Belobog
Encyclopedia
Belobog, Belbog, Bialbog, Byelobog, Bielobog, Belun, Bylun, (all names meaning: White God) is a reconstructed Slavic deity
of light and Sun, the counterpart of dark and cursed Czernobog (Black God). It is uncertain whether such a deity was ever worshipped by polytheist Slavs, as there are no reliable historic records which mention this name. While in the past a great deal of scholars studying Slavic mythology took the dualism of Belobog and Czernobog for granted, modern research of the matter makes this theory very hard to maintain.
described in his work Chronica Slavorum, beliefs and customs of several West Slavic
tribes who were still polytheists at the time. Amongst other things, he stated that:
The Slavs, they say, have one peculiar custom: during feasts, they pass a goblet amongst them in circle, for purpose not to praise, but rather to curse in the names of gods, good and evil, for every good thing praising a good god, and for every bad thing cursing an evil god. This god of woe in their language is called Diabolous (*in Latin) or Zherneboh, meaning black god.
On the basis of this inscription, many modern mythographers assumed that, if the evil god was Czernobog, the Black God, then the good god should be Belobog or the White God. However, the name of Belobog is not mentioned by Helmold anyhere in his Chronica, nor is it ever mentioned in any of the historic sources that describe the gods of any Slavic tribe or nation. Additionally, the inscription quoted above is more likely Helmold's own interpretation than an accurate description of Slavic pre-monotheistic beliefs: Helmold, being German, did not know the language of Slavs, and being a Christian priest, did not have much, if any, contact with the polytheists themselves; while his information about Slavic mythology is valuable, one would be wise not to take them for granted.
, Belobozhnitsa in Ukraine
, and Byaloboze recorded in Poland
. It is very interesting that sometimes the toponyms are paired with those having the name Czernobog as in the case of hills Bileboh and Czorneboh
near Bautzen
in Sorbia, and of the Czech Bělbožice which is likewise paired with Černíkovice
. This was one of the arguments for the dualism theory.
and Macedonian language
, and shouting [all the way] to the white god from Bulgarian language
.
island, was symbolised by a white horse and Triglav
, a high god in the city of Szczecin
, was symbolised by a black one; yet none of them was considered to be an evil or dark deity by people worshipping them. Fourth and final, even if we assume - disregarding all points noted above - that there really was a Belobog standing in opposition to Czernobog, the question still remains whether these were gods themselves or simply alternate names of some other Slavic deities. Being that Helmold's inscription comes from a very late time, the 12th century, and that it concerns only several groups of polytheist West Slavs, it would not seem likely that these two gods (or more probable, just one god, Crnobog,) were deities of the original Proto-Slavic pantheon.
Regardless, many hypotheses and even more speculations were put forth about the supposed Belobog-Czernobog dualistic structure of Slavic mythology. The most plausible theory concerning this issue was put forth by Czech historian Jan Peisker. In the West Slavic area, he found more than thirty different toponyms which contained representations of some ancient polytheist sacred scene. The structure of toponyms was always the same: a running river, flanked on the west side by a rock with a name indicative of devil, fear, darkness, blackness, hell, and on the east side by a hill or a mountain peak with a name associated with Sun, heaven, light, whiteness. Peisker put forth a theory that these remains of old Slavic sacral places are connected with Iranian dualistic Zoroastrian mythology. On the east side of rivers, a good, white god (equivalent of Zoroastrian Ahura Mazda
) was worshipped, but the west side was reserved for his enemy, an evil, black god (equivalent of Zoroastrian Ahriman).
Though Peisker's theory does have some merit, and is certainly interesting, its idea of dualism was unable to withstand serious scrutiny. While Slavic languages
are related to the Iranian
group of the Indo European language family
inasmuch as both went through satemization, and the ancient Proto-Slavs were certainly to some degree influenced by their Iranian-speaking neighbours of West Asia (such as the Scythians and Sarmatians
), the idea that the Slavic peoples as a whole are a direct off-shoot of Zoroastrian Persians
is not only unprovable, but also quite unbelievable.
