Slavic Folklore - Blog Posts
I really love the idea of Baba Yaga: an old witch who lives in a house with chicken legs. Are there any Baba Yaga stories you know of where Baba Yaga isn't evil? If not, what are your ideas on a friendly Baba Yaga
Oh I agree, Baba Yaga is a great character! She features in broader Slavic folklore, but I know her mostly from Russian fairy tales. There she mainly shows up in three forms: helpful Baba Yaga, cannibal Baba Yaga and… let’s call her maybe-murderous Baba Yaga:
The helpful type gives heroes good advice and useful gifts. (E.g. The Three Kingdoms, The Maiden Tsar, King Bear, The Sea King and Vasila the Wise, Go I Know Not Wither, Bring Back I Know Not What, Ilya Muromets and the Dragon.)
The cannibal type wants to trap people to cook in her stove and eat. (E.g. “Baba Yaga”, Baba Yaga and the Brave Youth, The Prince Danila Govorila.)
The maybe-murderous type is only helpful when the hero performs the right kind of behaviour. (E.g. “Baba Yaga”, Maria Morevna, Vasilisa the Beautiful, and Ilya Muromets and the Dragon, again.)
In some stories there is more than one Baba Yaga, in which case they are sisters.
She is sometimes called “Baba Yaga the Bone-Legged”, in whatever form she takes. The dangerous Baba Yaga’s often fly around in a mortar, wielding the pestle as a magic rudder. The cannibal and maybe-murderous types often have a fence around their house made from human bones or decorated with skulls.
The iconic little hut on chicken feet is usually the first thing a hero ever sees of Baba Yaga and multiple stories state you must greet the house thus: “Little hut, little hut, turn your back to the forest and your front to me.” That way you can go in.
I will make a separate post to tell you some more about specific stories where Baba Yaga is friendly!
Roztomilý kroj^_^ (údajně asi z jihozápadních čech)
That goose is abnormally tall 0_0
This artpiece was heavily inspired by @vesnaaa - no wait- I was heavily inspired by @vesnaaa and all the lovely art they make
BELARUSIAN LESHY CONCEPT 🗣️🗣️🗣️
This is not exactly about the cult of the lamb, this is, ahah, my diploma project.
Today I jotted down a lot of search engine stuff
Almost forgot the last creature I made for the cryptid artbook project: the Chugaister from Ukrainian mythology. Described as a large bear-like man, naked and super hairy (with almost animal-like fur), that roams the Carpathian mountains. Despite his appearance, he is a benevolent creature and doesn’t seem attack humans unless provoked. In fact, according to tales, he’s quite friendly towards people. He doesn’t speak like humans, but if he encounters you camping in the forest, he will gladly join you to dance around a bonfire, engaging in a sort of friendly dance battle. He’s super chill overall, especially if you share your food.
Additionally, the Chugaister protects humans from evil spirits and dangers, including NIAVKAS.
You might have heard of "Mavka" from the cartoon "Mavka, the Forest Song." BUT Mavkas and Niavkas are separate beings in folklore (though there is some overlap). I remember reading these different interpretations of the same entity come from different regions (can`t find right now) , but generally:
Mavkas are benevolent, playful forest spirits, almost like forest nymphs with green hair. Niavkas, on the other hand, are described as having transparent skin on their backs through which you can see their organs, usually covered with long hair. They are considered extremely dangerous, akin to skinwalkers or certain types of Fae (if you’re familiar with Fae/Fey mythology).
If you play computer games, I recommend you to try the game “Black Book” by Russian game studio “Morteshka”. The game was released a couple of days ago. It’s based on real Russian folklore of Perm region (and not just on tales about poor old Baba Yaga who for some reason always is evil in western interpretations :).
The game is about a Russian peasant girl who becomes a witch for the sake of saving her lover. In the game you will meet various Slavic spirits, talk with them, fight them and/or take them into service. The genre is a RPG/visual novel/card game (fights in the form of a card game).
Flaws:
1. The developers did not have a big budget. So that is why graphics don’t exist (models are funny). Still far landscapes are pleasant and atmospheric.
2. Some of the English-speaking gamers in Steam are talking that it’s difficult to understand and follow all the lore in the game. But still they like it so just be ready for tons of text about folklore, believes, terminology, religion stuff and etc.
