had long breasts and long hair, which they flung over their shoulders. Helsinki, 1922. Encyclopedia of Religion. According to the Russian Primary Chronicle, when Prince Igor made a peace treaty with Byzantium at Kiev in 945, he and his men went to a hill where there was a statue of Perun. There are numerous myths in Slavic culture, many of which focus on the gods and goddesses.

All the vila s can understand the languages of fish and birds. Some of the Eastern Slavic traditions see some overlap with the gods and practices of their neighbors in Iran. However, Svarog (glossed as Hephaistos in thirteenth-century records) and Svarozhich could also be a single god, since the diminutive form of addressing deities is a characteristic Slavic phenomenon. In folk tales, Baba Yaga is either the mother or the aunt of Koshchei. Most likely, the name Proven is a distortion or variant of Perun, the name of the Slavic thunder god. They almost always include two deities, one dark and one light, representing the underworld and the heavens. Idols and places of Volos worship are mentioned as late as the eighteenth century. Three divine archetypes of the Indo-European religious tradition are clearly represented in the Slavic pantheon: the god of heavenly light, the god of death and the underworld, and the thunder god. Proto-Slavic, an Indo-European language, was spoken in an area extending from the north of Russia to the south of Greece, and from the Elbe and the Adriatic coast to the Volga. Also, millions of Slavs and their descendants live in diaspora across the world. Russian Folk Belief. Keeping shrines, including altars, offering dishes, idols and icons of deities, pictures of deceased ancestors, and many other sacred items, is a common practice in Slavic Paganism. Close relatives in the Kievan pantheon are the sun gods Dazhbog, Khors (an obvious borrowing of the Iranian name for the personified sun, Khursd ), and possibly Stribog (whose name is perhaps related to the Iranian srira, "beautiful"). However, this was not always the case. The Polish latawiec ("flying goblin") took the shape of a bird or a snake. 8 Mysterious Underwater Ruins of Lost Civilizations, The first black female general in the U.S. Army challenged the whole system, West vs. Rest, as he wishes to write, This Is How Propaganda Works: From Soviet Times to Modern Day World, Valentines Day Is a Corporate Holiday That Has Nothing To Do With Love, Financial Barriers Are Locking People Out of Careers In Medicine, Will Smith, Chris Rock, and the Power of Blinding Privilege. The basic structure of Slavic mythology, composed of Old Euopean and Indo-European elements, stems from the proto-Slavic culture in the Slavic homeland. Three Fates of different ages were believed to appear. Columbus, Ohio, 1989. The world had been created, in the Slavic view, once and for all, and no new law ought to modify the way of life transmitted by their ancestors. The original name of the god must have been Veles, not Volos. So, to be very specific, Solntsa Roshcha is a blog for the practice of Slavic Reconstructionist Paganism. There are also seasonal deities, like Jarilo, who is associated with the fertility of the land in the spring, and Marzanna, a goddess of wintertime and death. "Osservazioni sul paganesimo degli Slavi Occidentali." According to a primitive Slavic belief, a forest spirit, leshy, regulates and assigns prey to hunters. We worship both within our homes and in natural spaces, and this is left up to the individual practitioner. Typically, couples paired off and celebrated with sexual rituals to honor the fertility of the land. Our calendar includes a full list of holidays celebrated by Solntsa Roshcha. Yovino-Young, Marjorie. She departs from the house through the chimney as a bird or a fiery snake. READ/DOWNLOAD=+ Trace: Memory, History, Race, and, Sometimes serious, sometimes funny, always stirring the pot. The personified sun appears throughout Slavic folklore: each morning he rides out from his golden palace in the east in a two-wheeled chariot drawn by horses. Perkowski, Jan L., ed. Ancestor worship, a prominent practice among all pre-Christian Slavs, is evidenced in gifts presented to the dead. In anticipation of the fairies, the baby was washed and dressed in new clothes while a special dinner was prepared. ENLIL , the "wind god," was the principal god of the Sumerian pantheon and poliad god of Nippur, the religious center of the country. Such deities are therefore generic deities of fire, not specifically celestial and even less to be regarded as supreme. It is rare that his feast day passes without some ill fortune. SLAVIC