Slavic Folklore - Tumblr Posts

Local Rusałka said sapphic rights. Have a good summer this year 💮 💮

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*Opens Wielka Księga Demonów Polskich (the great book of polish demons)*

'White goose - personification -> death in the Silesian voivodeship. One evening a miner was walking home near a pond and saw something white. He approaches it and sees its a goose. So he took her home. He let her out to the chicken coop (I think?) and gone to sleep. Next morning woman (like his wife) looks into the coop and the goose is gone, so she goes to tell her man, but he's already dead. People then said it wasn't a goose, but death and he had brought her upon himself.

Prayer to Dazhbog for the Summer Solstice

(yes i am a little late...)

Dazhbog, god of the Sun, the one who gives us prosperity and life itself, please hear my humble prayer. May the Summer Solstice bring me abundance and love. Svarozhich , please, may the rays of your Sun shine over me at all times. As i feel safe when i feel your warmth.

Glory to Dazhbog, the one who gives, the son of Svarog.

hey so ive read in a book that Mokosz was also perceived as a man a lot of times and i asked her about it and she confirmed that she "changes genders" and so i wanted to ask if you knew about this? and how do you feel about it?

Hmmm... I honestly never heard of Mokosh being perceived as male...

She has always appeared to me as a goddess! And since she is like, connected to women, women's destiny and fate, and works that are TRADITIONALLY seen as for women... Like sewing and weaving. I never even considered her changing genders.

If that is what you believe in tho, I absolutely respect that! :) 💕

🙂🙂🙂 thanks for the ask!!!

Kolyada (2024)

Wanted to join the trend but didn’t know what to draw so uhm krampus and kikimora miku

Shall we continue to combine Slavic mythology with Gabriel?

Here’s one of the illustrations i’m going to send to @fanzinehey‘s 6th edition about myths and legends!

This is so beautiful! I love this illustration style.

Baba Yaga’s Hut

Prints, stickers & other goodies available HERE

Have you listened to the podcast Mythoslavic? I'm trying to absorb all information possible about my ancestors and our beliefs and I feel this podcast is good at being quick but minimal for info.

Hello! I haven’t heard about Mythoslavic before but your ask made me curious so I listened to a couple of episodes today to be able to form an opinion! I know the creator is South Slavic and, being aware that I don’t know that many southern myths I chose specifically the episodes about Slavic gods, for which I have more context.

Results (tldr): What I heared was pretty bad. Maybe episodes focused strictly on folklore are better, but I will not be listening to them because frankly I wouldn’t trust the author as far as I can throw her. She rarely provides sources for her stories and claims, doesn’t let the viewers know when she is dicussing her personal beliefs and when academic research on the subject, misleadingly presents modern neopagan lore as ancient wisdom and is being a stinking hypocrite about all of it.

Episode S01E09: Slavic Pantheon

Rating: 0/5 (actually -1/5 for the audacity)

The author presents all Slavic gods as members of one universal pantheon. She only makes vague mentions that „the deities differ between the regions”. Most of the episode is spent describing very detailed creation story that aims to connect all the Slavic gods into one family tree. We are bombarded with made up familial connections and deities of very dubious historicity. At the start of the description there is no mention that this is only author’s personal view, and not facts unearthed by scientific research. This is what I consider to be the cardinal sin of modern Slavic paganism that I criticized already in this post. I suspect the author is a member of some Rodnovery group and is sharing the views of their specific organization but I have no hard proof for that yet.

Oh, there’s also some noble savage narrative peeking out.

While no disclaimers about the source of the creation story were made the author took some time to say that „Slavic mythology has gone mainstream and not in a good way” and complain about people spreading misinformation about the beliefs of ancient Slavs. My sister in Perun, you are literally out here, spreading the misinformation yourself.

Episode S02E03: Veles

Rating: 3/5 (although every time I think about the contents of the previous episode I heard I feel tempted to lower the score)

At the start of the episode the author finally makes a disclaimer: „as you probably know the sources are very limited and they can be questionable but I will try my best to dig up everything I can while staying true to my own beliefs”. This is it. This is the part from which we have to guess that some of the stuff presented in this podcast are in fact solely authors personal beliefs and they will not be clearly separated from scientific research in the field of Slavic studies.

The associations of Veles listed throughout the episode sound more or less like what I read in academic sources on the subject. I loved that the folk stories about Saint Nicholas and Prophet Elijah were mentioned! I also liked the inclusion of Southern Slavic lore which is often overlooked - I feel like this could be a very strong suit of this podcast if handled well. I like the author pointing out that even tho Veles started being associated with the devil after the Christianization of Slavs Perun and Veles are not supposed to represent good and evil but rather the opposing natural forces of earth and water vs sky, air and fire.

I didn’t like the confidence with which the author informed me that Veles is the son of Rod and Zemun and brother of Perun, and that he stole Perun’s wife Mokosh and Perun’s son Jarilo. I see we are not going to be putting down that made up family tree any time soon.