Merits:
1. There are English subs and dubs (but I recommend Russian voices).
2. The game is based on the Russian folklore and a bit of Finno-Ugric (since Perm Region is also a home for Finno-Ugric people). There is a lot of information. If you interested in Russian folklore you MUST play it :)
3. It’s interesting and atmospheric. And that’s not just my opinion :)
4. You can meet demons who possess samovars, speaking demon-cats, depressed demons who is sad because their masters forgot them, demons who want to bring progress to common people, demons who torture sinners… and you can play with all of them in the card game (well most of them). You can help common people or curse them. You can befriend a soldier with pyrophobia, a cat-domovoi, a speaking head… Why yall still don’t play it?
There is a free demo version, try it if you are not sure: Black Book: Prologue
More screenshots:
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I've read a 1912 compendium of criminal case studies featuring peasant girls and women from all corners of former Russian Empire as perpetrators, and I couldn't shake the thought of all those 16, 17, 18 year olds driven to killing themselves, their unwanted children, their husbands two or three times them older who were essentially r*ping them for years. Hence the little mermaid - a Slavic edition (in Slavic folklore, mermaids are a type of the undead). All violence starts with domestic and gender-based violence. Russia is a terrorist state and always has been. Down with empires.
Mara is a powerful Slavic goddess who personifies winter, cycles of life and death. She is also considered the patroness of witchcraft and symbolizes justice.
Mavka is a character in South Slavic demonology, an evil spirit, a mermaid. According to a number of signs, it is close to a mermaid, a Carpathian “forest lady” or a mountain female spirit. It was believed that young girls or young children who died on Trinity Week because of unhappy love or whose parents were killed this week became Mavkas.
The second photo is stills from a photoset on this topic inspired by the theme
About Limbo and the puppets. The image of Limbo for Irina is the world of her dreams, mixed with Slavic folklore, where she is a certain Vasilisa the Wise. Her friend Lyubov in the Limbo world is a Slavic mermaid. Chariton appears ostensibly as a wizard / Sechenov's employee, but in fact is Koshchei the Immortal...
"Найбільш яскраво межова семантика виявляється у віруваннях, приурочених до трьох безмісячних, «пустих», днів. У координатах місячного часу межею називають фазу Місяця, яка передує його народженню, так називають і відповідний час (на межі, переміна, перекрій, чернець). Вірять, що той, хто народився на межі фаз Місяця, не буде мати дітей. У безмісячні дні не сватались і не справляли весілля, вважаючи цей час несприятливим для подальшого подружнього життя. З межовою семантикою таких днів пов’язане вірування в місяшників – трансвеститів, у яких перемежовується жіноча й чоловіча самоідентифікація: «Се такий мущинина, що він раз жинка, а раз чоловік. Місьишники ходьи ув дню у мущинскім убраню. Домашні знати можут за се, хто у них місьишник, більше ніхто. Він може бути годину, дві, днину або ½ місьицьи жинков; се находит єго при зміні місьицьи»
- Фольклорна семантика фаз місяця в часовому коді традиційної культури східних слов'ян, О.Ю. Чебанюк
"The semantic association with liminality is expressed the most vividly in beliefs about the three moonless, "empty" days. Among the coordinates of lunar time the edge is the phase that preceds its birth, the appropriate time is called likewise (on the edge, the change, the cut, chernets). It is believed that those born between moon phases shall remain childless. People would not get engaged or married on the dark moon, as this time was believed to be inauspicious for married life. The liminal association is tied to the belief in misiachnyks - transvestites whose male and female self-identification is interchanged: "It is the kind of man, that he is at some times a man, and some a woman. Misiachnyks walk in a male dress during the day. The family might know which one is misiachnyk among them, but nobody else. He may be a woman an hour, two, a day, or half a month; this happens to him with changes of the moon".
- Folkloric Semantics of Moon Phases in the Time Code of the Traditional Culture of Eastern Slavs, O.Ju. Chebaniuk
Thank you for the question @newbiepagancat ! I’ll give you a direct answer and a broader view answer.
Direct answer: The general theme of the myth was reconstructed by slavists on the basis of folk songs, folktales and comparative mythology, there is no one concrete historical source. The names of gods and the storyline connecting multiple myths are an educated speculation by slavists of yore. The minute details are typically added by neopagans as they’re almost impossible to reconstruct.
