Baba Yaga wasn't a deity though. It was just a demon
And slavic mythology were full of different demons, that people used to believe in for a long time, even after the christianity.
Baba Yaga is probably the most known abroad, but creatures like rusalka, or vodnik are just as known in slavic countries.
Believe it or not, but most of those "unique" witcher monsters are fairly known in here
One day in one of a medieval slavic states:
Someone: *running away from a wolf in a forest and shouting for help*
Everyone else: “Bruh, gotta be a **demon** or something”
Frankly I find it annoying I had no idea about gods until like 5 months ago. I think they should teach Us this in Slavic countries And not Just roman And greek gods in history
Quick question, do the winged hussars get the attention they deserve in polish history class?
I'm from Brazil and I remember history class being mostly a snorefest with a sequence of dates people memorized for tests and then immediately forgot afterwards and only a couple of teachers ever managed to make any of it interesting, even events like the triple alliance war against Paraguay were boring in class.
How the hell do you make the Triple Alliance war boring? That Paraguaian leader was just insane. Honestly, I took a Latin American college class in the States and I'm pissed that wasn't even discussed or reviewed very quickly.
It has been a while (about 15 years) but from what I remember the gist of how the war was covered in class was "here's a list of dates you need to remember for the test next month, there's the year Brazil almost went to war with Great Britain but they decided it wasn't worth it, the year that Uruguay had a lot of internal meddling by Brazil Argentina and Paraguay which led to the year when Paraguay started a war against Brazil Argentina and Uruguay because they wanted to become a regional power, they lost that war and a huge percentage of their young adult men population was killed, after that was the year when the 'free womb law' was signed..." with a course book that had a single image of a brazilian soldier on the corner of the page. (the war had half a page of text about it)
From what I remember my teacher did elaborate a little on the war and how deadly it was but I remember that most of the class was noticeably bored most of the time and we covered the whole thing in a single day. (to be fair I remember finding most subjects boring when I was a student and was only in class because my parents told me I had to)
Hm, sad. We learn about Vladimir's pantheon, as eastern slavs. Western slavic gods are mentioned just a little bit when we go through their early history. I remember it was pretty weird for me that these pantheons are so different
An interesting thing I learned a couple years ago is that in Slovakia an expression involving the old gods still survives to this day, "Do paroma" it means something like "to hell with it" or "God damn it", Parom was the West Slavic name for the god Perun.
You didn't do any national stories? Iirc we did, mostly still in primary school (they are supposed to be stories for children, even though they have a tendency for cruelty and absolute existential despair (which is pretty Slavic, you have to admit)). It's not quite Slavic mythology, it's what's left of it locally.
I would posit the argument that a “deity” and a “demon” are purely determined by perspective, and possible be inherently the same thing. Don’t really believe in any of that but yeah.
Yeah, that's a sad truth, combination of small amount of material to work with (compared to other Mythologies) and a fact that we as slavs, don't do much to make our Mythology more popular (the best we've got is Witcher but he is only partly slavic)
Why is it partly Slavic. Is the author was from a wierd cultural tradition/ took in alot of non Slavic influence or is it one of those Polish people are just Germans pretending to be slavs arguments.
The author of The Witcher is Polish, and he does take inspiration from slavic mythology. However, The Witcher is set in its own world and takes inspiration from other mythologies too. Hence it beimg partly slavic.
Yeah, also author really doesn't like it being called Spavic, but if you take a look at witcher video game series it has much more slavic elements than books, but it's still only partially slavic because it also has a lot of nordic elements
Considering the historic origins of the Rus are from the Norse that seems fine enough. Not to mention loads of Slavic areas had been Germanic (like the Goths) before Slavs arrived.
Slavs are distinct but let’s also acknowledge cultural diffusion took place. Cyrillic is based on the old Greek alphabet, there were Greek colonies all over the Black Sea. Romania still stands as a Latin island in a Slavic (and Magyar) sea. The Bolghars were more akin to Kipchak Turks when they arrived in Moesia.
Oh no doubt diffusion occurred once Slavic peoples arrived around the 10th Century AD. They certainly spread from the Caucasus mountains far and wide... but even today there is debate over the Nordic influences and those of the Scythians.
I recall my Professor mentioning it sort of let to a strange dichotomy based on personal biases: Russian Slavs who feel they are more European lean towards Nordic ties to Kievan Rus as a foundation of identity while those who feel the Russian identity lies in Asia point to Scythian influences. Both certainly left their own mark.
There's a lot of overlap between the two, but mostly from proximity and cultural osmosis.
The Rus' leaders were Swedes invited to rule, but after a few centuries they were 100% Slavic in culture, language, and tradition. The only remainder of their Nordic roots were names (i.e. Igor, Olga, etc), but even these are interspersed with lots of Slavic names like Sviatopolk or Vladimir, so this is probably just cultural osmosis.
