Chernobog

Chernobog (from Proto-Slavic *čĭrnŭ 'black' and *bogŭ "god") – also spelled as Chernabog, Czernobog, Chornoboh, Czorneboh, Čiernoboh, Crnobog, Tchernobog and Zcerneboch among other variants – is a Slavic deity, whose name means black god, about whom much has been speculated but little can be said definitively.[lower-alpha 1] The only historical sources, which are Christian ones, interpret him as a dark, accursed god, but it is questionable how important or malicious he was really considered to be by ancient Slavs. The name is attested only among West Slavic tribes of the 12th century, hence it is speculated that he was not a very important or very old deity. Older scholarship assumed him to be the counterpart of Belobog.

Sources

One historic source on Slavic mythology mentioning this god is the 12th-century Chronica Slavorum, a work written by German priest Helmold which describes customs and beliefs of several Wendish and Polabian tribes who were still pagans. Helmold wrote that:

The Slavs, too, have a strange delusion. At their feasts and carousals they pass about a bowl over which they utter words — I should not say of consecration but of execration — in the name of the gods—of the good one, as well as of the bad one—professing that all propitious fortune is arranged by the good god, adverse, by the bad god. Hence, also, in their language they call the bad god Diabol, or Zcerneboch, that is, the Black God.[1]

Latin original

Est autem Slavorum mirabilis error; nam in conviviis et compotacionibus suis pateram circumferunt, in quam conferunt, non dicam consecracionis, sed execracionis verba sub nomine deorum, boni scilicet atque mali, omnem prosperam fortunam a bono deo, adversam a malo dirigi profitentes. Unde etiam malum deum lingua sua Diabol sive Zcerneboch, id est nigrum deum, appellant.[2]

On the basis of this inscription, many modern mythographers assumed that, if the evil god was Chernobog, the black god, then the good god should be Belobog or the white god. However, the name of Belobog is not mentioned by Helmold anywhere in his Chronica, nor is it ever mentioned in any of the historic sources that describe the deities of any Slavic tribe or nation. Svetovid may serve as the opposite deity.

Folklore

A veneration of this deity perhaps survived in folklore of several Slavic nations. In some South Slavic vernaculars, there exists the phrase do zla boga (meaning "to [the] evil god", or perhaps "to [the] evil [of] god"), used as an attribute to express something which is exceedingly negative.

Chernobog is a playable character in popular MOBA game Smite, under the hunter class.[3] Chernobog is also an important antagonist character in the Heirs of Alexandria series, a fantasy series by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint and Dave Freer. Some fantasy fans contend that Chernobog is a balrog as found in Tolkien mythology.

Chernobog is also the great black demonic figure in the Walt Disney adaptation of the Modest Mussorgsky piece Night on Bald Mountain in the 1940 film Fantasia. Chernobog was certainly a key player in Mussorgsky’s conception of the piece.

In the novel American Gods by Neil Gaiman, Czernobog is featured as a recurring character. He is played by Peter Stormare in the Starz TV series American Gods.

Chernobog, specifically his Fantasia incarnation, is referenced with the design of the Dark One, Avoozl, in Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness. Avoozl emerges from a mountain in a manner akin to Chernabog awakening during the Night on Bald Mountain sequence, and appears as a mountain-sized, bat-winged, demonic creature.

Notes

  1. ↑ In some modern Slavic languages it may be written differently – Bulgarian and Russian: Чернобог Chernobog, Macedonian and Serbo-Croatian: Crnobog, Црнобог, Polish: Czarnobóg, Czech: Černobůh.

References

  1. ↑ Tschan, Francis Joseph, ed., trans. (1935). The Chronicle of the Slavs by Helmold, Priest of Bosau. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 159.
  2. ↑ Helmoldus (1581). "Caput LIII". In Reiner Reineccius. Chronica Slavorum. Frankfurt. p. 44.
  3. ↑ "SMITE". www.smitegame.com. Retrieved 2018-09-08.
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