The Russian philologists Ivanov and Toporov found (mainly on the tradition about Zeleni Jurij) traces of the principal myth of Perun and Veles, linking Jurij/Jarylo with the Balto-Slavic Jarovit, a deity of fertility, who was initially worshipped on April 15. Furthermore, Radoslav Katičić wrote extensively on Jurij’s myth among the Slavs and on the duel between the Thunder God with a dragon. Both Radoslav Katičić and Vitomir Belaj share the opinion that Jurij/Jarylo is the son of Perun and thus central to the pre-Slavic vegetation and fertility myth. Jurij was taken by envoys of Veles to the land of the dead from which he returned to the world of the living in spring. As a harbinger of spring, Zeleni Jurij is also connected with the circular flow of time and with renewal. According to Katičić’s reconstruction of the myth of Zeleni Jurij, the mythic story recounts how young Jurij rides his horse from afar, from the land of eternal spring and the land of the dead – from Veles’ land – across a blood-stained sea, through a mountain to a green field. (…) At the end of his journey, Jurij arrives at the door of Perun’s court to marry Perun’s daughter, (his own sister) Mara. Together with the sacrifice of the horse, the hieros gamos ensures the growth and fertility of plants. Some Slovene folktales and songs also mention an incestuous relationship between a brother and a sister, which is the reminiscence of the sacred marriage already mentioned in the myth of Kresnik. The sacred marriage is therefore also connected with Zeleni Jurij.
- Supernatural beings from Slovenian myth and folktales by Monika Kropej
Mikhailov summarized Ivanov’s and Toporov’s reconstruction of the basic myth by describing that the thunder god Perun, who dwells in the sky on the top of a mountain, persecutes his enemy, who has the form of a snake and lives below on earth. The reason for their conflict is that Veles stole cattle and people, as well as the Thunderer’s wife in some versions of the story.
- René Girard’s Scapegoating and Stereotypes of Persecution in the Divine Battle between Veles and Perun by Mirjana Borenović
Broader worldview answer: There are some common mythological themes that exist in one form or another among countless different cultures and peoples, adjusted to fit the local gods and their broader stories.
The God of Thunder fights The Serpent of the Waters. They have to fight - be it as Perun and Veles, as Thor and Jörmungandr, as Zeus and Typhon or as Marduk and Tiamat. The detailed reasons will vary but will make sense locally. The older and simpler reason is likely that we need a good justification for the changing of the seasons.
The Death will always take away someone’s Loved One, sometimes that Loved One will be a child, since that makes coping with the situation particularly difficult. That’s just what death does - be it as Veles and Yarilo or as Hades and Persephone. Bonus points for explaining the seasons changing too.
So let’s say you’re a slavist or a neopagan desperate for a coherent body of Slavic myths but lacking one. All you have to work with are some fleshless skeletons of myths, painstakingly glued together from random bones that you found here and there. Truth be told you only managed to get this far because they’re real classics of the genre and other cultures tend to have similar ones too. Let’s introduce the skeleton gallery in play here:
The Thunderer and the Serpent are fighting (described more in depth here),
The God of Death/Underworld abducts a child (described in the quotes above),
The Spirit of Vegetation has to die - creative sacrifice/murder (explained shortly here),
The Fire and Water need to marry at Midsummer - magical incest temporarily allowed (explained in this post, if it’s too long just read the last quote and the tldr).
(You might notice pretty much all those myths are centered around vegetation, what makes plants grow, and people needing to have food. Two first skeletons do a decent job of explaining change of seasons and the reason for seasonal coming of rains, that are needed for the fields to grow; two last ones are related to rituals that are supposed to ensure that land stays fertile/there’s enough sun and water so that grain grows and we can avoid starving.)
Ok, so let’s say you’re a slavist or a neopagan desperate for a coherent body of Slavic myths. What is the optimal way to connect the dots here?
Perun and Veles fight. Why are they fighting? Multiple reasons but the biggest one is Veles stealing something that rightfully belonged to Perun. What did he steal? Well the myth works perfectly if it’s a) a child and b) a spirit of vegetation. This fits both Morana and Yarilo and I saw fans of both versions, but let’s go with Yarilo here. Because of a flower, a folk song and an old chronicle Yarilo/Yarovit, the spirit believed to be one of vegetation, life, spring, sun etc. has to marry the spirit of vegetation, water and death, that miiiiiight also be his sister. How the fuck do you marry your own sister? Well you got abducted and separated at young age, but as The Spring, The Embodiment of Sprouting Seeds and maybe also The Sun Child, Yarilo (born at Midwinter) will come out from the Underworld uscathed as a young adult and meet a girl who he fails to recognize as his sister and marries at Midsummer (part of fertility ritual for good harvest). Anyway tragedy follows, could be murder, could be suicide, either way it has to be death.