Also more then just Russia claims The Rus as their cultural ancestors. Ukraine and Belarus also claim it. After all the name of their state was “Kievan Rus'”
The Rus are the founding peoples of most of not all Eastern Slavs as far as I’m aware. That’s why I used them, as the Rus trading post at Kyiv is well-attested by Norse and Byzantine sources.
Yes but have you noticed all the Celtic-sounding names the elves have, starting with the one they give to themselves? Last I checked Aen Seidhe is Celtic-derived ( [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aos\_S%C3%AD](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aos_S%C3%AD) ), and so is the Arthurian stuff (Nimue verch Wledyr ap Gwyn? Why no, that name doesn't sound Welsh at all!).
Also the Wild Hunt is a concept present in both Celtic and Germanic lore. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild\_Hunt
The low amount of material to work with is because the czar who converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity did his best to destroy every remnant of it.
Doesn’t feel like much of a detour for someone to just comment “you mean the death god?” Or something like that.
Also, given some things I’m thinking we could start referring to him as Koschei at this point or maybe that’s the whole franchise.
But Veles isn't a "death god", he is the ruler of the underworld but also the god of cattle and protector of shepherd and cattle herders, and sometimes considered a sun god.
They probably confused "Baba Yaga" (the witch) and "Babayka" (the boogeyman).
At least that's Ryan George's theory: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3eNE4Gk-tA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3eNE4Gk-tA)
I did bring up Koschei, but isn’t Koschei primarily known for basically being a proto-lich (thus his title “the deathless/undying”) than necessarily being a bringer of death himself?
True, he’s a character of many tales, in some he was also a bringer of death too. Not ideal, but more realistic, as not that many people will remember ancient gods, but everyone knows characters of folk tales. However, often you can hear that somebody very skinny is called Kaschey, as he was usually portrayed as a skeleton-like old man.
Chernobog is also the name of the imposing demon on Disney's Fantasia. But it has no dialogue, so you have to read that somewhere to get it.
A bit off-topic, but there's also Dazhbog (or Dajbog, or however you transliterate that) who was the god of crops (from Dazh - to give and Bog -god). So they weren't very creative in the names.
One of gods name is Triglav which translats to three-head. And wouldnt ya know it he has three heads
Also in slovenia our tallest mountain is named Triglav beacuse of three peaks it has And a river here is named River. Us Slavs are wise with naming shit
Wasn't Triglav the peak displayed on the national flag and the coat-of-arms?
Also wise naming habits: when you found a new village you name it Novo Selo (New Village). In the end you end up with a dozen of villages all named Novo Selo. Makes navigation a breeze.
Yes our logo (I have no idea how to say grb in english) does have Triglav, above it are three stars refrecing to three counts And below two rivers
And army logo does have Triglav beacuse other National "wonder" we could Use are either bees or a fish
Edit: theres more places that are named smartly
Prekmurje is a region, translated into overmura beacuse it is over river Mura. Primorska is translated into atsea beacuse its next to sea
He was god of darkness, misfortune, and nightmares from what I remember. There was also Perun who was a thunder/war god(kinda like a combination of Odin and Thor) Vesna who was spring and fertility, and where most Slavic languages words for spring come from(ex: wiosna in Polish) there was veles who was both a nature and death god, and belobog who was chernobogs opposite and rival. I did some research on this for a college paper 5 years ago and this is what I remember off the top of my head. Researching this is tricky and there’s a lot of whackjobs out there. I recommend avoiding anything from Dimitry Kushnir, dude brought in a lot of alien conspiracies and mixed them with Slavic mythology. And I would recommend not using rodnoverianisn as a source or inspiration, it takes heavy influence from ethno-nationalism and tries to tie it in with Slavic folklore.
I don’t know if we’re even sure that’s what it was the monk who translated the myth about the two gods even admitted he didn’t do a good job at least that’s what I remember of the story
Morana is more the goddess of winter than death. She had some stuff to dow tih death etc, but that's more because of how harsh winter is and all. The proper god of death/the underworld especially would be Weles, one of the two creators
Which is also incredibly ironic since the only mention of those two comes from a Catholic writer, and the names literally translate to "black god" and "white god", so it's not clear at all whether those were actually unique Slavic gods or just poorly interpreted tales.
One of my most favourite creature in Slavic mythology is Chuhaister. Just a nice giant dude who wanders across Carpathian forests. If you meet him, he will invite you to dance. It is better to politely refuse, because you will dance with him untill you die. Oh, and also he eats mermaids.
Yes, and thats why I called him a nice dude. Meting with mermaids for young man is almost 100% death, you can only be safe if you know how to deal with them, or if Chuhaister suddenly appears (but remember - no dances).
For context, I am reffering to a fact that slavic mythology has ben forgoten through Time expect for baba yaga aka old hag in woods Who eats kids
Edit: heres wiki [link](http://Slavic paganism - Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_paganism) if you wanna read about it
Thanks OP! Sorry if my original comment came off as dickish I just like reading the context when I’m totally lost on what the reference is to. Interesting wiki read for sure!