Furthermore, the dualistic theories were questioned by the Serbian scholar of myths and folklore, Veselin Čajkanović
, who compared the solar deity mentioned in Russian historic sources, Dazhbog, with a far darker and chthonic character of Serbian folklore having an almost identical name, Dabog. Čajkanović pointed out that solar gods in various mythologies tend to have double aspects, one benevolent and light, representing the Sun in the sky during the day, and other malevolent and chthonic, representing the Sun in the underworld during the night. He concluded that two seemingly opposite gods, good and evil, light and dark, could actually be simply two different aspects of a single Slavic deity, Dazhbog.
Russian philologists Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov
and Vladimir Toporov
probably struck the final blow to Peisker's theory with their studies of Indo-European myth about the battle of a Storm god and a Dragon and its Slavic version, the fight of Perun
and Veles
. In many Slavic countries, there are toponyms reminiscent of the two: the name of Perun is associated with a hill or mountain peak, and the name of Veles with water or a lowland under it. The opposition between the two of them is not that of good versus evil, but rather of above versus below. Perun, being the god of thunder and sky, was worshipped in high places. On the other hand, the places reserved for Veles, the god of underworld and cattle, were in lowlands near rivers or springs. With the arrival of Christianity
, the once supreme god Perun was usually identified with heavenly saints (or sometimes even with the Christian God), while Veles, being a god of the underworld, had the bad luck of ending associated with the Christian Devil
. Thus, christianization
somewhat altered certain (but not all) of these toponyms in that some of them became associated with the devil and hell, while others with heaven and light, blurring their original symbolism.
by Neil Gaiman
(as "Bielebog"), where he replaces his brother Czernobog in the spring. Czernobog/Bielebog live in a Chicago apartment with the three Zorya. Towards the end of the novel, when the 'springtime' following the war between the gods begins, Czernobog himself begins to lighten in personality, and at one point muses that perhaps Bielebog actually is himself; this may be meant to reflect the more modern views about historical Slavic polytheism.
Slavic mythology
Slavic mythology is the mythological aspect of the polytheistic religion that was practised by the Slavs before Christianisation.The religion possesses many common traits with other religions descended from the Proto-Indo-European religion....
of light and Sun, the counterpart of dark and cursed Czernobog (Black God). It is uncertain whether such a deity was ever worshipped by polytheist Slavs, as there are no reliable historic records which mention this name. While in the past a great deal of scholars studying Slavic mythology took the dualism of Belobog and Czernobog for granted, modern research of the matter makes this theory very hard to maintain.
Helmold
In the later half of the 12th century, the German priest HelmoldHelmold
Helmold of Bosau was a Saxon historian of the 12th century and a priest at Bosau near Plön. He was a friend of the two bishops of Oldenburg in Holstein, Vicelinus and Gerold , who did much to Christianize the Polabian Slavs.Helmold was born near Goslar...
described in his work Chronica Slavorum, beliefs and customs of several West Slavic
West Slavic
West Slavic can refer to:* West Slavic languages* West Slavic peoples...
tribes who were still polytheists at the time. Amongst other things, he stated that:
The Slavs, they say, have one peculiar custom: during feasts, they pass a goblet amongst them in circle, for purpose not to praise, but rather to curse in the names of gods, good and evil, for every good thing praising a good god, and for every bad thing cursing an evil god. This god of woe in their language is called Diabolous (*in Latin) or Zherneboh, meaning black god.
On the basis of this inscription, many modern mythographers assumed that, if the evil god was Czernobog, the Black God, then the good god should be Belobog or the White God. However, the name of Belobog is not mentioned by Helmold anyhere in his Chronica, nor is it ever mentioned in any of the historic sources that describe the gods of any Slavic tribe or nation. Additionally, the inscription quoted above is more likely Helmold's own interpretation than an accurate description of Slavic pre-monotheistic beliefs: Helmold, being German, did not know the language of Slavs, and being a Christian priest, did not have much, if any, contact with the polytheists themselves; while his information about Slavic mythology is valuable, one would be wise not to take them for granted.
