Slavic mythology
This post has a noble purpose. I want to popularize old Slavic, especially Croatian, mythology. All other mythologies have all the spotlight in the modern pop culture. I know it is tough to beat Thor or Hercules, but at least I will try to show how old religions shaped my nation's customs.
Before I even write anything else I want to thank
@svarozich for giving me the inspiration for this post. ( I mentioned him only because if this post ends up being awful I will blame him, haha. )
To truly know your self you must know where did you come from. Following this thought I am going to share with you some of my people's history.
I am a Croat, and history of my people is very, very complex and turbulent. So I will focus just on one thing, our religious beliefs before we converted to Christianity.
There are not many people today who remember the old ways, but many aspects of our "pagan" ways are subtly incorporated in modern every day life.
There are not many sources on old Slavic customs, and those that do exist came from the enemies of the Slavs. Because of their hostile origins some records are questionable, at least. Byzantines actually believed Slavs can turn into wolves on some occasions. I have tried shapeshipting couple of times, it didn't work, so I believe that was just their way of dehumanising us.
All folk tales and mythology was passed along orally from one generation to the next so tales still live on to some extent.
Truth is that all Slavic religions originated from the original Protoslavic beliefs, but due to diversification of tribes also the belief system changed from one tribe to another.
What remained in common to all Slavs is that the main god, most powerful god is Perun. He is the master of the mountains, lord of thunder and many other titles. He is also seen as a protector of farmers. In Croatia many of the mountain peeks today and some hills are named Perun. Also the valleys near to these hills are called Veles, who is Perun's counterpart. National flower of Croatia is also named after him, it is Perunika, or as the old folk call it God's plant. It is believed this plant grows only on places hit by thunder. (Another reference to lord of thunder)
And like any ancient god he needs his counterpart and that is Veles. But if you thought Perun is a good god, and Veles an evil god, that is where you are wrong. Slavs disn't believe in good - evil dualism that is most common today. They were simply opposite elements like water and fire, both of them had their meaning and purpose.
Veles was god of earth, water, cattle, music and magic. He was protector of cattlemen. According to legends he lived in the roots of the All-tree, so that made him also the guardian of the underworld. To honour him and to help him keep the spirits of the deceased away from the surface, young man would dress in sheep fleece and wear cattle skulls. This custom today is very popular in Croatia and it is performered 40 days before Easter. In Croatian, another world for cattle is "blago", meaning riches- Veles was also a god of wealth, so in Croatia today when you say * Fist full of beard * it means good fortune or big wealth - and that refers to Veles beard because one of his main characteristics is a big beard.
Now, of course they were brothers and sons of a first god, the creator of everything, mighty Svarog. It is not completely clear how Perun captured the mantle of the mightiest god from Svarog, it was never explained in any myth or story.
And this is why I must thank @svarozich for the inspiration for this post. Actually svarozich means - son of Svarog, or little Svarog-
Those were just the main characters of the Slavic pantheon. There are many, many more. Not just gods, but also fairies, monsters, nymphs and beasts.
If you want to read more about other Slavic legends leave a comment. And remember, this is for a good cause - I have a dream, .... that one day there will be a movie blockbuster about characters from Slavic legends..hahahha.
Thank you for reading.
Image source :
http://www.croportal.net/forum/fotografija/slavenska-mitologija-i-fantasy-72439/stranica4/
https://rudolfabraham.photoshelter.com/image/I0000Zz4h9IVYDNM
One additional information:
When Christianity came into the lands and declared belief in old gods paganism, they couldn't erase existence of the gods so they renamed them.
So god Perun became Sv. Ilija, there is in Croatia mountain peak called Sv. Ilija which in the history held the name of Perun.
The others i don't recall but there must be some writings about that.
There are no records because they used old gods as a parallel to saints, and for the easier absorbtion. For example I ve found a reference that says st. Nicholas was compared to Veles because of the simillar apperance and Veles wealth and water aspect
Thanks so much for this! This is so fascinating and is definitely something that the wider world is exposed to often enough. We get a lot of Nordic, Greek, and Roman mythology in popular culture - and these are all lauded and dissected constantly.
It's awesome to have read this piece and to have even found it here on Steem. Keep it coming.
I'm definitely Resteeming this. :)
Thank you for your support. I ve done a second piece also with lesser beings, check it out. And I completely agree with you that there is a great deal of interesting material here. Also fascinating is the way in which they portraited the world, and how some customs survived in some manner even today. But these 2 posts are juat the tip of the iceberg. Feel free to jump in with everything you have on this topic
Great post really tough topic !!! But your dream happened 12 years ago 😁 Russian movie one of the biggest productions in Russian cinematography. Volkodav iz roda Serykh Psov or Wolfhound (2006)
Now i know what movie am I watching tonigt. Haha. Thanks. Then my next dream is to see hollywood movie. Dreams are evolving, hahaha
This is just an intro 😁 after Volkodav you have to check out Night Watch and Day Watch
So far I was limited to us, european and japanese production. You opened my eyes to a new world. Hahaha
And then Viking
"There are not many people today who remeber the old ways, but many aspects of our "pagan" ways are subtly incorporated in modern every day life." OUR?
Uz što je ta riječ vezana, tekst ili autora? Jer ako je uz autora, wow, ima nas još.... 💚
Tekst ti je jako kvalitetan i divan...
Vezano je uz nas kao nasljednike, potomke tih istih "pogana". Ka i vecina naroda kad je bila pokrstavana da lakse primi krscanstvo radija se svojevrsni miks. Tako da su neki obicaji ostali, ka na primjer procesija duhova itd. Ali ima i ocitijih primjera- stari svit pogotovo po zagori, ima cilu lepezu nižih bića koji rade zlo svitu. Zajednicka imena su in "plašila". Ti ljudi skroz nesvjesno odrzavaju slavenski panteon na zivotu
Inicijalno sam i mislio pisato o Slavenskom panteonu, ali me nešto smelo 😁 Kad nastavim prvi post će biti o - Ladi 😀
Lada - bozica plodnosti. Valjda nece biti preperverzno...... :)
Mene vise osobno zanimaju niza bica sta su jos bas u sjecanju narodu nan ka npr "more" tako da se nadanda ti necu vise krast ideje...
Great post on one of my favorite topics.
I only have to add one correction. Svarog (Heaven) only came after Rod who was the primordial God.
Slavic creation myth was similar to the big bang - In the beginning there was nothingness and in nothingness there was a nut or egg. Inside of it was Rod. When the egg cracked Rod came out. Rod than established principles in universe and shaped himself into those principles and universe itself. Thus Rod ceased to exist as a deity, but is still omnipresent for he is the universe.
I am glad you liked it. When I was doing a bit of research on this topic I found this legend of Rod as creator on http://www.starisloveni.com/Rod.html but I didn't include him in the blog because this was the first time I read anything about it. And I know Slavic beliefs differ greatly, depending on the nation so it is quite hard to create a timeline that would be true for all Slavic tribes. And Svarog is more similar to Amon- Ra of the Egyptians. He is connected with Sun and fire. But I agree with you. Interesting topic. I wrote mainly from my mind, what I heard or learned, because due to all diversity this is ,lets say, version of story from my parts.
I just wanted to mention him in case you didn't know about him. I discovered him pretty recently as well. I was pretty surprised how our ancestors had similar creation myth to the big bang theory.
There is wisdom in ancient stories
Couple of Slavic deities appear as characters in American Gods TV series, although not Perun nor Veles.
Haven't seen the show. Gonna check it out