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More info on Slavic mythology
Slavic mythology: Map
Slavic mythology is the mythological aspect of the polytheistic religion that was practised by the Slavs prior to Christianisation.The religion possesses numerous common traits with other religions descended from the Proto-Indo-European religion.
Slavic mythology
Unlike Greek or Egyptian mythology, there are no first-hand records for the study of Slavic mythology. Despite some controversial theories (for instance, the Book of Veles), it cannot be proven that the Slavs had any sort of writing system prior to Christianisation; therefore, all their original religious beliefs and traditions were likely passed down orally over generations, and potentially forgotten over the centuries following the arrival of Christianity. Prior to that, sparse records of Slavic religion were mostly written by non-Slavic Christian missionaries who were uninterested in accurately portraying pagan beliefs. Archaeological remains of old Slavic idol and shrines have been found, though little can be yielded from them without proper knowledge of their contexts, other than confirming existing historical records. Fragments of old mythological beliefs and pagan festivals survive up to this day in folk customs, songs, and stories of all the Slavic nations.
Written sources
There are no known written accounts of Slavic mythology predating the fragmentation of the Proto-Slavic people into Western, Eastern, and Southern Slavs, with the possible exception of a short note in Herodotus' Histories, mentioning a tribe of Neuri in the far north, whose men, Herodotus claims, transform themselves into wolves for several days each year. Some researchers have interpreted this through the Slavic folk belief in werewolves, whilst others believe that Herodotus actually referred to ancient Slavic carnival festivals, when groups of young men roamed the villages in masks, sometimes referred to as vucari (wolf-humans). The identification of "Neuri" with Proto-Slavs remains controversial, however.
The first definitive reference to the Slavs and their mythology in written history was made by the 6th century Byzantine historian Procopius, whose Bellum Gothicum described the beliefs of a South Slavic tribe that crossed the Danube heading south in just two days. According to Procopius, these Slavs worshipped a single deity, who crafted lightning and thunder. Though not named explicitly, it can be deduced this is a reference to the deity known as Perun in later historic sources, as in many Slavic languages today (Polish 'piorun' for example) Perun simply means "thunder" or "lightning bolt". He also mentions the belief in various demons and nymphs (ie vilas), but does not mention any other names.
The Slavic Primary Chronicle is a major work with many valuable references to the pagan beliefs of Eastern Slavs. The chronicle treats the history of the early Eastern Slavic state. Even though the manuscript was compiled at the beginning of the 12th century, it contains references to, and copies of, older documents, and describes events predating the Baptism of Kiev. Two deities, Perun and Veles/Volos, are mentioned in the text of the early 10th century peace treaties between pagan rulers of East Slavs and Byzantine Emperors. Later, Nestor the Chronicler describes a state pantheon introduced by Prince Vladimir in Kiev in 980 CE. Vladimir's pantheon included Perun, Hors, Dažbog, Stribog, Simargl, and Mokosh. The Hypatian Codex of the Primary Chronicle also mentions Svarog, compared to Greek Hephaestus. Also very interesting are the passages in the East Slavic epic The Tale of Igor's Campaign referring to Veles, Dažbog, and Hors. The original epic has been dated to the end of the 12th century, although there are marginal disputes over the authenticity of this work.
The most numerous and richest written records are of West Slavic paganism, particularly of Wendish and Polabian tribes, who were forcibly Christianised only at the end of the 12th century. The German missionaries and priests who assailed pagan religion left extensive records of old mythological systems they sought to overcome. However, they hardly restrained themselves from "pious lies", claiming pagan Slavs were idolatrous, blood-thirsty barbarians. As none of those missionaries learned any Slavic language, their records are confused and exaggerated.
Major works include a chronicle of Thietmar of Merseburg from the beginning of the 11th century, who described a temple in the city of Riedegost (Radagast) where the great deity Zuarasic (Svarožič) was worshipped. According to Thietmar, this was the most sacred place in the land of pagan Slavs, and Svarožič was their most important deity.
See Radegast .
Another very valuable document is the Chronica Slavorum written in the late 12th century by Helmold, a German priest. He mentions 'the devil' Zerneboh (Chernobog), goddess Živa, god Porenut, some unnamed gods whose statues had multiple heads and, finally, the great god Svantevit, worshipped on the island of Rügen who, according to Helmod, was the most important of all (Western) Slavic deities.
A modern artistic representation of Saxo Grammaticus.
The third, and arguably the most important record, comes from the Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus, who in his Gesta Danorum described the war fought in 1168 by the Danish king Valdemar I against the Wends of Rügen , the conquest of their city at cape Arkona and the destruction of the grand temple of Svantevit that stood there. Saxo meticulously described the worship of Svantevit, the customs associated with it and, the tall four-headed statue of the god. He also mentioned multi-headed deities of other Slavic tribes; Rugievit, Porewit and Porentius.
The fourth major source are three biographies of the German warrior-bishop St Otto, who in the early 12th century led several military-pastoral expeditions into the regions of Slavic tribes living near the Baltic Sea . According to the manuscript, the most important Slavic deity was Triglav, whose temples in the city of Szczecin were respected oracles. In the cities of Wolgast and Havelberg , the war god Gerovit was worshiped, a likely corruption of Jarovit, a Slavic deity possibly identical to Jarilo of the East Slavic folklore.
Archeological remains
Statues of several Slavic deities were discovered in 1848, on the banks of the Zbruch river, a tall stone statue was found, with four faces under a single stone hat. Because of its likehood with Saxo's description of the great idol in the temple of Rügen, the statue was immediately proclaimed a representation of Svantevit, although it was clear it could not be the original Svantevit of Rügen. Several other multi-headed statues were discovered elsewhere. A tiny four-headed statue from the 10th century, carved out of bone, was unearthed amongst the ruins of Preslav , a capital of medieval Bulgarian tsars. A two-headed, human-sized wooden statue was discovered on an island in the Tollensesee lake near Neubrandenburg : in the Middle Ages, this was the land of Slavic Dolenain tribe, whose name survives in the name of the lake. Furthermore, a three-headed statue was discovered in Dalmatia (Croatia ) on the hill bearing the name of Suvid, not far from the peak of Mt. Dinara called Troglav.
The remains of several Slavic shrines have also been discovered. Some archeological excavations on the cape of Arkona on Rügen island have uncovered vestiges of a great temple and a city, identified with those described by Saxo. In Novgorod , at the ancient Peryn skete, archeologists discovered the remains of a pagan shrine likely dedicated to Perun. The shrine consisted of a wide circular platform centred around a statue. The platform was encircled by a trench with eight apses, which contain remains of sacrificial altars. Remains of a citadel with a more or less identical layout were discovered on a location with the suggestive name Pohansko (Paganic), near Břeclav in the Czech Republic .
All these archeological remains have the multiplicity of aspects in common. Statues of gods with multiple faces and remains of shrines with multiple sacrificial altars confirm written reports of Christian missionaries about the Slavs worshipping polycephalic gods, and also indicate that ancient Slavic mythology apparently put great emphasis on worship of deities with more aspects than one.
Also quite important are remains of several pieces of pottery from 4th century Chernyakhov culture. Russian archeologist Boris Rybakov identified and interpreted symbols inscribed onto them as records of the ancient Slavic calendar.
It is claimed usually that worshiping in woods was more common to Slavic people than praying in shrines. Those woods were called in PSlav. *gaje (conf. Polish Nom. sg. m. gaj 'small wood, thicket, bush, grove'; see: sacred grove), they were sometimes encircled by a fence which created a sacred area, both a natural and social sphere. Sometimes they would be cementaries as well (conf. Kleczanów Wood).
Folklore traces
As various Slavic populations were Christianised between the 7th and 12th centuries, Christianity was introduced as a religion of the elite, flourishing mostly in cities and amongst the nobility. Amongst the rural majority of the medieval Slavic population, old myths remained strong. Christian priests and monks in Slavic countries, particularly in Russia, for centuries fought against the phenomenon called dvoeverie (double faith). On the one hand, peasants and farmers eagerly accepted baptism, masses and the new Christian holidays. On the other hand, they still persisted performing ancient rites and worshiping old pagan cults, even when the ancient deities and myths on which those were based were completely forgotten.
This was because, from a perspective of the Slavic peasant, Christianity was not a replacement of old Slavic mythology, but rather an addition to it. Christianity may have offered a hope of salvation, and of blissful afterlife in the next world, but for survival in this world, for yearly harvest and protection of cattle, the old religious system with its fertility rites, its protective deities, and its household spirits was taken to be necessary. This was a problem the Christian church never really solved; at best, it could offer a Christian saint or martyr to replace the pagan deity of a certain cult, but the cult itself thrived, as did the mythological view of the world through which natural phenomena were explained.