RELIGION . In Polish, piorun, the lightning, is derived from the name of Perun, and not vice versa. The rusalka is seen as the mistress of water, the female counterpart of the male spirit of water, the vodianoi. There are numerous deities in Slavic mythology, many of whom have dual aspects. Slavic names for household guardiansRussian ded, dedushka (dim. Overseer of justice and order, purifier and fructifier, and adversary of the devil, Perun is feared to this day in some Slavic areas. We aim to be the leading content provider about all things medieval. At the end of the harvest season each year, priests created a huge wheat structurescholars disagree on whether this was a cake or an effigyand placed it in front of the temple. The second important factor in the formation of the Slavic religion was the close contact of the Slavs with neighboring peoples, especially the Balts and Indo-Iranians. We believe that every building, every forest, every river or lake, the landscape itself is populated by countless spirits. She entices men off forest paths or lures them into her dance so as to tickle them to death and carry them into the water. In the eighteenth century, the Orthodox bishop of Voronezh is central Russia proscribed a pagan festival and "satanic" games centered on an idol called Iarilo. Every structure is thus inhabited by its particular spirit: the domovoy in the house, the ovinnik in the drying-house, the gumenik in the storehouse, and so on. In the northwestern Slavic area, eleventh- and twelfth-century records describe temples housing warrior idols of Indo-European heritage and religious ceremonies presided over by a priestly order. Altogether, these different approaches compose a reconstructionist method which we employ to revive the Slavic pagan religion. All that remains of this god are such expressions as k Velesu za more ("to Veles in the otherworld") and the formula "Velesov vnuk " ("grandson of Veles"), apostrophizing the musician and prophetic poet Boian of the Old Russian epic Slovo o polku Igoreve. it was apparently the sanctuary for the entire Lutici confederation, of which the Retharii were one tribe. Before that time, the Slavonic tribes held on to pagan beliefs about the world, such as polytheism and reverence of nature. It is believed that Slavic mythology can trace its roots back to the Proto-Indo European period, and perhaps as far back as the Neolithic era. Stuttgart, 1973. One of the best known is that of Czernobog, who was the incarnation of darkness. Moscow, 2001. In the West and South Slavic areas, goblins were perceived as little men (dwarfs) who, if they were fed and cared for, brought good harvests and money. "Introduction to Slavic Mythology." In Kostroma, until 1771, people buried an idol with exaggerated male attributes. There are three kinds of vila, associated with mountains, with water, and with clouds. While that identity can be valuable, regardless the Gods will see your genuine study and veneration. London, 1997. Video games like The Witcher series and Thea: The Awakening are heavily influenced by Slavic folktales, and Baba Yaga shows up in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. They were distinguished by short feet or chicken legs. Similar observances took place six and twelve months after death. Both Rozhenitsa and the male Rod, to whom offerings were made, are mentioned in a thirteenth-century Russian text, Slovo Isaia proroka. Berkeley, 1993. In other myths, the moon is the husband and the sun is his wife, as in Baltic mythology. Tolstoy, N. I., ed. Columbus, Ohio, 1980. In some areas, the Corn Mother, in the form of a doll or a wreath, was symbolically drenched with water (drowned) and was kept until the following spring, when some of its grain was mixed with the new seed grain at planting time. The belief that either harmful or beneficial spirits dwell in the posts and beams of houses is still alive in the historic regions of Bosnia and Slovenia and the Pozna area of west central Poland. A number of stone statues, some with three or four heads, others holding a drinking horn, wearing a conical cap, and decorated with incised horse figures or sun symbols, are known from excavations. Svarog used gold powder from the underworld, representing fire, to create the world, full of life, as well as the sun and the moon. Ivanov, Viacheslav V., and Vladimir N. Toporov. 3 vols. Niederle, Lubor. Wigington, Patti. Fate was given various names by the Slavs. He was honored as such up to the twentieth century on his holiday, 11 February. Such a deity is, however, also found among the Volga Finns, the Ugrians, and the Uralians.