Toponymy
Another clue for existence of Belobog is a number of toponyms in Slavic countries which have that name. They include Bělbožice in Czech RepublicCzech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, Belobozhnitsa in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, and Byaloboze recorded in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. It is very interesting that sometimes the toponyms are paired with those having the name Czernobog as in the case of hills Bileboh and Czorneboh
Czorneboh
Czorneboh is a mountain of Saxony, southeastern Germany....
near Bautzen
Bautzen
Bautzen is a hill-top town in eastern Saxony, Germany, and administrative centre of the eponymous district. It is located on the Spree River. As of 2008, its population is 41,161...
in Sorbia, and of the Czech Bělbožice which is likewise paired with Černíkovice
Černíkovice (Plzeň-North District)
Černíkovice is a village and municipality in Plzeň-North District in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic.The municipality covers an area of , and has a population of 78.Černíkovice lies approximately north-east of Plzeň and west of Prague....
. This was one of the arguments for the dualism theory.
Language
Existence of Belobog is also posited by expression he doesn't see a white god recorded in Serbian languageSerbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
and Macedonian language
Macedonian language
Macedonian is a South Slavic language spoken as a first language by approximately 2–3 million people principally in the region of Macedonia but also in the Macedonian diaspora...
, and shouting [all the way] to the white god from Bulgarian language
Bulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
.
Slavic dualism
It is further questionable how much the symbolism of white and black representing good and evil — a fairly Christian concept — was important to polytheist Slavs, if they even considered it. From other historic sources describing Slavic polytheism, we for instance know that Svantevit, the great god of RügenRügen
Rügen is Germany's largest island. Located in the Baltic Sea, it is part of the Vorpommern-Rügen district of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.- Geography :Rügen is located off the north-eastern coast of Germany in the Baltic Sea...
island, was symbolised by a white horse and Triglav
Triglav (mythology)
Triglav also sometimes called troglav is a deity in Slavic mythology.It is generally believed that Triglav, the highest mountain in Slovenia and Troglav, highest peak of Dinara in Bosnia and...
, a high god in the city of Szczecin
Szczecin
Szczecin , is the capital city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. It is the country's seventh-largest city and the largest seaport in Poland on the Baltic Sea. As of June 2009 the population was 406,427....
, was symbolised by a black one; yet none of them was considered to be an evil or dark deity by people worshipping them. Fourth and final, even if we assume - disregarding all points noted above - that there really was a Belobog standing in opposition to Czernobog, the question still remains whether these were gods themselves or simply alternate names of some other Slavic deities. Being that Helmold's inscription comes from a very late time, the 12th century, and that it concerns only several groups of polytheist West Slavs, it would not seem likely that these two gods (or more probable, just one god, Crnobog,) were deities of the original Proto-Slavic pantheon.
Regardless, many hypotheses and even more speculations were put forth about the supposed Belobog-Czernobog dualistic structure of Slavic mythology. The most plausible theory concerning this issue was put forth by Czech historian Jan Peisker. In the West Slavic area, he found more than thirty different toponyms which contained representations of some ancient polytheist sacred scene. The structure of toponyms was always the same: a running river, flanked on the west side by a rock with a name indicative of devil, fear, darkness, blackness, hell, and on the east side by a hill or a mountain peak with a name associated with Sun, heaven, light, whiteness. Peisker put forth a theory that these remains of old Slavic sacral places are connected with Iranian dualistic Zoroastrian mythology. On the east side of rivers, a good, white god (equivalent of Zoroastrian Ahura Mazda
Ahura Mazda
Ahura Mazdā is the Avestan name for a divinity of the Old Iranian religion who was proclaimed the uncreated God by Zoroaster, the founder of Zoroastrianism...
) was worshipped, but the west side was reserved for his enemy, an evil, black god (equivalent of Zoroastrian Ahriman).