While folk beliefs and traditions of all Slavic peoples indeed are the richest resource for reconstructing the ancient pagan beliefs, these may very likely have lost their original mythology and sanctity. People entertained a vague idea that some festivals must be celebrated in a certain way, some stories must be told or some songs must be sung, merely in accordance with tradition. Cults of old deities were mixed with worship of new Christian saints, and old rituals blended among new Christian holidays.
This led scholars to analyse the structure of folklore itself, and to devise methodologies through which they could reconstruct the lost mythology from this structure. We can roughly divide the folklore accounts into two groups:
Fairy tales about various fantastical characters and creatures such as Alkonost, Baba Yaga, Koschei the Deathless, Firebird, Zmey songs and tales of legendary heroes such as Russian bogatyrs, and superstitions about various demons and spirits such as domovoi, likho, vilas, vampires, vodyanoy, rusalkas etc. Many of these tales and beliefs may be quite ancient, and probably contain at least some elements of old mythical structure, but they are not myths themselves. They lack a deeper, sacral meaning and religious significance, and furthermore they tend to vary greatly among various Slavic populations.
Folk celebrations of various Christian festivals and popular beliefs in various saints. It is, for instance, quite clear that a popular saint in many Slavic countries, St Elijah the Thunderer, is a replacement of old thunder-god Perun. Likewise, traces of ancient deities can also be found in cults of many other saints, such as St Mary, St Vitus, St George, St Blaise, St Nicholas, and it is also obvious that various folk celebrations, such as the spring feast of Jare or Jurjevo and the summer feast of Ivanje or Ivan Kupala, both very loosely associated with Christian holidays, are abundant with pre-Christian elements. These beliefs have considerable religious and sacral significance to the people still performing them. The problem is, of course, that the elements of pre-Christian religion are hopelessly mixed into popular Christianity.
Reconstruction of original Slavic myths is thus a true detective work, requiring a considerable knowledge of various scientific disciplines such as semiotics, linguistics, philology, comparative mythology and ethnology. Folklore accounts must be analysed on level of structure, not merely as songs or stories, but as groups of signs and symbols which contain some internal structural logic. Each of these signs is composed of some key words, which are more than simply names of characters, places or artifacts. One important aspect of symbols is that they are almost impossible to change; while their names may be altered, their structure may not. Changing or losing of key words would result in a change of symbol, which would then invalidate the internal structural logic of a text and render the entire tale meaningless. It would then soon be forgotten, because the pattern, or logic, through which it was transmitted over generations would be lost.
For example: as stated already, the Slavic god of thunder, Perun, was mostly equated with St Elijah the Thunderer in Christian folklore. But he was also sometimes equated with St Michael, and sometimes even with the Christian God, whilst in some of Russian or Belarusian folk stories, he was downgraded to various fairy characters such as Tsar Ogin (Tsar Flame) or Grom (Thunder). Notwithstanding changes in the name itself, there are always some key words present which were used to describe Perun as a symbol in ancient mythical texts, and have survived through folklore. Perun is always gore (up, above, high, on the top of the mountain or in heaven; Perun is a heavenly god, and he is also the 'highest' deity of old Slavic pantheon), he is suh (dry, as opposite of wet; he is god of thunder and lightning, which causes fire), he treska/razbija/goni/ubija (strikes/hits/pursues/kills; he is a god of thunder and storms, destructive and furious) with strela/kamen/molnija (arrow/stone/lightning; Perun's weapons, are of course, his bolts of lightning. He fires them as arrows which are so powerful they explode and blow up stones when they hit). These key words are always preserved in folklore traces, even if the true name of Perun has been long ago forgotten. Consequently, the structure of this symbol allowed the identification of Perun with similar characters either from Christian religion or from later folklore, which share these similarities in structure of their own symbols.
Following similar methodology, and drawing parallels with structure of other, related Indo-European mythologies (particularly Baltic mythology), and occasionally using some hints found in historical records of Slavic paganism, some of the ancient myths could be reconstructed. Significant progress in the study of Slavic mythology was made during last 30 years, mostly through the work of the Russian philologists Vladimir Toporov and Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov, as well as that of the Croatian scientists Radoslav Katičić and Vitomir Belaj. Also very valuable are the studies of Russian scholar Boris Uspensky and of Serbian philologist and ethnologist Veselin Čajkanović.
However, uncritical interpretation of folklore or unskilled reconstruction of myths can lead to disastrous effects, as we shall see.
Inauthentic sources
When dealing with Slavic mythology, one cannot be too careful or too critical about the validity and authenticity of sources. Scholarly interest in beliefs of ancient Slavs has been continually waxing since the times of Renaissance, and with it the overall number of confusions, errors, misinterpretations, and unsupported reconstructions (not to mention inventions) has also increased.
No valid scientific methodology by which folklore accounts could be interpreted was known before the mid-20th century, and with sparse historical and archeological sources, the doors were thus opened to wild and unwarranted speculation. One of the best examples of overall confusion and complete misinterpretation is a fake deity of love, Lada or Lado, constructed from meaningless exclamations in Slavic wedding songs. Gods such as Koleda and Kupala were constructed from misinterpreted names of popular Slavic folk festivals; Koledo was the Slavic name for Christmas processions of carol singers, whilst the source of the name Kupala is unknown. Christian sources claim that it comes from Ivan Kupala (literally: John the Baptist) however this claim is as baseless as the claim of those who choose to interpret it as a pagan holiday. This festival day is celebrated at the summer solstice in many Slavic, and also western European countries, such as France and Italy. These customs indeed do have more than a few elements of pre-Christian beliefs, but simply inventing gods based on names of customs is not considered a valid method for reconstruction of lost beliefs.
Misinterpretation of Thiethmar's historic description of Wendish paganism led to confusion between a god, Svarožič, and a city in which his temple stood, Radegast. Since the name Radegast can be easily etymologised as meaning "Dear guest", this led to the construction of Radegast as the supposed Slavic god of hospitality. Likewise, to pair up with a deity with the sinister sounding name of Chernobog (Black god) mentioned by Helmod, the White God, or Belobog, was invented. That name is not found in any reliable historic or ethnographic record; rather, it was simply assumed that, since there already was a Black God, there simply had to be a White God as well. Again, this is clearly not a scientific approach to the study of Slavic mythology, but pages and pages have been written about the supposed Belobog-Chernobog dualism so far, and many books and scholarly references even today take for granted that such gods were truly worshipped by ancient Slavs.
Even more questionable than confusions or misinterpretations are deliberate forgeries. In the nineteenth and twentieth century, the general population became increasingly interested in Slavic mythology, fuelled by various romantic, nationalistic, and, in modern times, neopagan movements. Forging evidence of ancient mythology, for a time, became almost a sort of hobby among various social groups, often with the aim to promote their own topical agendas. For instance, statues of ancient Slavic gods were "discovered", inscribed with Germanic runes, or folk songs and stories were "recorded" in which half of the Slavic pantheon is described as picking flowers or merrily dancing around a bonfire.
The 19th century Veda Slovena is a heavy mystification of Bulgarian folk songs, with many alleged references to Slavic mythology, which most scholars consider a forgery. A more recent example is a controversial Book of Veles, which claims to be an authentic written record of old Slavic religion from the 9th or 10th century CE, written in the Cyrillic alphabet, whereas it cannot be proven that the Slavs had any sort of writing system prior to Christianisation, let alone that they used Cyrillic alphabet (named, of course, after St Cyril, who coined the first known writing system for Slavs when he was sent together with his brother Methodius to baptise them in 9th century). Some of the Slavic neopagans use the Book of Veles as their sacred text, and consequently, insist that the document is authentic. However, the original book, supposedly written on birch barks, was lost (if indeed it ever existed), and thus its authenticity cannot be established at present.
Calendar and festivals
Slavic myths were cyclical, repeating every year over a series of festivities that followed changes of nature and seasons. Thus, to understand their mythology, it is important to understand their concept of calendar. On the basis of archeological and folklore remains, it is possible to reconstruct some elements of pre-Christian calendar, particularly major feastivals.
The year was apparently lunar, and began in early March, similar to other Indo-European cultures whose old calendar systems are better known to us. The names for the last night of old year and the first day of new year are reconstructed as Velja Noc(*Velja Notj)/Velik Dan(Velikŭ dĭnĭ) (Great Night/Great Day). After Christianization, these names were probably passed onto Easter. In Slavic countries belonging to Orthodox Churches, Easter is known as Velik Dan/Great Day, whilst amongst Catholic Slavs, it is known as Velika Noc/Great Night. The names blend nicely with the translation of the Greek Megale Evthomada, Great Week, the Christian term for the week in which Easter falls. In pagan times, however, this was a holiday probably quite like Halloween. Certain people (shamans ) donned grotesque masks and coats of sheep wool, roaming around the villages, as during the Great Night, it was believed, spirits of dead ancestors travelled across the land, entering villages and houses to celebrate the new year with their living relatives. Consequently, the deity of the last day of the year was probably Veles, god of Underworld.