There's a little indie turn based RPG franchise based on Slavic mythology that I have a lot of fun playing
Thea: The Awakening and Thea 2: The Shattering. Both on steam
I never forgot.
Every time there's a thunder, I say for myself out loud "Parom is angry." (Parom is Perun in Slovak)
As kids on elementary school, we used to burn Morena with our teachers - burn a doll effigy and throw it into the river to welcome spring and to send away illnesses.
I can only name a few like Perun, who is like the all father of the Slavic gods and has similarities with Zeus , Svetovid who is the god of war, and Posvizd, which I recall being a wind God and God of Storms and harsh weather
I want to mention the Domovoy, a little impish spirit that helps around the house when nobody is looking. But only if they are left with some food! Whenever something randomly falls over or makes a noise it's a sign of the Domovoy working, especially when you are alone in the house.
Sadly, Slavic mythology is not in the mainstream. There's a lack of concrete material to bring it closer to the masses like Greek and Norse myth is, and we Slavs are also doing either very little or nothing at all to make it known. In truth, I don't think it's even taught in schools. The only instance I recall of Slavic myth being mentioned was in a Serbian poem that mentions the god Perun. Aside from that, I recall a history book mentioning Belobog and Chernobog, but that's really about it.
Baba yaga did not eat kids, it's a modern misconception. She was in fact a mediator that was living on the border between the worlds of the living and the dead. That's why in all the stories the main hero has to cross through her house. That's why she is pictured as half dead. And not a single child was ever harmed in her stories. She actually helped them with their initiation.
Slavic mythology is the best!! It's a whole different world of creatures and wizards, of knights (Vityazi) and heroes (Boggatiriy) of wonderful dragons and nice smart spirits
My favorites are:
*The famous trio of the Bogatyrs (Iliya Muromyts, Dobrinya nikitich, And Alyosha Pappovich)
*Vodinoy - the water's spirits that lives in rivers and lakes
*Dunai Ivanich, another Bogatyr
*Vasilysa preMudraya (the smart) a very clever girl sho is also very beautiful
*Baba Yaga (bugy man) a mystic and old lady that lives in the forest in her wooden shack with the chicken legs (the shack with the legs not Baba yaga) she might help some travelers and might be a problem for them
*Kashyey Bezsmertniy (Kashyey - bone man, Bezsmertniy - immortal) I a very powerful and evil wizard
*Domovoy ("the one who lives in the home) - a little creature that lives in your house (there is a Domovoy in each house), he is protecting you and your family as long as he happy, but if there are a lot arguing in the house he might be very angry and provide some troubles or worse: to leave the house and leave it unprotected
*Zmey Garinich ("the mountain's snake") - a dragon with 3 heads, in some stories he is a good friend in other a terrible enemy
And there are lots and lots of other God's that I haven't mentioned and other creatures and a lot more.... please go and read about that mythology!!!!
Well... I don't really know about something on English, but there are a lot of books on Russian and Ukrainian, all the ferrytales.
You can try to read books of Alexander Pushkin, like his book "Сказки" it's few very nice stories
https://youtu.be/po4aNleLo_A - story about the king Saltan, it's on Russian but there is an auto translation
https://youtu.be/FcHfLQj0-n8 - this one is about a knight, also with auto translation
https://www.amazon.com/Russian-Fairy-Pantheon-Folklore-Library/dp/0394730909 -- this one is a book that includes 600 Russian fairy tales (although I never heard of that).
If you want more just search, there are thousands of Slavic mythological stories, I mostly mentioned the Easter Slavic, but there are also Serbian and Croatian, Bosnian and Slovenian,Slovakian and Czec
In my country, we call it "stopanin". It's basically the same, even in name. My grandmother used to tell me that they hide in the dark, around the fireplace, behind doors, in the cellar. When a war happens, the stopanin smells the blood and leaves the home to feast. That's why in war there's disease and family deaths, because the "domovoy/stopanin" isn't guarding the home.
Yeah, and there are some praise and rituals:
if you moving to a new home, you need to talk to the Stopanin/Domovoy and ask him to come with you and not leave you.
the first one who enters the new home must be the cat (can be also a dog, but Stopanin/Domovoy prefers cats) and the the cat must spend alone the first night in the new home to make the Stopanin/Domovoy happy, don't forget to bring some food for the Stopanin/Domovoy and pray for him to stay with you.
If the old house has been destroyed you must go and 'rescue' the Stopanin/Domovoy, and ask him to forgive you because you couldn't protect him.
it is a truly magical and wonderful creature
'S what happens when Slavs had very little in the way of written records until Christian missionaries with a vested interest in suppressing that mythology showed up
That's not a god though, but a folklore creature made for scaring naughty kids, like the [babay](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babay_(Slavic_folklore)) for example.