The author talks a lot about sources in general but rarely names specifc sources that she uses. You don’t know where the info comes from, and since I already know some of this is her own ideas I find her words very difficult to trust. I can’t help but compare this podcast to Słowiańskie Demony in which the author clearly points to sources for all definite claims he makes, frequently recommends new sources to his listeners and clearly marks parts of the podcast that consist of his personal thoughts and theories. None of that good stuff here.

Episode E02S04 Morana

Rating: 1/5

To everyone reading this: please do not pronounce Marzanna as „mar-ZANAH” like the author of the podcast does. Sound the word out in google translate. And if you struggle with producing Polish sounds correctly (perfectly understandable) you could aim for something along the lines of „mah-SHUN-nah”, as in „to shun someone”, with „rz” rendered as single sound and two distinct ”n”s. Close enough.

Anyway back to the podcast - the diclaimer about staying true to herself appears again and is immediately put to good use as we are welcomed with a lengthy description of Morana's appearence that seems to be mostly based on the author’s idea of her.

Once again I hate that we aren’t given sources for the stuff she says. Even if your source is not academic you should list it. Say something like „according to Croatian folk tales”, „according to a Bulgarian folk song”, „according to a story I was told as a kid growing up in… ”, ”my Rodnovery chapter believes that…” give me anything so that I can trust you.

There is another introduction analysing the name of Morana in various languages. The author touches on connections with death and pestilence as well as on Morrigan and Morgan la Fay. The author does not touch on connection with water or madder plant.

Author proceeds to name the oldest known source mentioning Morana, one of the manuscripts containing part of Mater Verborum, which unfortunately is possibly (in my opinion likely) a forgery. She doesn't mention this. She only states that „if this glos is authentic it would mean that Morana was identified with the goddess of death Persephone and was also associated with magic”. She fails to give any other sources, even though there are plenty of Polish chronicles to choose from. We are given one whole named source and it’s dubious as fuck.

Listen, I understand that Mater Verborum is a very attractive source - quite old and with reference to two other goddesses very popular among modern pagans, Persephone and Hekate. I also fell for it when I first looked into history of Morana. Except some time later I also did a background check into the man who supposedly discovered the particular manuscript that mentions Morana — and now I completely lack the confidence in the document’s authenticity. Even if you genuinely believe that this manuscript of Mater Verborum was actually created in 13th century this possibility of forgery is something you should probably inform your listeners about. And maybe name some other sources. You know, just in case this one is not the real deal.

Okay let’s speed up, next we have mentions of Chernobog being Morana’s associate (source??), and a lengthy story about Morana, Zora and a dragon (source? I love Zora, I would love to be able to verify the authenticity of this. I know we have some stories about Zora/Zorza being stolen from the sky by a witch or some other malicious force. But this story here has too many details and names too many gods for my taste. Folk stories, even the ones that possibly originated from pagan times rarely keep names of pagan deities untouched. However what I often see happening is pagan groups inserting those names „back” in, even though we have no certainty WHICH gods the story was originally about, or if it even truly has pagan roots. Then this new, renovated version is being presented as the true version, the Original.)

We have a list of Morana’s associations with animals and plants, no sources listed. I’m still waiting for mentions of madder but I guess I will not find them here. Then we have a story about how Morana used to be a goddess of fertility and life but „degenerated into an evil deadly old witch" because of her unfortunate love for Jarilo. Morana „comes from the royal family” as daughter of Perun and Mokosh and sister of Jarilo. I’m ready to bang my head against the wall, this story is the exact example I had in mind when writing about the renovated folk tales in the paragraph above. I wrote about this particular story AT GREAT LENGTH IN THIS POST.

Okay I have another source - „Russian stories” are mentioned. Fine. I’ll take it.

Finally we have mentions of the tradition of burning/drowning Morana. Not too detailed considering this ritual is the main source of our knowledge about Morana or even interest in her. The author provides a long list of amulets and magical measures meant to protect people from Morana, which I never heard of. It seems like she considers Morana to be the same as demonic zmora/mora and germanic „mare”. I am subjected to hearing mar-ZANAH a few more times and then the episode ends. I will not be listening again.

Urzecze, central Poland.

Państwowy Zespół Ludowy Pieśni i Tańca „Mazowsze”

Łowicz and Opoczno

Państwowy Zespół Ludowy Pieśni i Tańca „Mazowsze”

Photo by: Krzysztof Sitkowski

Folk costumes from Krzczonów

photo by: Jakub Obarek

Folk costumes from Kurpie Białe, part of the Mazovian lowlands.

source: Państwowy Zespół Ludowy Pieśni i Tańca „Mazowsze”

photo by: Michał Dembiński

Folk costumes from Nowy Sącz

source: Zespół Pieśni i Tańca „Śląsk” im. Stanisława Hadyny

Kurpie Zielone

Zespół Smardzewianie

Photo: Angelika Lejko

source: https://annadzieciolphotography.com/traditional-polish-gorale-hike-the-crack-in-killarney-ontario/?ssp_iabi=1682677453374

Kraków