There was a large spring festival dedicated to Jarilo, god of vegetation and fertility. Processions of young men or girls used to go round villages on this day, carrying green branches or flowers as symbols of new life. They would travel from home to home, reciting certain songs and bless each household with traditional fertility rites. The leader of procession, usually riding on horse, would be identified with Jarilo. The custom of creation of pisanki or decorated eggs, also symbols of new life, was another tradition associated with this feast, which was later passed on Christian Easter.
The summer solstice festival is known today variously as Pust, Ivanje, Kupala or Kries. It was celebrated pretty much as a huge wedding, and, according to some indications from historical sources, in pagan times likely followed by a general orgy. There was a lot of eating and drinking on the night before, large bonfires (in Slavic — Kres) were lit, and youngsters were coupling and dancing in circles, or jumped across fires. Young girls made wreaths from flowers and fern (which apparently was a sacred plant for this celebration), tossed them into rivers, and on the basis of how and where they floated, foretold each other how they would get married. Ritual bathing on this night was also very important; hence the name of Kupala (from kupati = to bathe), which probably fit nicely with folk translation of the future patron saint the Church installed for this festival, John the Baptist (Ivan Kupala Day). Overall, the whole festivity probably celebrated a divine wedding of a fertility god, associated with growth of plants for harvesting.
In the middle of summer, there was a festival associated with thunder-god Perun, in post-Christian times transformed into a very important festival of Saint Elijah. It was considered the holiest time of the year, and there are some indications from historic sources that it involved human sacrifices. The harvest probably began afterwards.
It is unclear when exactly the end of harvest was celebrated, but historic records mention interesting tradition associated with it that was celebrated at Svantevit temple on the island of Ruyana (present-day Rugen), a survived through later folklore. People would gather in front of the temple, where priests would place a huge wheat cake, almost the size of a human. The high priest would stand behind the cake and ask the masses if they saw him. Whatever their answer was, the priest would then plead that the next year, people could not see him behind the ritual cake, i.e. that the next year's harvest would be even more bountiful.
There probably also was an important festival around winter solstice, which later became associated with Christmas. Consequently, in many Slavic countries, Christmas is called Bozhich, which simply means little god. While this name fits very nicely with the Christian idea of Christmas, the name is likely of pagan origin; it indicated the birth of a young and new god of the sun to the old and weakened solar deity during the longest night of the year. The old sun god was identified as Svarog, and his son, the young and new sun, as Dažbog . An alternative (or perhaps the original) name for this festival was Korochun.
A fairly typical cosmological concept among speakers of Indo-European languages, that of the World Tree, is also present in Slavic mythology. It is either an oak tree, or some sort of pine tree. The mythological symbol of the World Tree was a very strong one, and survived throughout the Slavic folklore for many centuries after Christianisation. Three levels of the universe were located on the tree. Its crown represented the sky, the realm of heavenly deities and celestial bodies, whilst the trunk was the realm of mortals. They were sometimes combined together in opposition to the roots of the tree, which represented the underworld, the realm of the dead. Contrary to the popular ideas, it seems the world of the dead in Slavic mythology was actually quite a lovely place, a green and wet world of grassy plains and eternal spring. In folklore, this land is sometimes referred to as Virey or Iriy.
The pattern of three realms situated vertically on the axis mundi of the World Tree parallels the horizontal, geographical organisation of the world. The world of gods and mortals was situated in the centre of the earth (considered to be flat, of course), encircled by a sea, across which lay the land of the dead, where birds would fly to every winter and return from in spring. In many folklore accounts, the concepts of going across the sea versus coming from across the sea are equated with dying versus returning to life. This echoes an ancient mythological concept that the afterlife is reached by crossing over a body of water. Additionally, on the horizontal axis, the world was also split; in this case by four cardinal points, representing the four wind directions (north, east, south, west). These two divisions of the world, into three realms on the vertical axis and into four points on the horizontal, were quite important in mythology; they can be interpreted in statues of Slavic gods, particularly those of the three-headed Triglav and the four-headed Svantevit.
As noted in the description of historical sources, a very wide range of deities was worshipped by Slavs, on a huge geographical area from the shores of the Baltic to the shores of the Black Sea , in a time span of over 600 years. Historic sources also show that each Slavic tribe worshipped its own gods, and thus probably had its own pantheon. Overall, ancient Slavic religion seems to be fairly local and cultic in nature, with gods and beliefs varying from tribe to tribe. However, just as in the case of the various Slavic languages — it can be shown that they originate from a single, Proto-Slavic language — it is also possible to establish some sort of Proto-Slavic Olympus and, through careful study of folklore, reconstruct some elements of this original pantheon, from which the various gods of the various Slavic tribes originated.
Supreme god
There are various modern theories about a supreme Slavic deity being Rod or Svarog, and historic sources show that deities such as Svarožič, Svantevit or Triglav were worshipped as supreme by certain tribes. But overall by far the best candidate for the position of supreme deity is Perun. His name is the most common in all historic records of Slavic religion; in fact, he is the first Slavic god mentioned in written history (Procopius in his short note mentions that the god of thunder and lightning is the only god of Slavs, lord of all). The Primary Chronicle identifies him as chief god of Kievan Rus prior to Christianisation. A short note in Helmold's Chronica Slavorum states that West Slavs believe in a single deity in heaven who rules over all the other deities on earth; the name of this deity is not mentioned, but nevertheless it seems quite possible this was a reference to Perun. And even though we do not find the name of Perun in any of the extensive records of West Slavic religion, he was known by all branches of Slavs, as shown by a vast number of toponyms that still bear his name in all Slavic countries today. Finally, by analysing the folklore texts, one will notice that Perun is the only Slavic deity who was equated with the Christian God. These are very strong indications that Perun was indeed the supreme god of the original Proto-Slavic pantheon.
Perun, however, had a match. As Roman Jakobson pointed out, whenever Perun is mentioned in historic texts, he is always "accompanied" by another god, Veles. This relationship can be observed in toponyms as well. Wherever we find a hill or a mountain peak whose name can be associated with Perun, below it, in the lowlands, usually near a river, there will be a place with a name reminiscent of Veles. Consequently, as Perun was sometimes identified with the Сhristian God in folklore accounts, Veles was identified with the Devil.
Perun and Veles
Ivanov and Toporov reconstructed the ancient myth involving the two major gods of the Proto-Slavic pantheon, Perun and Veles. The two of them stand in opposition in almost every way. Perun is a heavenly god of thunder and lightning, fiery and dry, who rules the living world from his citadel high above, located on the top of the highest branch of the World Tree. Veles is a chthonic god associated with waters, earthly and wet, lord of the underworld, who rules the realm of the dead from down in the roots of the World Tree. Perun is a giver of rain to farmers, god of war and weapons, invoked by fighters. Veles is a god of cattle, protector of shepherds, associated with magic and commerce.
A cosmic battle fought between two of them echoes the ancient Indo-European myth of a fight between a storm god and a dragon. Attacking with his lightning bolts from sky, Perun pursues his serpentine enemy Veles who slithers down over earth. Veles taunts Perun and flees, transforming himself into various animals, hiding behind trees, houses, or people. In the end, he is killed by Perun, or he flees into the water, into the underworld. This is basically the same thing; by killing Veles, Perun does not actually destroy him, but simply returns him to his place in the world of the dead. Thus the order of the world, disrupted by Veles's mischief, is established once again by Perun. The idea that storms and thunder are actually a divine battle between the supreme god and his arch-enemy was extremely important to Slavs, and continued to thrive long after Perun and Veles were replaced by the Сhristian God and Devil. A lightning bolt striking down a tree or burning down a peasant's house was always explained through the belief of a raging heavenly deity bashing down on his earthly, underworldly, enemy.
The enmity of the two gods was explained by Veles' theft of Perun's cattle, or by Perun's theft of Veles' cattle (since Veles was the god of cattle, the matter of ownership here is not clear). The motif of stealing divine cattle is also a common one in Indo-European mythology; the cattle in fact may be understood simply as a metaphor for heavenly water or rain. Thus, Veles steals rain water from Perun, or Perun steals water for rain from Veles (again, since Veles is associated with waters, and Perun with sky and clouds, it is unclear to whom rain should belong). An additional reason for this enmity may be wife-theft. From folklore accounts it seems that the Sun was sometimes considered to be Perun's wife (an odd idea, as all Slavic sun-gods, like Hors and Dažbog, are male). However, since the Sun, in the mythic view of the world, dies every evening, as it descends beyond the horizon and into the underworld where it spends the night, this was understood by Slavs as Veles' theft of Perun's wife (but again, the rebirth of the Sun in the morning could also be understood as Perun's theft of Veles' wife).
