Chernobog
Encyclopedia
Chernobog is a Slavic deity
, about whom much has been speculated but little can be said definitively. The name may also be given as Crnobog, Czernobóg, Černobog, Црнобог, Zernebog and Чернобог, meaning black god. The only historical sources, which are Christian
ones, interpret him as a dark, accursed god, but it is questionable how important (or evil) he was really considered to be by ancient Slavs. The name is attested only among West Slavic
tribes of the 12th century, hence it is speculated that he was not a very important or very old deity.
which describes customs and beliefs of several Wendish
and Polabian
tribes who were still pagans. Helmold wrote that:
On the basis of this inscription, many modern mythographers assumed that, if the evil god was Chernobog, the Black God, then the good god should be Belobog
or the White God. However, the name of Belobog is not mentioned by Helmold anywhere in his Chronica, nor is it ever mentioned in any of the historic sources that describe the gods of any Slavic tribe or nation.
vernaculars, there exists the phrase do zla boga (meaning "to [the] evil god," or perhaps "to [the] evil [of] God"), used as an attribute to express something which is exceedingly negative. No one is really aware of the literal meaning of these words anymore; exclamations such as Ovo je do zla boga dosadno!, To je do zla boga glupo! can be safely translated as "This is devilishly boring!", "That is immensely stupid!" without any actual loss in meaning. This translation is losing actual meaning, because in Slavic language there are common curses used in the middle of the sentence. To je do zla boga glupo! can be translated as "Damn! This is stupid!". It is very similar to the modern Polish
expression "do jasnej cholery" literal meaning would be "for shining cholera
", but it means the same as ancient "do zła boga". The word Bog ("God"), however, in all Slavic languages today is used as personal name of the Christian God
.
" sequence in Disney's
Fantasia
(1940), as a gigantic black demon who summons ghosts and demons. In an interview, Walt Disney
referred to him as Satan
himself. It is this rendition which has been adapted for the video game Kingdom Hearts
, where Chernabog appears as a boss character on top of Bald Mountain where he is considered to be one of the most powerful Disney Villains in the game, second only to Maleficent
, who commands all the powers of Hell.
In literature, he appears in American Gods
by Neil Gaiman
, as "Czernobog", and much later in the novel as "Bielebog
" (it is implied that the two are different aspects of the same character, sharing the same existence, but represent symbolic season
s). In Walter Scott
's Ivanhoe
, the Saxons
swear by him on numerous occasions. In the alternate history novel The Peshawar Lancers
, the Russian Empire
turns to Chernobog worship after a comet
impact causes widespread famine
and cannibalism
. Chernobog is also the main antagonist in the Heirs of Alexandria series
by Mercedes Lackey
, Eric Flint
, and Dave Freer
, and appears (at least in name) in The Russian Trilogy by C. J. Cherryh
, although spelled "Chernevog". A version of Chernobog is also used in Richard Kadrey
's third novel in the Sandman Slim trilogy, although it is spelled as "Chernovog."
He also appears in a number of video games, usually as a villain. In the Blood series
he is depicted not as a person but as a essence of a force that keeps the realities together and must be used by persons incarnating the god. The first game features an incarnation as the main villain, and the second game's plot revolves around the main character Caleb actually being the god. He has also appeared as a recurring demon in the Megami Tensei
series.
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....
, about whom much has been speculated but little can be said definitively. The name may also be given as Crnobog, Czernobóg, Černobog, Црнобог, Zernebog and Чернобог, meaning black god. The only historical sources, which are Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
ones, interpret him as a dark, accursed god, but it is questionable how important (or evil) he was really considered to be by ancient Slavs. The name is attested only among West Slavic
West Slavs
The West Slavs are Slavic peoples speaking West Slavic languages. They include Poles , Czechs, Slovaks, Lusatian Sorbs and the historical Polabians. The northern or Lechitic group includes, along with Polish, the extinct Polabian and Pomeranian languages...
tribes of the 12th century, hence it is speculated that he was not a very important or very old deity.