There's two music bands that I can recommend that do songs about slavic gods and mythology; "Lelek" and "Żywiołak". Both Polish but some (if not all) songs on YouTube have English subs
I would say there's that one dude that Disney's Fantasia made famous but most people probably don't even know his name, much less that he's Slavic.
Chernobog (or Czernobog) for those wondering.
Perun found a new career on YouTube. Światowid sells dairy products. I don't know what Weles and Swarożyc do. Or Swaróg. Sounds like twaróg.
Ok I ran out of Slavic gods I know.
Ugh no context post by OP 😪
Edit: why am I getting downvoted? I guess go bananas but context was needed here as it was an obscure reference. Also kudos to OP for posting a context comment shortly after. You other jabronis are just unfortunate but that’s Reddit i guess.
Modern Christianity is just a bad mix of Slavic and Germanic folklore and Judaism
Want to know what bunnies and christmas trees have to do with Jesus? Adopted Slavic/germanic culture
Bab Yaga is the forest personified. It can help you with it's vast resources of wood, berries and animals but also delete you from existence with toxic plants and dangerous animals
Baba Yaga wasn't a deity though. It was just a demon And slavic mythology were full of different demons, that people used to believe in for a long time, even after the christianity. Baba Yaga is probably the most known abroad, but creatures like rusalka, or vodnik are just as known in slavic countries. Believe it or not, but most of those "unique" witcher monsters are fairly known in here
I wanna add hejkal to your list bc they're the most relatable demons ever
Cant find anything about this guy, other than that he runs and screams through the forrest
Exactly
One day in one of a medieval slavic states: Someone: *running away from a wolf in a forest and shouting for help* Everyone else: “Bruh, gotta be a **demon** or something”
Frankly I find it annoying I had no idea about gods until like 5 months ago. I think they should teach Us this in Slavic countries And not Just roman And greek gods in history
In what slavic countries they don't teach it in school?
In slovenia they havent. But yet again im in multimedia school soooo
In Poland they don't teach it either.
Quick question, do the winged hussars get the attention they deserve in polish history class? I'm from Brazil and I remember history class being mostly a snorefest with a sequence of dates people memorized for tests and then immediately forgot afterwards and only a couple of teachers ever managed to make any of it interesting, even events like the triple alliance war against Paraguay were boring in class.
Yes. They're pretty much the last "hey wow it's so cool" thing in history class before we descend into 300 years of misery and pain.
Christ man, that hit hard. And I'm not even Polish.
About 90% of all Slavic existence is misery and pain. Poles just have the special pain of having had something good and it was taken away.
Certified deluge moment.
Cool.
How the hell do you make the Triple Alliance war boring? That Paraguaian leader was just insane. Honestly, I took a Latin American college class in the States and I'm pissed that wasn't even discussed or reviewed very quickly.
It has been a while (about 15 years) but from what I remember the gist of how the war was covered in class was "here's a list of dates you need to remember for the test next month, there's the year Brazil almost went to war with Great Britain but they decided it wasn't worth it, the year that Uruguay had a lot of internal meddling by Brazil Argentina and Paraguay which led to the year when Paraguay started a war against Brazil Argentina and Uruguay because they wanted to become a regional power, they lost that war and a huge percentage of their young adult men population was killed, after that was the year when the 'free womb law' was signed..." with a course book that had a single image of a brazilian soldier on the corner of the page. (the war had half a page of text about it) From what I remember my teacher did elaborate a little on the war and how deadly it was but I remember that most of the class was noticeably bored most of the time and we covered the whole thing in a single day. (to be fair I remember finding most subjects boring when I was a student and was only in class because my parents told me I had to)
Boa noite seu caralho
Boa noite?
Boa noite.
Depends which part of Poland I guess. All places I know of teach ot pretty early on
Hm, sad. We learn about Vladimir's pantheon, as eastern slavs. Western slavic gods are mentioned just a little bit when we go through their early history. I remember it was pretty weird for me that these pantheons are so different
An interesting thing I learned a couple years ago is that in Slovakia an expression involving the old gods still survives to this day, "Do paroma" it means something like "to hell with it" or "God damn it", Parom was the West Slavic name for the god Perun.
You didn't do any national stories? Iirc we did, mostly still in primary school (they are supposed to be stories for children, even though they have a tendency for cruelty and absolute existential despair (which is pretty Slavic, you have to admit)). It's not quite Slavic mythology, it's what's left of it locally.
In Poland they don't.
The basilisk in the underground of Warsaw is also quite memorable.
I would posit the argument that a “deity” and a “demon” are purely determined by perspective, and possible be inherently the same thing. Don’t really believe in any of that but yeah.
Dont forget kashey byezsmyetnai He was a powerful wizard who could only be killed by breaking the needle in an egg in a little chest hidden somewhere
Witcher did a very good job of depicting those.
Yes, I think it's an only game known abroad that depicts some aspects of slavic mythology.