Jarilo and Morana
Katicic and Belaj continued down the path laid by Ivanov and Toporov and reconstructed the myth revolving around the fertility and vegetation god, Jarilo, and his sister and wife, Morana, goddess of nature and death. Jarilo is associated with the Moon and Morana is considered a daughter of the Sun. Both of them are children of Perun, born on the night of the new year (Great Night). However, on the same night, Jarilo is snatched from the cradle and taken to the underworld, where Veles raises him as his own. At the Spring festival of Jare/Jurjevo, Jarilo returns from the world of the dead (from across the sea), bringing spring from the ever-green underworld into the realm of the living. He meets his sister Morana and courts her. At the beginning of summer, the festival later known as Ivanje/Ivan, Kupala celebrated their divine wedding. The sacred union between brother and sister, children of the supreme god, brings fertility and abundance to earth, ensuring a bountiful harvest. Also, since Jarilo is a (step)son of Veles, and his wife daughter of Perun, their marriage brings peace between two great gods; in other words, it ensures there will be no storms which could damage the harvest.
After the harvest, however, Jarilo is unfaitfhul to his wife, and she vengefully slays him (returns him into the underworld), renewing the enmity between Perun and Veles. Without her husband, god of fertility and vegetation, Morana — and all of nature with her — withers and freezes in the upcoming winter; she turns into a terrible, old, and dangerous goddess of darkness and frost, and eventually dies by the end of year. The whole myth would repeat itself anew each following year, and retelling of its key parts was accompanied by major yearly festivals of the Slavic calendar. The story also shows numerous parallels to similar myths of and Hittite mythology.
Svarog, Svarožič, Dažbog
The name of Svarog is found only in East Slavic manuscripts, where it is usually equated with the Greek smith god Hephaestus. However, the name is very ancient, indicating that Svarog was a deity of Proto-Slavic pantheon. The root svar means bright, clear, and the suffix -og denotes a place. Comparison with Vedic Svarga indicates that Svarog simply meant (daylight) sky. It is possible he was the original sky god of the pantheon, perhaps a Slavic version of Proto-Indo-European *Dyēus Ph2ter. Svarog can be also understood as meaning a shining, fiery place; a forge. This, and identification with Hephaestus from historic sources, indicates he was also a god of fire and blacksmithing. According to the interpretation by Ivanov and Toporov, Svarog had two sons: Svarožič, who represented fire on earth, and Dažbog, who represented fire in the sky and was associated with Sun. Svarog was believed to have forged the Sun and have given it to his son Dažbog to carry it across the sky.
In Russian manuscripts he is equated with Sun, and folklore remembers him as a benevolent deity of light and sky. Serbian folklore, however, presents a far darker picture of him; he is remembered as Dabog, a frightful and lame deity guarding the doors of the underworld, associated with mining and precious metals. Veselin Čajkanović pointed out that these two aspects fit quite nicely into a symbolism of Slavic solar deity; a benevolent side represents the Dažbog during day, when he carries the Sun across the sky. The malevolent and ugly Dabog carries the Sun through the underworld at night. This pattern can also be applied to Sun's yearly cycle; a benevolent aspect is associated with young, summer Sun, and a malevolent one with old, winter Sun.
Svarožič was worshipped as a fire spirit by Russian peasants well after Christianisation. He was also known amongst Western Slavs, but there he was worshipped as a supreme deity in the holy city of Radegast . Svarožič is a simply diminutive of Svarog's name, and thus it may simply be another aspect (a surname, so to speak) of Dažbog. There is also a point of view that Svarog was the ancestor of all other Slavic gods, and thus Svarožič could simply be an epithet of any other deity, so that Dažbog, Perun, Veles, and so on, were possibly all Svarožičs.
Svantevit and Triglav
Svantevit
It is somewhat ironic that for now we cannot clearly determine the position of these two gods in Proto-Slavic pantheon, yet we have the most extensive historic accounts written about them. That they were important to all pagan Slavs is indicated by a significant number of toponyms whose names can be associated with them and by discoveries of multi-headed statues in various Slavic lands. Both of these gods were considered supreme in various locations; they were associated with divination and symbolized by the horse. A possibly significant difference is that Svantevit had a white horse whilst Triglav a black one, and Svantevit was represented with four heads whilst Triglav (whose name simply means Three-headed) with three. Svantevit was also associated with victory in war, harvest, and commerce.
Various hypotheses about them were proposed: that they are in fact one and the same deity, being somewhat similar; that they are not gods at all but compounds of three or four gods, a kind of mini-pantheons. Slavic neopagans tend to think of Triglav in particular as a concept of Trinity. Svantevit has also been proclaimed as a late West Slavic alternation of Perun or Jarilo, or compared with Svarožič and deemed a solar deity. None of these hypotheses is quite satisfactory, and mostly they are just wild speculation, another attempt to reconstruct Slavic mythology as it should be, rather than discovering what it was really like. Further research is necessary before more can be said of these deities.
It is claimed that Slovenian highest mountain Triglav is named after god Triglav.
Anothers claim that Triglav is a concept that consists of the three forms of existence: Yav, Nav, and Prav. Yav is being the world of life, Nav - the world of death, and Prav - the world that balance the other two. Compare to Russian yavlennie which means appearance or yavnyi - obvious; navernoe - perhaps; and pravo - law, right.
Zorica and DanicaThese names mean simply Dawn and Daystar, but in folklore accounts of all Slavic nations, they are often described as persons, or associated with persons, in pretty much the same way as Sun and Moon. Danica is often called Sun's younger sister or daughter, and was probably associated with Morana. Consequently, Zorica was either Sun's mother or older sister. It is quite possible this was a Slavic relic of the Proto-Indo-European dawn godd
Further developments
Ivanov and Toporov also schematically periodised various stages of development of Slavic mythology, attempting to show how it evolved from the original pantheon:
The first subsequent development occurred after the Proto-Slavs had split into East, West, and South Slavs. Each branch of the Slavic family devised various feminine deities of household (eg Mokosh), and deities associated with crafts, agriculture, and fertility (eg Rod and Chur). Deities such as Hors and Simargl are sometimes interpreted as the East Slavic borrowings from their Iranian neighbours.
At the level of abstract personification of divine functions, we have such concepts as Pravda/Krivda (Right/Wrong), Dobra Kob/Zla Kob (Good Fortune/Evil Fortune). These concepts, found in many Slavic fairy tales, are presumed to have originated at a time when old myths were already being downgraded to the level of legends and stories. Loius Leger pointed out that various Slavic words describing success, destiny, or fortune are all connected with the ancient Slavic word for God — "bog". Although used to denote the God of Christianity, the word is of pagan origin and quite ancient. It originates from the Proto-Indo-European root *bhag (meaning fortune), being cognate to Avestic baga and Sanskrit bhagah (epithets of deities).
The next level of development is a mythologisation of historical traditions. Beginning in pagan times, it continued well after the advent of Сhristianity. It is characterised by tales and songs of legendary heroes, ranging from purely legendary founders of certain tribes, such as the stories about Lech, Czech, and Rus, to quite historical persons such as the 15th century Croatian-Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus or the Serbian Prince Marko, who were both immortalised in folk legend or poetry. Russian bylinas about bogatyrs, Polish legends of Krak the Dragonslayer, Czech legends about Libuše, and the foundation of Prague all fall into this category. Various elements of these tales will still reveal elements of old myths (such as a hero slaying a dragon, a faint echo of an ancient concept of a cosmic battle between Perun the Thunderer and the serpentine Veles).
On an even lower level, certain mythical archetypes evolved into fairy-tale characters. These include Baba Yaga, Koschei the Immortal, Nightingale the Robber, Vodyanoy, Zmey Gorynych, and so on. At this point of development, one can hardly speak of mythology anymore. Rather, these are legends and stories which contain some fragments of old myths, but their structure and meaning are not so clear.
The lowest level of development of Slavic mythology includes various groups of home or nature spirits and magical creatures, which vary greatly amongst different Slavic nations. Mythic structure on this level is practically incomprehensible, but some of the beliefs nevertheless have a great antiquity. As early as the 5th century, Procopius mentioned that Slavs worshipped river and nature spirits, and traces of such beliefs can still be recognised in the tales about vilas, vampires, witches, and werewolves.
