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Slavic Pagan Resources, please

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    Slavic Pagan Resources, please

    Ok, so recently I've become more and more interested in Slavic Paganism. Unfortunately, I seem to be getting stuck with the same problem many do when they look into this branch, a sheer lack of reliable resources. So I was wondering of anyone knew of any good resources on the subject of Slavic Paganism.

    #2
    Re: Slavic Pagan Resources, please

    This is something that has been asked before on this forum.

    There are actually a lot of decent, scholarly PDF's online.
    I highly recommend Roman Zaroff's "Organized Pagan Cult in Kievan Rus'. The. Invention of Foreign Elite or Evolution of Local Tradition?" It is the best primer I've found so far on the Slavic deities. There's also a very thin, illustrated book called "Forests of the Vampire: Slavic Myth and Legend." It has a picture of Vlad the Impaler on it for some reason, and contrary to the title, says very little about Vampires. Don't judge this book by its appearances, it's a decent source. Like many sources on Slavic paganism however, I suggest you take some of its claims with a grain of salt- especially the section about the zmey. I also don't like how dismissive the book is of Indo-European comparative mythology.

    It's quite a long list, because it seems like there's no single text that contains every remnant of Slavic paganism. The material is very scattered, partially because a lot of it is preserved only as folklore and folk tradition. Folklore varies from country to country, and is difficult to interpret. However, the link below on St. Elijah's Day in Bulgaria is a good example of the very obvious paganism that has survived in Eastern European folk belief. "Russian Folk Belief" by Linda Ivanits "Bulgarian Folk Customs" by Mercia McDermott, and "On the High Uplands- Sagas, Songs, Tales, and Legends of the Carpathians" By Stanislaw Vincenz are also good examples of the richness of Slavic traditions that have survived up to modern times.

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    There are sources out there that you need to be wary of. In my experience, any sources mentioning "Rod" as the chief Slavic God, "The Book of Veles", or "Lada" usually aren't that well researched. Also, researchers who say that Perun was introduced to the Russians by the Varangians usually don't know what they're talking about. There are a ton of false claims out there, so just be careful. There are a few different interpretations of Slavic paganism, some more firmly grounded than others.
    If you want to be thought intelligent, just agree with everyone.

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      #3
      Re: Slavic Pagan Resources, please

      If you're down for some heavy academia, there's The Bath House at Midnight by William Francis Ryan.

      There's also The Early Slavs: Culture & Society in Early Medieval Eastern Europe by P.M. Barford

      Might also want to take a look at In Search of the Indo-Europeans by JP Mallory and A History of Pagan Europe by Nigel Pennick and Prudence Jones

      If you're at all interested, ADF has a sub-group for folks interested in Baltic and Slavic traditions, that might be worth checking out.
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