Sources
One historic source on Slavic mythology mentioning this god is the 12th-century Chronica Slavorum, a work written by 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...
which describes customs and beliefs of several Wendish
Wends
Wends is a historic name for West Slavs living near Germanic settlement areas. It does not refer to a homogeneous people, but to various peoples, tribes or groups depending on where and when it is used...
and Polabian
Polabian Slavs
Polabian Slavs - is a collective term applied to a number of Lechites tribes who lived along the Elbe river, between the Baltic Sea to the north, the Saale and the Limes Saxoniae to the west, the Ore Mountains and the Western Sudetes to the south, and Poland to the east. They have also been known...
tribes who were still pagans. Helmold wrote that:
The Slavs, they say, have one peculiar custom: during feastFeastFeast may refer to:* Banquet, a large meal* A Festival or feria* Ramadan, Muslim's holy month* Nineteen Day Feast, a monthly meeting held in Bahá'í communities to worship, consult, and socialize....
s, 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 or Zherneboh, meaning black god.
On the basis of this inscription, many modern mythographers assumed that, if the evil god was Chernobog, the Black God, then the good god should be Belobog
Belobog
Belobog, Belbog, Bialbog, Byelobog, Bielobog, Belun, Bylun, is a reconstructed Slavic deity of light and Sun, the counterpart of dark and cursed Czernobog . It is uncertain whether such a deity was ever worshipped by polytheist Slavs, as there are no reliable historic records which mention this...
or the White God. However, the name of Belobog is not mentioned by Helmold anywhere in his Chronica, nor is it ever mentioned in any of the historic sources that describe the gods of any Slavic tribe or nation.
Folklore
A veneration of this deity perhaps survived in folklore of several Slavic nations. In some South SlavicSouth Slavs
The South Slavs are the southern branch of the Slavic peoples and speak South Slavic languages. Geographically, the South Slavs are native to the Balkan peninsula, the southern Pannonian Plain and the eastern Alps...
vernaculars, there exists the phrase do zla boga (meaning "to [the] evil god," or perhaps "to [the] evil [of] God"), used as an attribute to express something which is exceedingly negative. No one is really aware of the literal meaning of these words anymore; exclamations such as Ovo je do zla boga dosadno!, To je do zla boga glupo! can be safely translated as "This is devilishly boring!", "That is immensely stupid!" without any actual loss in meaning. This translation is losing actual meaning, because in Slavic language there are common curses used in the middle of the sentence. To je do zla boga glupo! can be translated as "Damn! This is stupid!". It is very similar to the modern Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
expression "do jasnej cholery" literal meaning would be "for shining cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
", but it means the same as ancient "do zła boga". The word Bog ("God"), however, in all Slavic languages today is used as personal name of the Christian God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
.
In popular culture
Chernobog has made appearances in various media. As Chernabog, he features in the "Night on Bald MountainNight on Bald Mountain
Night on Bald Mountain is a composition by Modest Mussorgsky that exists in, at least, two versions—a seldom performed 1867 version or a later and very popular "fantasy for orchestra" arranged by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, A Night on the Bare Mountain , based on the vocal score of the "Dream Vision...
" sequence in Disney's
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
Fantasia
Fantasia (film)
Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. The third feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are...
(1940), as a gigantic black demon who summons ghosts and demons. In an interview, Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
referred to him as Satan
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
himself. It is this rendition which has been adapted for the video game Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts
is an action role-playing game developed and published by Square in 2002 for the PlayStation 2 video game console. The first game in the Kingdom Hearts series, it is the result of a collaboration between Square Enix and The Walt Disney Company. The game combines characters and settings from Disney...
, where Chernabog appears as a boss character on top of Bald Mountain where he is considered to be one of the most powerful Disney Villains in the game, second only to Maleficent
Maleficent
Maleficent is a fictional character and the main antagonist in Walt Disney's 1959 adaptation of Sleeping Beauty. She is the self-proclaimed "Mistress of All Evil" who, after not being invited to the baby's christening, curses the infant Princess Aurora to "prick her finger on the spindle of a...
