Chernobog

Chernobog (from Proto-Slavic *čĭrnŭ 'black' and *bogŭ "god") – also spelled as Chernevog, Czernobog, Chornoboh, Crnobog, Tchernobog and Zcerneboch among many other variants[lower-alpha 1] – is a Slavic deity whose name means "black god", about whom much has been speculated but little is attested and known definitively.[1]

Modern artwork depicting the struggle between Belobog and Chernobog.

The only known historical sources for this god are a 12th-century Christian chronicle and the 13th-century Icelandic legend Knýtlinga saga, which describe him as a dark, accursed deity.[1] In modern depictions, such as video games and film, Chernobog is generally portrayed as a demon or monster with a grotesque and/or frightening appearance, often linked to darkness and death.

Although like most pagan faiths, the ancient Slavic religion was chiefly polytheistic with a wide pantheon of gods, Chernobog has been historically assumed to be the dualistic counterpart or contrasting aspect of the "good" deity, Belobog (the "white god"). This dualism is a common theme amongst Eurasian religions.[1][2][3]

Sources

A longstanding historic source on Slavic mythology mentioning Chernobog is the 12th century Chronica Slavorum, a work written by the German priest-scribe Helmold which describes customs and beliefs of several Wendish and Polabian tribes, who were mostly still pagans at the time. He wrote thus in Medieval Latin:[3][4][5]

The Slavs, too, have a strange conviction: At their feasts and carousals they pass about a libation 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, they profess that all propitious fortune is arranged by the good god, and all adverse by the bad god. Hence, also, in their language they call the bad god Diabol,[lower-alpha 2] or Zcerneboch, that is, the "Black God".

Latin original text

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.

— Helmold of Bosau, Chronica Slavorum

This passage has been the cornerstone for defenders of the thesis that Chernobog was an evil god part of a Slavic dualism, at least in that distinction.[3]

Folklore

The name of Chernobog, or more accurately the meaning of his name, is preserved in several curses in Slavic languages.[1]

A veneration of this deity perhaps survived in the 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.[6]

An early appearance of Chernobog in popular culture is in the 1940 Disney film Fantasia as Chernabog, a great and powerful night demon who awakes and summons evil spirits; the scene occurs in the form of an animation accompanying Modest Mussorgsky's piece Night on Bald Mountain.

Since the 1990s, Chernobog has been variously portrayed in a number of video games:

  • His Fantasia incarnation is referenced in the 1993 MS-DOS video game Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness, in which the Dark One, Avoozl, emerges from a mountain in a manner akin to Chernobog awakening during the Night on Bald Mountain sequence, and appears as a mountainous, bat-winged, demonic monster.
  • In multiple entries of the Shin Megami Tensei series of JRPGs, he is a summonable monster, appearing usually as a bald, purple humanoid cloaked in a red scarf and holding a large scythe.[7]
  • In the 1997 first-person shooter Blood, Tchernobog is the primary antagonist, being depicted as a "bloodied, horned Dark God of monstrous appearance", who controls the cult known as "the Cabal".[8]
  • Chernobog appears as an antagonist in the Heirs of Alexandria series.
  • He is one of the numerous playable deities in the popular MOBA game Smite and belongs to the Hunter class.[9]
  • In the Crusader Kings 2 expansion Monks and Mystics, Chernobog is a "satanic" god around whom the "Cold Bloods" sect revolves when a Slavic pagan ruler is played.
  • In "The Shrouded Isles" PC game, Chernobog is the god that the villagers worship and make sacrifices to.
  • The Fantasia incarnation appears as a boss in the Disney-inspired videogame Kingdom Hearts and in Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance, one of its sequels.

Literary appearances include the 2001 novel American Gods by Neil Gaiman, in which Czernobog is featured as a recurring character, Naomi Novik's 2018 fantasy novel, Spinning Silver, which is inspired by Eastern European mythology, and Charles Stross's Laundry Files.

In S.M. Stirling's novel The Peshawar Lancers, set in an alternative 2025, Satan is worshipped in the Russian Empire as Chernobog, the "Black God", after a Russian patriarch believed God and Christ had abandoned the world to destruction by a comet fall in 1878. In this timeline, the Russians turned to human sacrifice and cannibalism as form of worship of Chernobog, and the main antagonist, Count Ignatieff, is both an Okhrana agent and a worshipper of the Black God.

In television, he is played by Peter Stormare in the series American Gods.

Chernobog appears in Marvel Comics's universe as the deity[10] of darkness, chaos and night.[11] He serves as a member of the Russian super-hero team Winter Guard.[12]

Notes
  1. In some modern Slavic languages the name is written and pronounced differently – e.g. Ukrainian: Чорнобог Chornoboh and Bulgarian: Чернобог Chernobog; Macedonian and Serbo-Croatian: Crnobog, Црнобог; Polish: Czarnobóg; Czech: Černobůh (spelling is further varied by regional and dialectal pronunciation). In those West Slavic territories that Helmold proselytized in that are now part of Germany, Tchernobog is rendered in German as Czorneboh; this can be seen as a mountain called such in Saxony.
  2. It is of note that "Diabol" means "devil" in the Slavic languages, and is cognate to the English word.

References
  1. Gasparini, Evel (n.d.). "Slavic religion". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
  2. Dixon-Kennedy, Mike (1998). Encyclopedia of Russian & Slavic Myth and Legend. New York City: ABC-CLIO. pp. 37–. ISBN 978-1-57607-063-5.
  3. Revue d'Histoire et de Philosophie Religieuses (in French). Paris, France: Presses Universitaires de France. 1969.
  4. Tschan, Francis Joseph, ed. (1935). The Chronicle of the Slavs. Translated by Tschan, Framcis Joseph. New York City: Columbia University Press. p. 159.
  5. Helmoldus (1581). "Caput LIII". In Reineccius, Reiner (ed.). Chronica Slavorum. Frankfurt, Germany. p. 44.
  6. Ogechukwu, Nwaocha (2012-05-30). The Devil: What Does He Look Like?. American Book Publishing. p. 46. ISBN 978-1-58982-662-5.
  7. Atlus (1994–2018). Shin Megami Tensei (series) (Various platforms). Atlus.CS1 maint: date format (link)
  8. Odom, Mel; Chapman, Ted (1997). Blood: The Official Strategy Guide. Prima Pub. ISBN 9780761509325.
  9. "SMITE". www.smitegame.com. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
  10. Thor: God of Thunder #2. Marvel Comics.
  11. Incredible Hulk #621. Marvel Comics.
  12. Avengers Vol. 8 #10. Marvel Comics.
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