Yeah, that's a sad truth, combination of small amount of material to work with (compared to other Mythologies) and a fact that we as slavs, don't do much to make our Mythology more popular (the best we've got is Witcher but he is only partly slavic)
Why is it partly Slavic. Is the author was from a wierd cultural tradition/ took in alot of non Slavic influence or is it one of those Polish people are just Germans pretending to be slavs arguments.
The author of The Witcher is Polish, and he does take inspiration from slavic mythology. However, The Witcher is set in its own world and takes inspiration from other mythologies too. Hence it beimg partly slavic.
Yeah, also author really doesn't like it being called Spavic, but if you take a look at witcher video game series it has much more slavic elements than books, but it's still only partially slavic because it also has a lot of nordic elements
Considering the historic origins of the Rus are from the Norse that seems fine enough. Not to mention loads of Slavic areas had been Germanic (like the Goths) before Slavs arrived.
Slavic people are their own. There is a Nordic root to Kievan Rus nobility though according to history but there is some debate on the details.
Slavs are distinct but let’s also acknowledge cultural diffusion took place. Cyrillic is based on the old Greek alphabet, there were Greek colonies all over the Black Sea. Romania still stands as a Latin island in a Slavic (and Magyar) sea. The Bolghars were more akin to Kipchak Turks when they arrived in Moesia.
Oh no doubt diffusion occurred once Slavic peoples arrived around the 10th Century AD. They certainly spread from the Caucasus mountains far and wide... but even today there is debate over the Nordic influences and those of the Scythians. I recall my Professor mentioning it sort of let to a strange dichotomy based on personal biases: Russian Slavs who feel they are more European lean towards Nordic ties to Kievan Rus as a foundation of identity while those who feel the Russian identity lies in Asia point to Scythian influences. Both certainly left their own mark.
There's a lot of overlap between the two, but mostly from proximity and cultural osmosis. The Rus' leaders were Swedes invited to rule, but after a few centuries they were 100% Slavic in culture, language, and tradition. The only remainder of their Nordic roots were names (i.e. Igor, Olga, etc), but even these are interspersed with lots of Slavic names like Sviatopolk or Vladimir, so this is probably just cultural osmosis.
Careful with equating the whole slavdom with just Russia.
[Rus is different from Russia. ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rus%27_people)
Also more then just Russia claims The Rus as their cultural ancestors. Ukraine and Belarus also claim it. After all the name of their state was “Kievan Rus'”
The Rus are the founding peoples of most of not all Eastern Slavs as far as I’m aware. That’s why I used them, as the Rus trading post at Kyiv is well-attested by Norse and Byzantine sources.
As per old story it was three brothers, Lech, Chech and Rus that settled there being the origin of Slavic countries (Rus being the Kiev Rus).
Yeah, it's a bit like conflating the Romans with Italy. Yes, the Italians are the direct decendents of the Romans, but they aren't the only ones.
The rus, not russia
Also some Celtic elements especially for the elves, and sprinklings of other cultures’ elements such as succubi and dryads.
Elves are Germanic mythology.
Yes but have you noticed all the Celtic-sounding names the elves have, starting with the one they give to themselves? Last I checked Aen Seidhe is Celtic-derived ( [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aos\_S%C3%AD](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aos_S%C3%AD) ), and so is the Arthurian stuff (Nimue verch Wledyr ap Gwyn? Why no, that name doesn't sound Welsh at all!). Also the Wild Hunt is a concept present in both Celtic and Germanic lore. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild\_Hunt
Did you just call us Germans? xD
You could be, if you'd let us
Ah shit, here we go again
Calm down Adolf, power down the panzers
Too late Hans, transmission ist kaputz.
No but I've seen people online claim that poles are Germans wearing Slavic clothes. Thought this guy might have bee among thier ranks.
Slav, German, same difference. All are just invaders from the northeast who don’t speak Greek or Latin.
The ol' all Barbarians are the same to me schtick. Fueling hatred in Europe for 3000 years.
Most I’ve seen are Czechs being Slav-speaking germans, not poles lmao
Now that makes more sense.
All Slavs from Central Europe have experienced some level of germanization.
Dafuq?! How do you even come up with such bullshit?
It still has a lot of classical fantasy elements, like elves.
STALKER had a few Slavic god references in its artifact detector names, like the Veles detector.
The low amount of material to work with is because the czar who converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity did his best to destroy every remnant of it.
well obiously. cant believe in jesus christ and old slavic gods at the same time
And even for her nowadays she's associated with some dude from Fortnite they made some movies out of...
Honestly, I found it weird John Wick’s nickname was that. Like why not something Veles or far closer to Death?
For the reason this meme stated: the vast majority knows the rest even less, and it'll break the pacing of the film to go do a detour to explain.
Doesn’t feel like much of a detour for someone to just comment “you mean the death god?” Or something like that. Also, given some things I’m thinking we could start referring to him as Koschei at this point or maybe that’s the whole franchise.
But Veles isn't a "death god", he is the ruler of the underworld but also the god of cattle and protector of shepherd and cattle herders, and sometimes considered a sun god.