Slavic paganism today
For the last few decades, Slavic paganism has gained limited popularity among the Russian public, with many web sites and organizations dedicated to the study of Slavic mythology and some who openly call for "returning to the roots."
Most of those activities take place in Russia and Belarus , but they also take place in other Slavic countries like Slovenia , Slovakia , Bulgaria , Poland , Croatia , Macedonia , Serbia and Ukraine .
Latvian mythology
Lithuanian mythology
Finnish mythology
Nordic mythology
Polish mythology
Proto-Indo-European religion
Russian traditions and superstitions
Slavic fairies
Slavic peoples
Wendish mythology
List of films based on Slavic mythology
Book of Veles
Kurent
Torbalan
Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993)
Bonnerjea, B. A Dictionary of Superstitions and Mythology. London 1927
Chrypinski, Anna, editor. Polish Customs. Friends of Polish Art: Detroit, MI, 1977.
Contoski, Josepha K., editor. Treasured Polish Songs with English Translations. Polanie Publishing Co.: Minneapolis, MN, 1953.
Estes, Clarissa Pinkola, Ph.D. Women Who Run With the Wolves. Ballantine Books: New York, 1992.
Gimbutas, Marija. The Slavs. Preager Publishers: New York, 1971.
Ingemann, B. S. Grundtræk til En Nord-Slavisk og Vendisk Gudelære. Copenhagen 1824.
Knab, Sophie Hodorowicz. Polish Customs, Traditions, & Folklore. Hippocrene Books: New York, 1993.
Knab, Sophie Hodorowicz. Polish Herbs, Flowers, and Folk Medicine. Hippocrene Books: New York, 1995.
Krasicki, Ignacy (tr by Gerard Kapolka) Polish Fables: Bilingual. 1997
Leland, Charles Godfrey. Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling. New York: University Books, 1962
Zajdler, Zoe. Polish Fairy Tales. Chicago, Ill: Follett Publishing, 1959
Sekalski, Anstruther J. Old Polish Legends. 1997
Singing Back The Sun: A Dictionary of Old Polish Customs and Beliefs, Okana, 1999
Szyjewski, Andrzej: Slavic Religion, WAM, Kraków, 2003
Boris Rybakov. Ancient Slavic Paganism. Moscow, 1981.
Franjo Ledić. Mitologija Slavena — knjiga I, Zagreb, 1970. god.
V. Belaj. Hod kroz godinu, mitska pozadina hrvatskih narodnih vjerovanja i obicaja", Golden Marketing, Zagreb 1998.
Svarog, [39714]
Slavic and East European Folklore Association
Site about slavic mythology, beliefs and tradition (Serbian)
An information site about Slavic paganism including photos of rituals practised in modern times (Russian)
An encyclopedia about Slavic paganism (Russian)
Slavic spiritualism (Russian)
Excerpt from Boris Rybakov's book "Early Centuries of Russian History"
Wendish Mythology (German)
Svarog mythology
Pantheon des dieux slaves
Polish Folk Magic
The Polish Pagan Pantheon
Slavic and Eurasian Pantheons
Moist Mother Earth (Slavic Myth and Religion)
Gods and Goddesses of Love and Sexuality
Slavic Mythology in Pictures
Yahoo! Category Search for Slavic Pagan
Polish Paganism
East Slavic Paganism
Slavic and Bulgarian paganism
Bulgarian folk beliefs, gods, customs and calendar
Pan-Slavic Traditions and Beliefs
Real Magick Archives – Slavic
Slavic Antiquities
Neopaganism in Central Europe
Polish Supernatural Spirits
A Guide to Belarusian Mythology — by Leŭ Haroška (mostly in Byelorussian)
The Saga of Ihor's Folk, of Ihor, Son of Sviatoslav, Grandson of Oleh
[39716](Russian)


No, it isn't a Bugatti!
This highly interesting and beautifully styled Austin Seven Racer Special is built on an original Austin 7 chassis from 1930 and reminds one of Amilcars, ERAs, Bugattis and other well-known racers of the prewar era.
After a long period of active use in England at venues such as Silverstone, Donnington and Wiscombe Park it was sold in 1990 and shipped to the USA. Its longtime owner there, Dr. Greg Johnson of California, had it completely restored to its original condition with no expense spared. He then raced it successfully in vintage events at local tracks including Laguna Seca and Monterey.
Its crowning moment of glory so far was when it won first prize in its class at the prestigious Concours d'Elegance at Pebble Beach.
In 2004 a large and respected auction house in America sold it to an enthusiast in Germany who kept it as the racing jewel of his private collection.
In 2017/2018 it was lovingly refreshed by a custom workshop specializing in vintage vehicles.
The complete package comprises an extensive assortment of spares for the motor, gearbox and wheels as well as related special parts. The accompanying documentation covers its racing history in addition to motor sport press articles describing this particular car.
The October/November 1995 issue of Sports Car International and the April/May 2001 issue of British Car each reported on this fascinating classic racer. A detailed technical description together with photographs from 2012 is also available.
The car is currently on display for sale in my showrooms. Please contact me to arrange a private appointment to view this one of a kind example of British and American racing history.
Mini Cooper S FIA racer, LHD. 1971.
1958 Austin A35 Academy race car "Peanut"


text:
Tag: Salvation Run
A little late this week:
Action Comics #866, by Geoff Johns, Gary Frank & Jon Sibal (DC)
Booster Gold #10, by Geoff Johns, Jeff Katz, Dan Jurgens & Norm Rapmund (DC)
Salvation Run #7 of 7, by Matt Stuirges, Sean Chen, Walden Wong & Wayne Faucher (DC)
newuniversal: shockfront #2 of 6, by Warren Ellis, Steve Kuth & Andrew Hennessey (Marvel)
B.P.R.D.: War on Frogs #1, by John Arcudi, Herb Trimpe & Guy Davis (Dark Horse)
Invincible #50, by Robert Kirkman & Ryan Ottley (Image)
Geoff Johns' next major story in Action Comics is "Brainiac" – but which one? Honestly I gave up reading Superman in the early 90s before they had really figured out who the post-Crisis Brainiac was. But it seems like Johns' goal with his run on this book is to redefine some elements of the Superman mythos. So it looks like Brainiac is back to being an alien who captured the Kryptonian city of Kandor years ago. He appears to be a green alien who operates out of a skull-shaped metal ship. But he also appears to have tangled with Superman before, and operates through robot proxies.
My bet? That the alien in the ship isn't really Brainiac – he's probably been captured by the ship itself. Who has Superman fought before? Beats me. Maybe offshoots or other instances of the ship – if it's a machine who says there has to be only one?
The issue has a fun interlude in which the Daily Planet staff has a meeting. Some of it feels a little forced (okay, mostly I haven't really liked any portrayals of Steve Lombard since Julie Schwartz retired), but has some funny moments, especially the interplay between Lois and Clark afterwards. (I'm also really glad Lois is back to having black hair; I thought it was ridiculous when John Byrne turned her hair brown.) Superhero comics spend so much time on the action and so little on the characters these days, especially the ones who have secret identities.
As usual, Gary Frank's art is nifty, although also as usual the backgrounds feel rather sparse. I enjoyed his renditions of the Brainiac robots the most, he's taken the old Gil Kane designs to a new level.
Salvation Run ends – not really a surprise – with a whimper and not a bang. Several fourth-string super-villains bite the dust, Luthor gets his mad on, and the status quo is restored, except for one character who's left hanging at the end. It doesn't mesh very well with Final Crisis, but it also slipped until it shipped after the first issue of that series. Grant Morrison pretty much says that he didn't factor Countdown or its spin-offs into Final Crisis, which mostly makes DC editorial look like a bunch of chumps, although it's difficult to shed any tears over Countdown, which as I've said was pretty much a complete disaster of a series. It makes the end of Salvation Run seem even more superfluous.
I've been an admirer of Sean Chen's artwork in the past, but his work on this series was pretty mediocre: Not much detail, and I don't think his renditions of Luthor and the Joker are very true. I don't know if he was rushed, of if his inkers were just not good matches for him, but it was pretty disappointing. Especially since he left Nova to do this series. Sadly, with the art factored in, this series ended up being pretty much a waste of time.
This ClanDestine mini-series felt like a straightforward continuation of the old series, which is awkward since it's been over a decade since the first series came out, and it didn't last very long, so I imagine there weren't many people scrambling on board to read it. And I guess it didn't do very well in the sales department. Moreover, it brought back the old Alan Davis X-Men team Excalibur and otherwise rehashed a villain from the first series, and also the background of Adam Destine, complete with the requisite deus-ex-machina (since Adam is pretty much a walking deus-ex-machina).