Why? Because that’s what makes sense, the most optimal way to put together the puzzle pieces that we currently have. Does that mean that’s exactly what Ancient Slavs believed? No, but a) we don’t know for sure what they believed and will likely never find out for sure, b) they probably believed bunch of different, conflicting stories depending on the region.
Obviosuly speculating slavists are much more light-handed than speculating neopagans. The slavists will usually let you know which parts they added, why they hold this particular belief, what purpose this story may serve, what other authorities support their hypothesis, and of course, that nothing is for sure and this is merely a hypothesis. Neopagans are rarely this kind and forthcoming.
Have a lovely day!
Zarya
Is there a creation story in Slavic mythology ? Or multiple versions of a creation story ? I’m quite curious about it
Oh yes, multiple creation stories can be found in Slavic folklore. Although they were significantly transformed by centuries of co-existing with Christian belief and theological teachings, they contain elements that betray them as blatantly un-Christian in origin. They have quite a lot of regional variety but also many common themes.
The concept of primordial waters is almost universal and it frequently appears in conjunction with the story of an animal or a person diving and bringing a grain of sand from the bottom of the waters to it’s surface to create the earth. This is sometimes referred to as “the motif of fished out world” (”świat wyłowiony”, it sounds much cooler in Polish and other Slavic languages).
In one of the stories the God (unnamed, or more likely rendered nameless by Christianity) dives into the primordial waters and a grain of sand gets stuck under his fingernail. Where it falls out the earth is formed. The God is frequently accompanied by another character, in later folk tales rendered as the Devil. Here we have our un-Christian element. The two supernatural characters are of equal or nearly equal standing and have to co-operate to create the world. According to the tale found on the territories of Poland and Bulgaria, God orders the Devil to dive to the bottom of the primordial waters and bring back a small lump of soil. In Bulgarian version the Devil fails to achieve this feat by calling solely on his own power but succeeds when calling upon the joint powers of himself and God. In other tellings the Devil has to turn into a bird to complete his mission. In certain regions, especially in Russia the devil has clearly ornitomorphic qualities, an idea borrowed from neighboring Finno-Ugric and Mongolian peoples. In a Carpathian folk songs we can find the world created by a pair of pigeons diving for the dirt, a trace of two divine powers, both with ornitomorphic form.
From this scrap of soil brought to the suface by the Devil God shapes the world, like an island on the endless waters. The Devil becomes jealous of his cration and wishes to rule the newly formed land alone so when the God falls asleep the Devil attempts to push him off the island into the water. To his suprise no matter how much he pushes, drags and rolls the God around, the earth seems to stretch below them, like dough under a rolling pin. In the end they do so much pushing, dragging and rolling that the great wide world we know is created. In a different telling (known in Russia and Ukraine) the Devil hides some of the fished out soil under his tongue hoping to create a land of his own, but the lump of dirt starts miraculously growing, bursting out of his mouth and forming mountains. In other versions of the story God accidentally creates too much dry land and there is no longer space for water - so God either eavesdrops on the Devil or asks his advice in order to solve the issue (Balkans).
And they said: “We know how man was created”. And he asked: “How?” The two of them said: “God was washing in a bathhouse, and he began to sweat, and he wiped himself with a cloth of herbs, and he threw it from heaven down to earth. And Satan began to argue with God about who would create man from it (the cloth). And the devil created man, but God put the soul in him. That is why, when a man dies, his body goes to earth and his soul to God”.
- Tale of Bygone Years
This leads as to another common motif, the stories in which the earth is a rocky, barren place and God either sacrifices his own body to make it habitable or sends a magical prophetic rooster to provide people with water (Slovenia).
The heathen also recounted that the world was totally barren, nothing but rocks. It bore no fruit, but there was no need for food anyway. Among the people lived God himself, with spirit and body, and he fed people with manna from heavens. Yet people were unhappy, for they feared God’s greatness and splendour. Constantly trembling, they could neither enjoy their food and drink nor make merry. God felt pity for them. He separated from his body and moved to heaven. His body decomposed and turned into fertile soil. In God’s soil, people cultivated their own food and no longer needed the manna from heaven. It was only then that they started to enjoy their life and were happy.