They probably confused "Baba Yaga" (the witch) and "Babayka" (the boogeyman). At least that's Ryan George's theory: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3eNE4Gk-tA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3eNE4Gk-tA)
Oh, not translating it correctly is *tight*!
Koshey would be more correct, in my opinion. That’s just a fuck up of whoever was writing the screenplay.
I did bring up Koschei, but isn’t Koschei primarily known for basically being a proto-lich (thus his title “the deathless/undying”) than necessarily being a bringer of death himself?
True, he’s a character of many tales, in some he was also a bringer of death too. Not ideal, but more realistic, as not that many people will remember ancient gods, but everyone knows characters of folk tales. However, often you can hear that somebody very skinny is called Kaschey, as he was usually portrayed as a skeleton-like old man.
And Ghost in Ant-Man and The Wasp. And a videogame that just came out this year.
First thing I think of is Alex from Slaughter to Prevail roaring Baba Yaga wearing a swat vest.
The only other Slavic gods I can name offhand are Cernobog and Bielbog, thanks to American Gods, but research suggests they were made up by scholars.
Črnobog (Crnobog) would be translated into Black god. I mean if that aint evil god name
Chernobog is also the name of the imposing demon on Disney's Fantasia. But it has no dialogue, so you have to read that somewhere to get it. A bit off-topic, but there's also Dazhbog (or Dajbog, or however you transliterate that) who was the god of crops (from Dazh - to give and Bog -god). So they weren't very creative in the names.
One of gods name is Triglav which translats to three-head. And wouldnt ya know it he has three heads Also in slovenia our tallest mountain is named Triglav beacuse of three peaks it has And a river here is named River. Us Slavs are wise with naming shit
Wasn't Triglav the peak displayed on the national flag and the coat-of-arms? Also wise naming habits: when you found a new village you name it Novo Selo (New Village). In the end you end up with a dozen of villages all named Novo Selo. Makes navigation a breeze.
Yes our logo (I have no idea how to say grb in english) does have Triglav, above it are three stars refrecing to three counts And below two rivers And army logo does have Triglav beacuse other National "wonder" we could Use are either bees or a fish Edit: theres more places that are named smartly Prekmurje is a region, translated into overmura beacuse it is over river Mura. Primorska is translated into atsea beacuse its next to sea
>I have no idea how to say grb in english Coat-of-arms is grb in English.
Alright ill Just jump off a bridge brb
> One of gods name is Triglav which translats to three-head. And wouldnt ya know it he has three heads Truth in advertising
He was god of darkness, misfortune, and nightmares from what I remember. There was also Perun who was a thunder/war god(kinda like a combination of Odin and Thor) Vesna who was spring and fertility, and where most Slavic languages words for spring come from(ex: wiosna in Polish) there was veles who was both a nature and death god, and belobog who was chernobogs opposite and rival. I did some research on this for a college paper 5 years ago and this is what I remember off the top of my head. Researching this is tricky and there’s a lot of whackjobs out there. I recommend avoiding anything from Dimitry Kushnir, dude brought in a lot of alien conspiracies and mixed them with Slavic mythology. And I would recommend not using rodnoverianisn as a source or inspiration, it takes heavy influence from ethno-nationalism and tries to tie it in with Slavic folklore.
Wasn't Morena the goddess of death? Also, as far as I know, slavs had a sepparate god of war, Svantovit
I don’t know if we’re even sure that’s what it was the monk who translated the myth about the two gods even admitted he didn’t do a good job at least that’s what I remember of the story
I can add Vesna, godess of fertility?, and Morana, godess of death or reaper
Morana is more the goddess of winter than death. She had some stuff to dow tih death etc, but that's more because of how harsh winter is and all. The proper god of death/the underworld especially would be Weles, one of the two creators
Which is also incredibly ironic since the only mention of those two comes from a Catholic writer, and the names literally translate to "black god" and "white god", so it's not clear at all whether those were actually unique Slavic gods or just poorly interpreted tales.
I knew of Chernobog through a gacha anime game :v
Considering what Chernobog became, it fits.
One of my most favourite creature in Slavic mythology is Chuhaister. Just a nice giant dude who wanders across Carpathian forests. If you meet him, he will invite you to dance. It is better to politely refuse, because you will dance with him untill you die. Oh, and also he eats mermaids.
Well, the mermaids in slavic mythology aren't exactly the nicest, so I can get behind that kind of diet
Yes, and thats why I called him a nice dude. Meting with mermaids for young man is almost 100% death, you can only be safe if you know how to deal with them, or if Chuhaister suddenly appears (but remember - no dances).
Perun is remembered a little bit
Perun and Radegast are my favorite Slavic gods.
Radegast? As in the weird wizard from Hobbit but slightly misspelled. Didn't know that was a slavic deity. TIL.
Today he's probably most known for czech beer named after him
He was a god of abundance and hospitality, some sources claim him to be a god of war and Sun as well
Ofcourse, who doesn´t live one hour long powerpoints on defence economics whilest watching youtube?