All of which made this series something of a "shrug", albeit an extremely well-drawn "shrug". It ends with a teaser for a third series which I'd be much more interested in reading, but I bet the sales won't cause Marvel to rush out to publish it. Alas, I think the time for ClanDestine passed some time ago.
The Twelve is shaping up to be one of J. Michael Straczynski's best comics works, behind Midnight Nation. This is not strong praise on its own, since you may have noticed that I've been lukewarm-at-best towards all the other Straczynski comics I've read, but in this case I'm actually enjoying the book quite a bit. It helps that the art team of Weston and Leach have given the book a visual look unlike most other mainstream comics, with details and character designs few other artists at the big two can match.
The first six issues of the series have mostly been character spotlights, showing what makes each member of the Twelve tick, and how they react to being thrown from the end days of World War II to the 21st century. Not all of the characters are interesting – Mister E, for instance, is pretty much a nonentity – but some of them are quite good, and Straczynski has thrown in a few enjoyable twists, especially regarding Dynamic Man and – in this issue – Rockman. I was also satisfied with the explanation for my concern about Electro, which I expressed in my review of issue #1.
I think these first six issues have set the tone for the series and put all the pieces in place, and now I expect the second six will bring things together into a unified story, presumably as one or more of the characters either end up being a threat, or being not what they seem to be. Or maybe in some other way. Regardless, pulling everyone into a single story and not leaving them with twelve separate threads will be the difference between the success or the failure of this series, I think. Although admittedly Straczynski could surprise us all and do something unexpected yet still fascinating. His track record in comics writing doesn't suggest that that's likely, however.
Really, The Twelve is the latest series to follow the Watchmen approach to super-team storytelling: Take us through the backgrounds and circumstances of a group of individual characters, and then bring them together at the end. James Robinson's The Golden Age worked in a similar manner. Even after 20 years, it's still not a very common approach to superhero comics, so it still feels relatively fresh whenever it pops up. That's probably a big part of why I'm enjoying The Twelve.
Invincible really might be the best superhero comic being published – as it pretty much claims on the cover – even on the erratic schedule it's been on recently. It reaches #50 this month, marking another turning point in a series which has had plenty of them, as Invincible cuts ties with his government boss in a rather bloody manner.
Invincible is great for so many reason: The main character is a through-and-through hero, which is refreshing these days, even if he does have his flaws and foibles. He means well, and he usually does well, and people respect him for that. The supporting cast vary widely, and few of them are out-and-out villains, usually with personal motivations which make them sometimes do good, and sometimes behave suspiciously. Alliances shift, and characters change and develop. And that's the best thing: Even though it's an ongoing, open-ended story, there's a definite sense of change and progress unlike almost any other superhero book out there. You never know what's going to happen next, but when it does it's usually both exciting and it makes sense.
Artist Ryan Ottley keeps up with Kirkman's script wonderfully, with dramatic action sequences, different-looking characters, and a colorful world. In some ways his art reminds me of Michael Avon Oeming (of Powers), but I think Ottley balances the realistic and the cartoony much better.
50 issues under their belt, and Kirkman still has plenty of irons in the fire for this character. Here's hoping the next 50 are just as much fun.
Author Michael RawdonPosted on 16 June 2008 1 December 2009 Categories Comic BooksTags Clandestine, Invincible, Salvation Run, Superman, The TwelveLeave a comment on This Week's Haul
Comic books I bought the week of 12 March 2008.
Countdown to Final Crisis #7 of 52 (backwards), by Paul Dini, Adam Beechen, Keith Giffen, Tom Derenick & Wayne Faucher (DC)
Countdown to Mystery #6 of 8, by Matthew Sturges & Stephen Jorge Segova, and Steve Gerber, Justiniano & Walden Wong (DC)
Salvation Run #5 of 7, by Matthew Sturges, Joe Bennett & Belardo Brabo (DC)
Suicide Squad: Raise the Flag #7 of 8, by John Ostrander, Javier Pina & Robin Riggs (DC)
Annihilation Conquest #5 of 6, by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Tom Raney & Scott Hanna (Marvel)
Nova #11, by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Paul Pelletier & Rick Magyar (Marvel)
Atomic Robo #6 of 6, by Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener & Nic Klein (Red 5)
Booster Gold has been pretty well received by the comics blogosphere. Although it's a continuity-obsessed time travel yarn, it works because of its solid characterization – you know who all the characters are and they all feel distinct – and Dan Jurgens' always-clean artwork. That said, being a continuity-obsessed time travel yarn does rather drag it down. Currently the story is wrapped up in the events of Infinite Crisis from a couple years ago, specifically the Maxwell Lord/OMAC stuff which I neither know much about, nor care. It's the sort of book I enjoy as light reading: It doesn't insult my intelligence, it's basically fun, and it feels like it's going somewhere. In a sense it's like Geoff Johns bucking to become the new Mark Gruenwald.
This may seem like faint praise, but given the legions of crappy books out there, you could do a whole lot worse.
By the way, if you enjoy Booster Gold, I highly recommend you week out Justice League America #72-75, from Jurgens' run on JLA in the "post-bwah-hah-hah" era. It's one of the best alternate timeline stories in JLA history.
Speaking of doing worse, Salvation Run has turned over its creative team since the first issue: Bill Willingham left after #2, turning the book over to his Jack of Fables co-writer Matthew Sturges (note: I stopped buying Jack of Fables after a year), and now Sean Chen – the reason I bought the book in the first place – has been replaced by Joe Bennett. Remarkably, the story is still fairly cohesive. Pedestrian, but cohesive. Of all the mini-series which have come out during Countdown to Final Crisis, this one's probably the least essential.
Speaking of Sean Chen and creative turnover, Chen was the original artist on Nova, which was awesome, but the replacements since he left have been pretty good, too. Now Paul Pelletier takes over as penciller with #11. I was a bit worried about this, since I wasn't impressed with his work on Fantastic Four, finding it rather under-rendered, and with the impression that he took some shortcuts in drawing the faces and expressions (his Invisible Woman looked downright weird, for instance).
But his art here is better than I'd feared; a little soft in the backgrounds maybe, but the figures are quite good. I suspect inker Rick Magyar has something to do with that, as he tends to bring a good feeling of texture and shading to everyone he inks, but it looks like Pelletier will be okay. Maybe he was just mailing it in on FF.
Meanwhile, the current story is coming to a head, and I suspect that next issue may be the big climax. Stay tuned!
And as for something that has nothing to do with any of that, Atomic Robo wraps up his first mini-series this month (a second one is being advertised for later this year). Having now read the whole thing, I can definitely say that this falls into the category of "pulp-oriented action-adventure, Hellboy sub-category", which is to say, if you like Hellboy and B.P.R.D. (or, for that matter, The Perhapanauts), then you'll like this, as it has a very similar tone and style. Even though Robo is science-based, he's the same sort of powerful, unique smartass that Hellboy is. I imagine the creators might be a bit tired of being compared to Hellboy, but the similarity is so strong that it's unavoidable.
This issue does tie the series back to its first issue, so it wasn't quite a series of vignettes, but it's not a fully cohesive whole. And it's clearly a broad instruction to the character, who's been around for 80 years and thus has a lot of history. Although my feeling is that they could have led with a stronger, more hard-hitting story as the opener, I can live with this.
I do like Scott Wegener's artwork, though. It reminds me of Mike Mignola, but also of Michael Avon Oeming, yet it seems cleaner and more dynamic and either. If the human characters' faces were a little more nuanced, then I could really groove on it. (Wegener seems to go for the "a few broad strokes" approach to faces.)
Anyway, I'll have higher expectations for the sequel, that it will be more than just a pulpish adventure yarn, since as I've said recently I'm getting kind of tired of pulpish adventure yarns. Showing how Robo has changed the world – and how the world has changed Robo – ought to be one of the central facets of a series like this. I hope the future holds some character development.
Author Michael RawdonPosted on 15 March 2008 1 December 2009 Categories Comic BooksTags Atomic Robo, Booster Gold, Nova, Salvation RunLeave a comment on This Week's Haul
Countdown to Infinite Crisis #20 of 52 (backwards), by Paul Dini, Adam Beechen, Keith Giffen, Howard Porter & Art Thibert (DC)
Fables #68, by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham & Steve Leialoha (DC/Vertigo)
Salvation Run #2 of 7, by Bill Willingham, Sean Chen & Walden Wong (DC)
Fantastic Four #552, by Dwayne McDuffie, Paul Pelletier & Rick Magyar (Marvel)
Nova #9, by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Wellington Alves, Wellington Diaz & Nelson Pereira (Marvel)
B.P.R.D.: Killing Ground #5 of 5, by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi & Guy Davis (Dark Horse)
The Boys #13, by Garth Ennis, Darick Robertson & Peter Snejbjerg (Dynamite)
The weird thing about Salvation Run #2 is that it features almost none of the same characters who headlined issue #1, which is to say that the Flash's rogues gallery is shoved to the side in favor of, first, a group of truly marginal villains trying to survive in the alien world to which they've been exiled, and second, the Joker and another heavyweight villain who arrives at the end of the issue.