, who commands all the powers of Hell.
In literature, he appears in American Gods
American 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 "Czernobog", and much later in the novel as "Bielebog
Belobog
Belobog, Belbog, Bialbog, Byelobog, Bielobog, Belun, Bylun, is a reconstructed Slavic deity of light and Sun, the counterpart of dark and cursed Czernobog . It is uncertain whether such a deity was ever worshipped by polytheist Slavs, as there are no reliable historic records which mention this...
" (it is implied that the two are different aspects of the same character, sharing the same existence, but represent symbolic season
Season
A season is a division of the year, marked by changes in weather, ecology, and hours of daylight.Seasons result from the yearly revolution of the Earth around the Sun and the tilt of the Earth's axis relative to the plane of revolution...
s). In Walter Scott
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
's Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe is a historical fiction novel by Sir Walter Scott in 1819, and set in 12th-century England. Ivanhoe is sometimes credited for increasing interest in Romanticism and Medievalism; John Henry Newman claimed Scott "had first turned men's minds in the direction of the middle ages," while...
, the Saxons
Saxons
The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...
swear by him on numerous occasions. In the alternate history novel The Peshawar Lancers
The Peshawar Lancers
The Peshawar Lancers is an alternate history, steampunk, post-apocalyptic fiction adventure novel by S. M. Stirling, with its point of divergence occurring in 1878 when the Earth is struck by a devastating meteor shower...
, the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
turns to Chernobog worship after a comet
Comet
A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet...
impact causes widespread famine
Famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, overpopulation, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every continent in the world has...
and cannibalism
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
. Chernobog is also the main antagonist in the Heirs of Alexandria series
Heirs of Alexandria series
The Heirs of Alexandria is an alternate history/historical fantasy series set primarily in the Republic of Venice in the 1530s. The books are written by three authors, Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint and Dave Freer...
by Mercedes Lackey
Mercedes Lackey
Mercedes "Misty" Lackey is a best-selling American author of fantasy novels. Many of her novels and trilogies are interlinked and set in the world of Velgarth, mostly in and around the country of Valdemar...
, Eric Flint
Eric Flint
Eric Flint is an American author, editor, and e-publisher. The majority of his main works are alternate history science fiction, but he also writes humorous fantasy adventures.- Career :...
, and Dave Freer
Dave Freer
Dave Freer is a South African-born science fiction author writing mostly humorous or alternate history novels.He was conscripted into the South African Defence Force and sent to the Angolan Border as a medic....
, and appears (at least in name) in The Russian Trilogy by C. J. Cherryh
C. J. Cherryh
Carolyn Janice Cherry , better known by the pen name C. J. Cherryh, is a United States science fiction and fantasy author...
, although spelled "Chernevog". A version of Chernobog is also used in Richard Kadrey
Richard Kadrey
Richard Kadrey is a novelist, freelance writer, and photographer based in San Francisco.Kadrey's novels are Sandman Slim, Kill the Dead, Aloha From Hell, Metrophage, Kamikaze L'Amour, and Butcher Bird: A Novel Of The Dominion...
's third novel in the Sandman Slim trilogy, although it is spelled as "Chernovog."
He also appears in a number of video games, usually as a villain. In the Blood series
Blood II: The Chosen
Blood II: The Chosen is a first-person shooter computer game developed by Monolith Productions and distributed by GT Interactive, which was later purchased by Infogrames. Released on October 31, 1998, it featured Monolith's new fully 3D engine Lithtech, which was previously used in Shogo: Mobile...
he is depicted not as a person but as a essence of a force that keeps the realities together and must be used by persons incarnating the god. The first game features an incarnation as the main villain, and the second game's plot revolves around the main character Caleb actually being the god. He has also appeared as a recurring demon in the Megami Tensei
Megami Tensei
, commonly abbreviated as , is a Japanese console role-playing game metaseries which was originally based on the novel series Digital Devil Story by Aya Nishitani and has gone to become one of the major franchises of the genre in its native country...
series.