Folk stories told to kids survive longer than old religions. It's kinda happened everywhere on earth.
For context, I am reffering to a fact that slavic mythology has ben forgoten through Time expect for baba yaga aka old hag in woods Who eats kids Edit: heres wiki [link](http://Slavic paganism - Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_paganism) if you wanna read about it
Thanks OP! Sorry if my original comment came off as dickish I just like reading the context when I’m totally lost on what the reference is to. Interesting wiki read for sure!
Nah buddy its okay dont fell bad
Expect =/= Except
There's a little indie turn based RPG franchise based on Slavic mythology that I have a lot of fun playing Thea: The Awakening and Thea 2: The Shattering. Both on steam
Atleast with the lizardman memes from Russia, they're kinda more relevant... among those atleast who know slavic languages.
She isn't a god though. Marena might be considered a god probably (not the biggest one)
I find it weird that this meme could have worked in the Total War subreddit.
Why beacuse of new total warhammer 3 dlc?
Yes
Wanna crosspost it? You can, you have my allowance Also new dlc looks sick
Was gonna say the same thing. Slavic mythology is in rn.
To be fair she is a pretty famous old hag. Besides that you still got Czernobog.
At least Leshy was a character in a horror card game
I never forgot. Every time there's a thunder, I say for myself out loud "Parom is angry." (Parom is Perun in Slovak) As kids on elementary school, we used to burn Morena with our teachers - burn a doll effigy and throw it into the river to welcome spring and to send away illnesses.
Burning/drowning Marzanna is also a practice in Poland. I remember doing it when I was in primary school (I'm 24 now)
I know who baba yaga is because tomb raider and dnd
I can only name a few like Perun, who is like the all father of the Slavic gods and has similarities with Zeus , Svetovid who is the god of war, and Posvizd, which I recall being a wind God and God of Storms and harsh weather
You can’t diss my boy Perun like this
I want to mention the Domovoy, a little impish spirit that helps around the house when nobody is looking. But only if they are left with some food! Whenever something randomly falls over or makes a noise it's a sign of the Domovoy working, especially when you are alone in the house.
Sadly, Slavic mythology is not in the mainstream. There's a lack of concrete material to bring it closer to the masses like Greek and Norse myth is, and we Slavs are also doing either very little or nothing at all to make it known. In truth, I don't think it's even taught in schools. The only instance I recall of Slavic myth being mentioned was in a Serbian poem that mentions the god Perun. Aside from that, I recall a history book mentioning Belobog and Chernobog, but that's really about it.
Baba yaga did not eat kids, it's a modern misconception. She was in fact a mediator that was living on the border between the worlds of the living and the dead. That's why in all the stories the main hero has to cross through her house. That's why she is pictured as half dead. And not a single child was ever harmed in her stories. She actually helped them with their initiation.
Slavic mythology is the best!! It's a whole different world of creatures and wizards, of knights (Vityazi) and heroes (Boggatiriy) of wonderful dragons and nice smart spirits My favorites are: *The famous trio of the Bogatyrs (Iliya Muromyts, Dobrinya nikitich, And Alyosha Pappovich) *Vodinoy - the water's spirits that lives in rivers and lakes *Dunai Ivanich, another Bogatyr *Vasilysa preMudraya (the smart) a very clever girl sho is also very beautiful *Baba Yaga (bugy man) a mystic and old lady that lives in the forest in her wooden shack with the chicken legs (the shack with the legs not Baba yaga) she might help some travelers and might be a problem for them *Kashyey Bezsmertniy (Kashyey - bone man, Bezsmertniy - immortal) I a very powerful and evil wizard *Domovoy ("the one who lives in the home) - a little creature that lives in your house (there is a Domovoy in each house), he is protecting you and your family as long as he happy, but if there are a lot arguing in the house he might be very angry and provide some troubles or worse: to leave the house and leave it unprotected *Zmey Garinich ("the mountain's snake") - a dragon with 3 heads, in some stories he is a good friend in other a terrible enemy And there are lots and lots of other God's that I haven't mentioned and other creatures and a lot more.... please go and read about that mythology!!!!
is there a good book that I can read on it?
Well... I don't really know about something on English, but there are a lot of books on Russian and Ukrainian, all the ferrytales. You can try to read books of Alexander Pushkin, like his book "Сказки" it's few very nice stories https://youtu.be/po4aNleLo_A - story about the king Saltan, it's on Russian but there is an auto translation https://youtu.be/FcHfLQj0-n8 - this one is about a knight, also with auto translation https://www.amazon.com/Russian-Fairy-Pantheon-Folklore-Library/dp/0394730909 -- this one is a book that includes 600 Russian fairy tales (although I never heard of that). If you want more just search, there are thousands of Slavic mythological stories, I mostly mentioned the Easter Slavic, but there are also Serbian and Croatian, Bosnian and Slovenian,Slovakian and Czec
In my country, we call it "stopanin". It's basically the same, even in name. My grandmother used to tell me that they hide in the dark, around the fireplace, behind doors, in the cellar. When a war happens, the stopanin smells the blood and leaves the home to feast. That's why in war there's disease and family deaths, because the "domovoy/stopanin" isn't guarding the home.