Willingham goes all-out with the brutality here, with minor characters being gruesomely mauled, and showing that the Joker – whom you'd think wouldn't be in a great position to survive on an alien jungle world inasmuch as he has no super-powers and mainly relies on lurking in the shadows – can adapt with the best of them even among this group of psychopaths. Unfortunately, as much as I like Sean Chen's artwork, I don't think he draw a great Joker, and this is especially brought home by Dan Jurgens' rendition in Booster Gold this same week.
We also get to see what a bunch of bastards the current Suicide Squad are, which seems like a rather simplistic reading of John Ostrander's nuanced portrayal in Suicide Squad, which also came out this week.
In other words, it seems like Willingham is phoning in the script for this one, as it relies mainly on being shocking and bloody and not much else. So – as the saying goes – if you like this sort of thing, then this is the sort of thing you'll like. Personally, I'm disappointed.
When you're Grant Morrison you can get away with outlandish things in the mainstream DC Universe, such as taking the brain of General Wade Eiling – one of the main supporting characters in the 80s series Captain Atom – and planting it in the body of the indestructible construct The Shaggy Man.
But when you're John Ostrander, you can go Morrison one better and integrate this idea into your own series, which is what we see in Suicide Squad #4, as Amanda Waller assembles a new Squad and recruits Eiling into it, despite the risks he presents. He also reestablishes the relationship of two of the main characters from the original series, even though one of them is the son of the original one.
Ostrander actually reminds me a lot of Bill Willingham as a writer, in that both of them take very calculated approaches to plotting their stories, and both can be cold and brutal in presenting the ramifications of their characters' actions. I think Ostrander at his best is a slightly better writer, though, because I think his skill at characterization is deeper: Even his villains have the redeeming or likeable or sympathetic points (unless Ostrander clearly doesn't want them to, a trait he reserves for only a few characters). And Suicide Squad is Ostrander near his best. Not only does it make me hope this mini-series spawns a new ongoing series after it, it makes me want to pick up the first series and re-read it.
The artwork by Javier Pina and Robin Riggs is also excellent, although Pina doesn't quite have the flair for facial expressions to make the art really shine. He handles the fantastic visuals and the action scene just fine, though, and you can't always have everything. Also, Riggs is a much better inker for Pina than the inkers he had on Manhunter, with a much smoother line which enhances Pina's elegant layouts.
This is a really good series, and I still have no idea what the last 4 issues will be about. But it's so good despite its unorthodox set-up that I expect it will be terrific whatever it is.
Nova #9 concludes Nova's adventure fighting zombies in the severed head of a Celestial beyond the edge of the universe – a premise made for Chris Sims. There's a lot to like here: Wellington Alves might not be quite as good an artist as his predecessor, Sean Chen, but he's not far off, and he seems to be influenced by Stuart Immonen's style, which is also a good thing. And Nova uses the tools at his disposal to deal with the zombie threat in a clever manner, and he heads off on his next adventure with some new allies behind him, and an old thread following him.
Some elements of the issue left me scratching my head, though: The zombie battle ended with a lack of closure regarding the central threat or the alien heroes he took over. It felt conceptually messy a threat with little reason for being, and Nova at its best (especially the first three issues) has been heavy on exploring reason or the lack thereof for things the hero encounters.
The issue also ends with a sort of crossroads for the series' direction: Nova is still infested by the Phalanx technovirus, as are some of his former allies. Knowhere seems like a handy location for Nova to try to recreate the Nova Corps (which were destroyed – other than our hero – in the first Annihilation series). 9 issues in, I think it's time for the series to establish its direction, or risk being the directionless muddle that Ms. Marvel became.
To be fair, the Annihilation Conquest issues (#4-7) were basically a distraction from the overall series, so I'll be patient and see if Abnett and Lanning get the series back on solid ground. But I usually expect that after a year a series will be delivering on its promise. Nova started with plenty of promise, and by that measure it has 3 issues to start delivering.
I'm running out of interest in the B.P.R.D. series of mini-series. This latest series was a set-up to reveal something about one of the main characters, but all of the interesting stuff happened in the last issues. The first four issues could easily have been compressed into a single issue. And then this last issue has a dangling ending – which won't be picked up in the next mini-series, since that one takes place in the 1940s. So we'll have to wait 'til the middle of 2008 for more progress on the main story.
B.P.R.D. is a perfect example of "uncompressed" storytelling: It lingers over details, presumably to build up suspense (it is a horror title, after all), but mostly it just feels slow. And since it's a series of mini-series, it's rare that anything important to the central story gets resolved. And honestly the individual stories are not very memorable; they've started to all feel rather the same.
So why have I been buying it for so long? Well, I knew after the first couple of series that it was going to be a long-haul story, but without having any idea how long the haul would be, I figured I'd keep reading and see where it was going. But there's no sign that it'll come to a conclusion any time soon, and I'm running out of interest.
Hellboy started off with a big bang, and as a series of individual stories each of which was inventive and weighty-feeling on its own. But Mike Mignola's horror franchise has ended up as a very even-tempered series of undistinguished series which feel increasingly undistinguished. I don't know whether publishing so many issues so regularly has diluted Mignola's energy and creativity, or if he's just not as interested in series he's not drawing himself. Or maybe Hellboy and B.P.R.D. have just run their course.
But at this point I'm mainly buying the franchise on inertia. I've certainly done this many times before with other series, but once I realize that I'm doing it, that's usually a harbinger of the end of the line for me.
Author Michael RawdonPosted on 16 December 2007 1 December 2009 Categories Comic BooksTags B.P.R.D., Hellboy, Nova, Salvation Run, Suicide SquadLeave a comment on This Week's Haul
Comic books I bought the week of 14 November 2007.
Due to my vacation over Thanksgiving week, I'm running behind on these. This entry is for comic books I bought the week of 14 November 2007:
All-Star Superman #9, by Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely (DC)
Countdown to Final Crisis #24 of 52 (backwards), by Paul Dini, Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, Tom Derenick & Wayne Faucher (DC)
Fables #67, by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham & Steve Leialoha (DC)
Salvation Run #1 of 7, by Bill Willingham, Sean Chen & Waldon Wong (DC)
Welcome to Tranquility #12, by Gail Simone	& Neil Googe (DC/Wildstorm)
Nova #8, by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning Wellington Alves & Scott Hanna (Marvel)
Thor #4, by J. Michael Straczynski, Oliver Coipel & Mark Morales (Marvel)
World War Hulk #5 of 5, by Greg Pak, John Romita Jr. & Klaus Janson (Marvel)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier HC, by Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill (America's Best)
Atomic Robo #2 of 6, by Brian Clevinger & Scott Wegener (Red 5)
Salvation Run is yet another Countdown tie-in – sort of. These days it's hard to tell what's a Countdown tie-in (like this) and what's not (like Countdown to Adventure and Countdown to Mystery, whose lead stories both have nothing to do with Countdown). Score another one for DC editorial in the ongoing fiasco that is Countdown.
Anyway, Salvation Run is loosely based on a decade-old idea by George R. R. Martin, which – believe it or not – has nothing to do with my decision to pick it up. No, instead I was mainly interested in the artwork of Sean Chen (who's art is the reason I started picking up Nova), and I figured the sardonic writing of Bill Willingham (Fables) might work well with the book's premise, that being that the United States gets tired of all the super-villains stealing, killing, and generally disrupting society, so it decides to start shipping the repeat offenders out to an alien world, to fend for themselves. A world full of super-villains is sure to be a powderkeg – especially since most villains tend to be men – and the moral question of exiling villains to another world seems worth exploring. Anyway, there seems to be a lot of promise here.
The first issue is okay. Chen's artwork is dynamic but not as detailed as I think it's been in the past. The story mainly focuses on the Flash's rogues gallery surviving on the world for some weeks – it's a pretty hostile and bizarre place – before meeting up with a large number of second-string villains who have just arrived (plus the Joker). The issue ends with the hint that someone's been tricked in this whole setup, but leaves open the question of why.
So it seems worth following for a 7-issue run, but I hope they do something worthwhile with it. I suspect it would have worked better in Martin's original Elseworlds configuration.
