The Slavic Myths

A Pulitzernominated author and one of the great public intellectuals of Slavic culture bring to life the unfamiliar myths and legends of the Slavic world.In the first collection of Slavic myths for an international readership, Noah Charney and Svetlana Slapak expertly weave together the ancient stories with nuanced analysis to illuminate their place at the heart of Slavic tradition. While Slavic cultures are farranging, comprised of East Slavs (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus), West Slavs (the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland), and South Slavs (the countries of former Yugoslavia plus Bulgaria), they are connected by tales of adventure and magic with roots in a common lore. In the world of Slavic mythology we find petulant deities, demons and fairies, witches, and a supreme god who can hurl thunderbolts. Gods gather under the World Tree, reminiscent of Norse mythologys Yggdrasill. The vampireusually the only SerboCroatian word in any foreignlanguage dictionaryand the werewolf both emerge from Slavic belief.In their careful analysis and sensitive reconstructions of the myths, Charney and Slapak unearth the Slavic beliefs before their distortion first by Christian chroniclers and then by nineteenthcentury scholars seeking origin stories for their newborn nation states. They reveal links not only to the neighboring pantheons of Greece, Rome, Egypt, and Scandinavia, but also the belief systems of indigenous peoples of Australia, the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Specially commissioned illustrations inspired by traditional Eastern and European folk art bring the stories and their cultural landscape to life. 38 blackandwhite illustrations