Though Peisker's theory does have some merit, and is certainly interesting, its idea of dualism was unable to withstand serious scrutiny. While Slavic languages
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
are related to the Iranian
Iranian languages
The Iranian languages form a subfamily of the Indo-Iranian languages which in turn is a subgroup of Indo-European language family. They have been and are spoken by Iranian peoples....
group of the Indo European language family
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
inasmuch as both went through satemization, and the ancient Proto-Slavs were certainly to some degree influenced by their Iranian-speaking neighbours of West Asia (such as the Scythians and Sarmatians
Sarmatians
The Iron Age Sarmatians were an Iranian people in Classical Antiquity, flourishing from about the 5th century BC to the 4th century AD....
), the idea that the Slavic peoples as a whole are a direct off-shoot of Zoroastrian Persians
Persian people
The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...
is not only unprovable, but also quite unbelievable.
Furthermore, the dualistic theories were questioned by the Serbian scholar of myths and folklore, Veselin Čajkanović
Veselin Cajkanovic
Veselin Čajkanović was a Serbian classical scholar, religious history scholar, and Greek and Latin translator.-Biography:...
, who compared the solar deity mentioned in Russian historic sources, Dazhbog, with a far darker and chthonic character of Serbian folklore having an almost identical name, Dabog. Čajkanović pointed out that solar gods in various mythologies tend to have double aspects, one benevolent and light, representing the Sun in the sky during the day, and other malevolent and chthonic, representing the Sun in the underworld during the night. He concluded that two seemingly opposite gods, good and evil, light and dark, could actually be simply two different aspects of a single Slavic deity, Dazhbog.
Russian philologists Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov
Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov
Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov is a prominent Soviet/Russian philologist and Indo-Europeanist probably best known for his glottalic theory of Indo-European consonantism and for placing the Indo-European urheimat in the area of the Armenian Highlands and Lake Urmia.-Early life:Vyacheslav Ivanov's...
and Vladimir Toporov
Vladimir Toporov
Vladimir Nikolayevich Toporov was a leading Russian philologist associated with the Tartu-Moscow semiotic school. His wife was Tatyana Elizarenkova....
probably struck the final blow to Peisker's theory with their studies of Indo-European myth about the battle of a Storm god and a Dragon and its Slavic version, the fight of Perun
Perun
In Slavic mythology, Perun is the highest god of the pantheon and the god of thunder and lightning. His other attributes were the fire, mountains, the oak, iris, eagle, firmament , horses and carts, weapons and war...
and Veles
Veles (god)
Veles also known as Volos is a major Slavic supernatural force of earth, waters and the underworld, associated with dragons, cattle, magic, musicians, wealth and trickery...
. In many Slavic countries, there are toponyms reminiscent of the two: the name of Perun is associated with a hill or mountain peak, and the name of Veles with water or a lowland under it. The opposition between the two of them is not that of good versus evil, but rather of above versus below. Perun, being the god of thunder and sky, was worshipped in high places. On the other hand, the places reserved for Veles, the god of underworld and cattle, were in lowlands near rivers or springs. With the arrival of Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, the once supreme god Perun was usually identified with heavenly saints (or sometimes even with the Christian God), while Veles, being a god of the underworld, had the bad luck of ending associated with the Christian Devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
. Thus, christianization
Christianization
The historical phenomenon of Christianization is the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire peoples at once...
somewhat altered certain (but not all) of these toponyms in that some of them became associated with the devil and hell, while others with heaven and light, blurring their original symbolism.
In popular culture
Belobog is referred to in American GodsAmerican Gods
American Gods is a Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novel by Neil Gaiman. The novel is a blend of Americana, fantasy, and various strands of ancient and modern mythology, all centering on a mysterious and taciturn protagonist, Shadow. It is Gaiman's fourth prose novel, being preceded by Good Omens ,...
by Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
(as "Bielebog"), where he replaces his brother Czernobog in the spring. Czernobog/Bielebog live in a Chicago apartment with the three Zorya. Towards the end of the novel, when the 'springtime' following the war between the gods begins, Czernobog himself begins to lighten in personality, and at one point muses that perhaps Bielebog actually is himself; this may be meant to reflect the more modern views about historical Slavic polytheism.