Man, does Nova have some of the blandest covers in comics these days? I mean, the renderings by Adi Granov are pretty good, but the designs are bo-ring! (I assume these are designs created by editorial and not by Granov.) If they actually reflected the contents of the book, I think they could really help sales.
Anyway, in the wake of his ill-considered Annihilation Conquest storyline, Nova has ended up at the edge of the universe – literally. Unable to escape, he ends up being stranded on a giant space station, which seems nearly deserted except for a few extremely powerful – and somewhat crazed – super-beings, and a talking Russian dog, Cosmo. Cosmo gets the best line of the series so far: "You have seen end of universe and met space zombies, and talkink dog is what freaks you out? Bozshe moi."
So there's something nasty going on on this space station, the station itself has a surprising nature, besides being outside the edge of the universe, and Nova's powers are significantly diminished because the Worldmind that powers him is still spending most of its energy fighting off the Phalanx's techno-virus. Our hero looks to be in for a rough time – which means this book ought to be back on track now that Nova's not dealing with the conquest, which he wasn't really participating in meaningfully anyway.
Thor is now officially combining the world elements of J. Michael Straczynski's comic book writing: Not only is the story moving at a glacial pace, as Thor gradually tries to reconstruct Asgard, but it's got Straczynski's tedious tendency to try to highlight real-world problems through a brief encounter by his larger-than-life protagonist. In this case, Donald Blake goes to a war-torn African nation and ends up in the middle of a civil war. Ya-a-awn. This book went horribly wrong when it became a "visit a problem area somewhere in the world" travelogue, and I'm rapidly running out of confidence that Straczynski can salvage it. Honestly, there's just not much story here. Coipel's art is still pretty, though.
Well, I was a little off in my prediction of how World War Hulk would end, but it's still be a fun ride – a big smash-fest. There was a nifty little surprise regarding what exactly happened to send the Hulk back to Earth looking for revenge, and the Hulk comes to a certain closure at the end of the story. It basically ended the way it had to, but of course this being a superhero comic it's not really the end. We'll get back to the status quo sometime.
I do wish that this book had been used to show Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic how wrong they'd been in their treatment of the Hulk and that they were on the wrong end of the Civil War, but Marvel is inexplicably committed to casting two of their long-standing heroes in the roles of villains, so that was clearly too much to hope for. Oh well.
The Black Dossier is the third volume in Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series, and it's easily the worst one to date. The problem is that there's not much story in it, and what there is is both dull and not much fun.
Volume 1 was the best volume to date, because it seemed primarily inspired by the Justice League, assembling a group of 19th century heroes to tackle a threat. The characters and setting made it very different from a Justice League story, but it still had a solid narrative with a lot of tension and a concrete resolution. It also had a lot of little asides referring to other Victoriana, but they were just bonuses and not central to the story.
Volume 2 was enjoyable, but was a big step down from Volume 1. The core idea of the League dealing with H.G. Wells' Martian invasion was nifty, but it took a turn into the no-fun zone with its rather explicit sex and its brutal resolution. Plus, while the first volume had a text backup story featuring Alan Quatermain, Wells' time machine, and some H.P. Lovecraft creatures, this volume had a very self-indulgent and tedious travelogue of the League's world, filled with lots of references to extremely obscure people and places. Little bits of it were entertaining, but mostly it didn't really add anything.
The Black Dossier goes for the clever references in spades, with extended text sequences featuring characters like Orlando, Fanny Hill, and various other historical background for the League. And most of that stuff is very, very boring, not least because this is supposed to be a graphic novel, and nothing takes the edge off a graphic novel like throwing big blocks of text into it. Honestly, I didn't even read the bulk of the text sections for that very reason. Snooze. I agree with Johanna Carlson's observation that the book feels too much like homework much of the time, and that's no fun. It feels very self-indulgent.
The core story involved Allan Quatermain and Mina Murray – who have both become young again – capturing the Black Dossier from post-Big Brother Britain (the 1950s) so they can learn just how much their government knows about what they've been up to for the last decade or two. The Dossier contains the backstory of the League dating back for centuries, and it is reproduced within the main story and accounts for the text segments of the book. The main story has its moments mainly as our heroes are pursued by James Bond, Hugo Drummond and Emma Peel as they try to escape from Britain, but the end of the book is extremely disappointing, making the whole thing feel rather pointless.
I wonder whether this will be the last LoeG book. It's hard to imagine the series getting much worse from here, though another festival of clever references would probably do the trick. The series has fallen an awful long way from its promising beginnings, so I can't say it would be a great loss if this is the last installment. This was pretty mediocre stuff.
Anyway, if unlike me you really enjoy all the references – obscure or otherwise – Jess Nevins has posted his annotations for the book so that should keep you busy for a while. I think the joke is long past its sell-by date, personally.
Author Michael RawdonPosted on 1 December 2007 1 December 2009 Categories Comic BooksTags Hulk, James Bond, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Nova, Salvation Run, ThorLeave a comment on This Week's Haul

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


How often do we hear this?
Sometimes death etches a scar so terribly deep that no amount of rain can wash it away.
We come into this world alone and we leave it alone, but we are not alone while we are alive.
Please be kind to one another and to yourself.
If you like this post and would like to read more of my poems, please follow Brindology.
Great message! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you! I'm so glad you like my poem.


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Dear Incube, metaphysically wrinkle free . . . I appreciate your more botanical info and that you have corrected me twice ! I had no idea that Pine species could be rooted from cuttings. If so, I'm sure it's difficult and requires controled conditions that most of us may not be able to provide or have the pacience to do. If we could combine our tallents, perhaps we could root cuttings of Peach, Apple, Mango, Alvacado, and make a fortune without grafting !! I tried to root a Mango cultivar once and got all excited when it calloused but it refused to root.
Do you have any comments on rooting Italian Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens). I have a customer that bugs me to do liners.
Your ID (about you) is empty. Please offer info on signature block (userCP - upper left). What is/was your profession, where are you located ? Anything to create an identity would make communication more meaningfull !


The Office of Inclusion and Multicultural Engagement's peer mentor program, Great Expectations (formerly known as LEAP) is designed to help support incoming new students with their transition into Lewis & Clark College. GE seeks to support students from underrepresented communities and supports their college transition by matching them up with a peer mentor who provides guidance and support throughout the student's first year at Lewis & Clark.
Making the transition to Lewis & Clark College, regardless of academic ability, comes with many new challenges, growth, and changes that one may not have ever expected. It is important to remember that you are not alone in this transition! Our GE Mentors are continuing students who know too well some of the issues incoming new students face when transitioning to Lewis & Clark College. These mentors are eager to pass along some advice and knowledge as well as help you get connected to the Lewis & Clark community!
GE Mentors are trained to assist you in your transition to LC and will help get you connected to our campus community and resources! Mentors are exceptional student leaders who can be a resource for you regarding information about academics, study and time management skills, student organizations, campus life, and other co-curricular activities.
As a part of the GE Mentorship program, you can expect regular contact with your GE mentor every couple of weeks and access to programs, events, and off-campus socials only available to GE participants during your first year at LC!
GE kicks off with a fun two-day retreat known as the Great Expectations Retreat where you will have direct access to staff, faculty, students, alumni, and resources. You will meet other students in a small and supportive community, bond with your peer mentor, find answers to your questions about college, and get guidance in your first year as you navigate campus life.
Are you an incoming Lewis & Clark Student, Class of 2023?


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Three KNPB activists currently tried under treason charges at Sorong District Court
Published on Saturday, 26 September 2020 12:28
Three members of the organisation 'West Papua National Committee' (KNPB) named Simon Sasior, Marten Muk and Yakobus Assem, have been standing trial at the Sorong District Court since 15 September 2020. Police arrested the three political activists in relation to the killing of a Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) officer during a raid in the Maybrat Regency in late April 2020. Although the raid was conducted to track down homicide perpetrators, none of the three activists have been charged with murder. Instead, the public prosecutor has raised charges against defendants for alleged treason and criminal conspiracy as stipulated under Articles 106 and 110 of the Indonesian Criminal Code, for being associated with the KNPB. The KNPB is a political movement organisation which is conducting peaceful protests to advocate the right to political self-determination of the Papuan people through a referendum.
The trial will continue on 30 September 2020 with the public prosecutor's opinion on the defence plea. Lawyers of the Kaki Abu Legal Aid Institute (LBH Kaki Abu) filed a plea against the indictment during the previous court session on 23 September 2020 (see intro image, source: Suara Papua).
The defendants' family members respected the trial but urged the Sorong police not to obstruct the lawyers during the trial process. In early May 2020, police officers prevented three lawyers of LBH Kaki Abu from accessing a police detention facility, where they wanted to talk with the three defendants.