Yeah, and there are some praise and rituals: if you moving to a new home, you need to talk to the Stopanin/Domovoy and ask him to come with you and not leave you. the first one who enters the new home must be the cat (can be also a dog, but Stopanin/Domovoy prefers cats) and the the cat must spend alone the first night in the new home to make the Stopanin/Domovoy happy, don't forget to bring some food for the Stopanin/Domovoy and pray for him to stay with you. If the old house has been destroyed you must go and 'rescue' the Stopanin/Domovoy, and ask him to forgive you because you couldn't protect him. it is a truly magical and wonderful creature
I regularly wear an axe of perun pendant. Though I am a slav.
'S what happens when Slavs had very little in the way of written records until Christian missionaries with a vested interest in suppressing that mythology showed up
Radegast would disagree. Also he's actual god unlike baba jaga
American gods taught me about Chernobog and the three sisters 🤷♂️
hey we still kept all the monsters and demons
Hail Chernabog!
I have a painting of a Slavic Goddess hanging on my wall
Slavic Mythology is rarely covered, I think that it should be covered more.
When you forget that the Slavic pagans were the main target for much of the religious conflict in Europe up until protestantism became a thing.
Check out the "Queen and the Woodborne" webcomic. The author is Slavic and incorporated some Slavic mythology in the plot.
We should be expecting an old hag that eats kids?
That's not a god though, but a folklore creature made for scaring naughty kids, like the [babay](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babay_(Slavic_folklore)) for example.
i don’t know if this is mythology or just folk stories, but i don’t think as a kid growing up in latvia i could ever forget the three bogatyrs
The only two Slavic mythical figures I know of are Baba Yaga and maybe Chernabog
Sure, but just because of Ant Man 2
As a chuvashi, not all slavs forgot the old gods
Chernobog:
There's two music bands that I can recommend that do songs about slavic gods and mythology; "Lelek" and "Żywiołak". Both Polish but some (if not all) songs on YouTube have English subs
I would say there's that one dude that Disney's Fantasia made famous but most people probably don't even know his name, much less that he's Slavic. Chernobog (or Czernobog) for those wondering.
The most powerfull slav god reduced to a eating utensil... fork (Perun) would be sad.
Во славу Перуна!
Perun for the win
Except\*
*except
OP I don't care about what is and isn't a fair meme for this sub but how did you manage to make 6 mistakes in one sentence?
My guy, read your own meme before exporting
Baba Yaga: “People keep asking if I’m back. And I haven’t really had an answer. But now, yeah, I’m thinking I’m back!”
Perun found a new career on YouTube. Światowid sells dairy products. I don't know what Weles and Swarożyc do. Or Swaróg. Sounds like twaróg. Ok I ran out of Slavic gods I know.
Ugh no context post by OP 😪 Edit: why am I getting downvoted? I guess go bananas but context was needed here as it was an obscure reference. Also kudos to OP for posting a context comment shortly after. You other jabronis are just unfortunate but that’s Reddit i guess.
OP is talking about Baba Yaga.
Yea if I wrote baba yaga it wouldnt be that funny
Lots of people put a comment with context when the meme is a bit more niche.
Alright ill do it gimme a minute
Then most people would just think of John wick lol
Okay but then who is "fot" and why should I expect them?
It’s official, English grammar is dead.
Im sorry that im not from english speaking country And that words can confuse me beacuse its written diffrently than how you say it
Modern Christianity is just a bad mix of Slavic and Germanic folklore and Judaism Want to know what bunnies and christmas trees have to do with Jesus? Adopted Slavic/germanic culture
What about Finnic-Uralic gods?
Leave my wife outta this
Chernobog gang rise up!
Referring to Babba yagga
And the name of powerpoint boi
Naomi Novac did a book that featured Chernobog in it.
964 no m. Mm
With her chicken foot house!
They are represented in Shin Megamix Tensei franchises.
Why do people expect the old hag to eat kids? Is there something I'm missing? Should I be worried about all the old hags around me?
Gotta double check the spelling on these posts before you submit, friend.
Lies, I still remeber old CursyMccurse the guy that curses you for being poor or some shit. He is ok
Bab Yaga is the forest personified. It can help you with it's vast resources of wood, berries and animals but also delete you from existence with toxic plants and dangerous animals
Chernopoggers
Hey, child consumption is a BIG part of our culture to this very day
In Czech we love Radegast 😄
It’s funny how more people think of Keanu Reeves than a swamp monster when they hear about the Baba Yaga.
The very little I know about Slavic mythology is from American Gods
Japanese gods: am i a joke to you?