Slavic Mythology: Difference between revisions

Line 1:

Slavic mythology is the mythological aspect of the polytheistic religion that was practised by the Slavs before Christianisation. It possesses numerous common traits with other religions descended from the Proto-Indo-European religion.

⚫

Slavic mythology is the mythological aspect of the polytheistic religion that was practised by the Slavs before Christianisation. It possesses numerous common traits with other religions descended from the Proto-Indo-European religion.

There are no known written accounts of Slavic mythology predating the fragmentation of the Proto-Slavic people into '''Western Slavs''' (Czechs, Slovaks, Sorbs and Poles), '''[[Russian Mythology and Tales|Eastern Slavs]]''' (Russians, Belarussians and Ukrainians), and '''Southern Slavs''' (the modern [[Balkanize Me|Balkans]]). Actual historical data can be divided into three: archaeological, ethnographical, and written. The first two tend to have a role in reconstructing the rituals, with the latter -- predominantly the chronicles by Byzantine scholars and Ruthenian and German monks -- being the primary source of knowledge concerning the pantheon itself. As with [[Celtic Mythology]], a lot of the written evidence suffers from having been [[Hijacked by Jesus]] before [[Oral Tradition|anyone thought to write them down]].

Line 28:

Line 27:

* [[Canon Immigrant]] -- there are traces of cultural exchange with the Turkic and Iranic peoples of the steppes, with whom proto-Slavs had ancient contact, and some Slavic gods may have begun as the result of that.

* [[Cool and Unusual Punishment]] -- the veelas (Slavic fairies), when they were feeling nasty, could kill a man by dancing him to death. Or even better: tickling him until he died from laughter.

** Or by [[Make Me Wanna Shout|screaming at him]].

* [[Dark Is Not Evil]] -- Possibly Czernobog, who isn't the [[Hijacked by Jesus|Satan analogue]] that he is generally depicted as nowadays.

** The Triglav (the "holy trinity" of Dazbog, Svarog and Perun) was often represented as a black horse by the worshippers, but wasn't by any means considered evil by them.

* [[Hijacked by Jesus]] -- as many others, Slavic mythology was a big victim of the hijack; for example, Perun the sky god and Veles the earth and water god were assimilated into respectively [[God]] and [[Satan]].

** Belobog and Czernobog would be a similar example - German scholars deduced that, since Czernobog literally translates to `Black God`, he must have been an all-purpose evil deity similar to [[Satan]], and that he must have had a counterpart similar to the Christian [[God]] (when in reality Belobog almost certainly did not exist in Slavic mythology).

** Interestingly enough, the Renaissance-era written sources, fittingly for a period infatuated with Classical antiquity, have done what was called ''interpretatio Romana'', or "Roman interpretation" of the Slavic mythology. That means that we have to deal with not only the Christian hijacking, but Roman-fanboy hijacking too.

* [[Horned Humanoid]] -- Veles is often portrayed as this.

Line 38:

Line 37:

* [[Multiple Head Case]] -- Triglav has three heads, one atop the other - for sky, for earth, and for the underworld. Also Svantevit has four faces (one for each direction of the world).

* [[Our Monsters Are Different]]

** [[Our Dragons Are Different]] -- most prominently Zmey ("the Wyrm" tends to be considered the English equivalent of this name). Although they breathed fire and were capable of speech like their western counterparts, they were also famous for being shapeshifters (usually into human form) and for abducting beautiful women to be their brides.

*** Don't forget that they were prone to [[Multiple Head Case|having several heads]].

** [[Our Dwarves Are All the Same]] / [[Our Gnomes Are Weirder]] -- There's a great variety of house-spirits, diminutive red cap-wearing bearded humanoids, and similar creatures, possibly later contaminated with German (-ic) folk beliefs. The closest Slavic equivalent to fantasy dwarves were more like house-spirits or gnomes. The confusion is occasionally worsened by linguistics. <ref>In Polish ''krasnal'' or ''krasnoludek'' is the lawn gnome/SnowWhite-type. ''Karzeł'' ("midget" or "dwarf") is the [[Norse Mythology]] dwarf, pre-fantasy or in separation from fantasy, as well as the word for real life "little people". The fantasy dwarf, meanwhile, is a ''krasnolud'' - an augmentative of ''krasnoludek'', a neologism created by the default translation of ''[[Lord of the Rings]]'' which has been followed ever since; although another translator attempted to change that, his translations are disliked, so it didn't stick.</ref>

** [[Our Mermaids Are Different]]: A "rusalka" is what people called a mermaid. Well, sort of. The difference is that rusalki did not have a fish tail and looked like regular human women, mainly because they were thought to be physical manifestations of the spirits of young women who drowned (or were killed violently near a lake, river or sea). Another difference is that they were usually hostile and would come out mostly at night, because if the sun dried their skin completely, they would die (again).

** [[Our Vampires Are Different]] -- the Slavic vampires were the basis for the modern idea of a vampire. They were [[Unbuilt Trope|notably different]] to the [[Classical Movie Vampire|Dracula kind]] of modern vampires, however.

Line 53:

Line 52:

* Lots of authors from Slavic regions, [[Write What You Know|naturally]], use Slavic mythology to various degrees, especially in fantasy books. Most of them never get translated to English, probably due to the material's lack of familiarity to non-Slavic readers. They're frequently translated between Slavic languages, though.

** ''[[The Witcher]]'' is a good example of this as it uses at least some Slavic material, but for once was translated into English.

* Czernobog, Bielobog, and the [[Three Faces of Eve|three Zorya]] appear in Neil Gaiman's ''[[American Gods]]''. Czernobog/Bielobog display confusion over whether they're the same person or not, in a nod to the ambiguity in the records.

* The Veela of ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' are based on the Slavic version of [[The Fair Folk]]. They quite fittingly appear as Bulgarian national magical creature, although the quarter-Veelas who receive screen-time are [[Everyone Looks Sexier If French|for some reason]] French.

* [[Baba Yaga]] makes an appearance in ''[[Shrek]] Forever After''.

Line 69:

Line 68:

[[Category:Useful Notes]]

[[Category:Dark Age Europe]]

[[Category:Oral Tradition]]