- Supernatural beings from Slovenian myth and folklore by Monika Kropej
Then we have some tales in which the world drifts on top of the primordial waters, possibly supported on the back of a giant fish or a sea snake. On the territories of Slovenia and Serbia we find mentions of the world being supported by a bull or a fiery dragon. Some slavists also speculate on the existence of “Cosmic Egg” creation story based on the common bird motifs and certain themes that can be found in traditional fairy tales.
Sources: Álvarez-Pedrosa, J. A., Sources on Pre-Christian Slavic religion (p. 287) Gieysztor, A., Mitologia Słowian (p. 156-159); Kropej, M., Supernatural beings from Slovenian myth and folklore (p. 17-29); Szyjewski, A., Religia Słowian (p. 27-38).
Hello I was wondering about popular or common Slavic embroidery patterns ? I unfortunately don’t know how to embroider myself, but I would like to incorporate it into my drawings and paintings as art is a big way for me to connect spiritually. Thanks so much !
First of all ”Slavic embroidery patterns” are a huge subject. There are many Slavic states and countless smaller regions within those states that have their own unique and characteristic patterns.
Having said that here are some sources for you to check out:
Polish folk embroidery by Jadwiga Turska
Ukrainian folk embroidery by K. R Susak and N. A. Stefyuk
Some Balkan Folk Embroidery Patterns by Edith Durham
Ukrainian Rushnyky: Binding Amulets and Magical Talismans in the Modern Period by Frank Sciaccia
And make sure to check out the great blogs we have here: Polish Costumes, Zvetenze, Me-Sharing-With-The-World, Eastern European Crafts and Pagan Stiches.
Best of luck!
The Yaga journal: Witches and demons of Eastern Europe
The next article I’ll translate from the issue (I won’t translate all of them since some are not very relevant for this blog) is “Baba Yaga, witches, and the ambiguous demons of oriental Europe” by Stamatis Zochios.
The article opens by praising the 1863′s “Reasoned dictionary of the living russian language”. by scholar, lexicograph and folklorist Vladimir Dahl, which is one of the first “systematic essays” that collects the linguistic treasures of Russia. By collecting more than thirty thousand proverbs and sayings, insisting on the popular and oral language, the Dictionary notably talked about various terms of Russian folklore; domovoi, rusalka, leshii… And when it reaches Baba Yaga, the Dictionary calls her : сказочное страшилищ (skazochnoe strashilishh) , that is to say “monster of fairytales”.But the article wonders about this denomination… Indeed, for many people (such as Bogatyrev) Baba Yaga, like other characters of Russian fairytales (Kochtcheï or Zmey Gorynych) do not exist in popular demonology, and is thus exclusively a character of fairy tales, in which she fulfills very specific functions (aggressor, donator if we take back Propp’s system). But the author of this article wonder if Baba Yaga can’t actually be found in “other folkloric genres” - maybe she is present in legends, in popular beliefs, in superstitions and incantations.
Baba Yaga, as depicted in the roleplaying game “Vampire: The Masquerade”
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Dozhinki, the harvest of Jarilo
Between Slavics, they celebrated the harvest of Autumn, which, in ancient times, were dedicated to Jarilo, God of Vegetation, who in Autumn descends in the Underworld.
During this festival the last sheaf of August was decorated with ribbons, symbols, berries and flowers. Besides of the sheaf, they prepared large garlands with bundles of wheat, that will be used during the parade; everything will end with dances, chants, banquets and binge drinkings.
Anciently, the festival was dedicate to the beauty Jarilo, a young God, blinde like wheat and eternally shoeless because where he walked, the earth would regenerate.
The whole mythology which recalls to him is the description of seasonal cycle. Jarilo, son of the God of Thunder Perun, was born the last night of February (anciently was New Year's Eve) and the same day had been kidnapped from the God of Underworld Veles and grew up as his son. During Spring, Jarilo went back to the surface, coming back to life generating vegetation.
During Summer he marries his twin Morana, Goddess of Nature and Death, but in Autumn he is ceremonially killed. Later also Morana dies for the lack of Jarilo, but they both rebirth during Summer Solstice.